[FatalError]

I just got a new system, brand new, so I don't think there are any errors. When I try to play vista-compatible games such as Battlefield 2 online, I get huge lag spikes. When I was on XP I was able to maintain a 100-200 ping in Battlefield 2 - I can maintain that for about a minute in vista then my ping can skyrocket to 500 or even 1000.

Specs
Windows Vista™ Ultimate
512MB Dedicated ATI Radeon HD 2600
AMD Athlon™ x2 Dual Core 2.8GHz
3071MB RAM
360GB SATA HDD

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this is more than likely caused by Punkbuster and not vista. Evanbalance has released a new Gui tool to update punkbuster. Full instructions and download info here:
http://www.evenbalan...age=pbsetup.php

PB is NOW running as a service (process) When you start cod4, your firewall needs to accept a service called PnkBstrB.exe which is in your PB folder. IN fact there is a PnkBstrA service as well. Both of these need to be listed as approved in the firewall. In addition, you can go to Start and enter services.msc. This will bring up a list of services running on your pc. Scroll through the list and verify that PnkBstrA and B services are listed. If one of them is not listed, then the PB services need to be reinstalled. You can use PBSVC to do this. PBSVC can be downloaded from here.


Another issue that could impact your ping is that there is a network issue somewhere between you and the servers you like to play on. Find the server's ip address and then go to Start and enter CMD. This will open a dos (command) window. In that window type in the following command:
tracert 127.0.0.1 (this is the server ip address). It will go through up to 30 lines of info. The first one or two lines may return no info. That's normal. What we are looking for is a line (refered to as a hop) that jumps a significant time amount or returns no information.

example:

Tracing route to www.yahoo-ht3.akadns.net [209.191.93.52]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 7 ms 7 ms * gig1-3.dllatxcrl-rtr1.tx.rr.com [70.125.218.228]
4 7 ms 7 ms 8 ms gig4-0-0.dllatxchn-rtr6.tx.rr.com [70.125.217.101]
5 4294967079 ms 13 ms 12 ms gig2-0-0.hstntxl3-rtr1.texas.rr.com [24.93.37.10
6 12 ms 13 ms 14 ms ae-2-0.cr0.hou30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.108]
7 4294967078 ms 11 ms 12 ms ae-0-0.pr0.dfw10.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.181]
8 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms 66.109.9.189
9 13 ms 14 ms 13 ms ae1-p110.msr2.mud.yahoo.com [216.115.104.101]
10 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms te-8-1.bas-c2.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.193.7]
11 14 ms 14 ms 15 ms f1.www.vip.mud.yahoo.com [209.191.93.52]

Trace complete.

Example 2:
Tracing route to trinitygames.com [75.126.13.136]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 10 ms * 15 ms gig1-3.dllatxcrl-rtr1.tx.rr.com [70.125.218.228]
4 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms gig4-0-0.dllatxchn-rtr6.tx.rr.com [70.125.217.101]
5 14 ms 11 ms 12 ms gig0-1-0.hstntxl3-rtr1.texas.rr.com [72.179.205.74]
6 4294967077 ms 11 ms 14 ms xe-9-0-0.bar1.Houston1.Level3.net [4.79.88.29]
7 22 ms 18 ms 17 ms ae-13-13.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.137.138]
8 25 ms 17 ms 18 ms ae-81-81.csw3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.136.130]
9 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms ae-3-89.edge3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.68.19.136]
10 18 ms 18 ms 17 ms te2-1.cer01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com [4.71.198.18]
11 20 ms 36 ms 18 ms po1.dar01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com [66.228.118.201]
12 18 ms 17 ms 18 ms po1.fcr01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com [66.228.118.154]
13 4294967083 ms 17 ms 19 ms trinitygames.com [75.126.13.136]

Trace complete.

[starjax]

this is more than likely caused by Punkbuster and not vista. Evanbalance has released a new Gui tool to update punkbuster. Full instructions and download info here:
http://www.evenbalan...age=pbsetup.php

PB is NOW running as a service (process) When you start cod4, your firewall needs to accept a service called PnkBstrB.exe which is in your PB folder. IN fact there is a PnkBstrA service as well. Both of these need to be listed as approved in the firewall. In addition, you can go to Start and enter services.msc. This will bring up a list of services running on your pc. Scroll through the list and verify that PnkBstrA and B services are listed. If one of them is not listed, then the PB services need to be reinstalled. You can use PBSVC to do this. PBSVC can be downloaded from here.


Another issue that could impact your ping is that there is a network issue somewhere between you and the servers you like to play on. Find the server's ip address and then go to Start and enter CMD. This will open a dos (command) window. In that window type in the following command:
tracert 127.0.0.1 (this is the server ip address). It will go through up to 30 lines of info. The first one or two lines may return no info. That's normal. What we are looking for is a line (refered to as a hop) that jumps a significant time amount or returns no information.

example:

Tracing route to www.yahoo-ht3.akadns.net [209.191.93.52]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 7 ms 7 ms * gig1-3.dllatxcrl-rtr1.tx.rr.com [70.125.218.228]
4 7 ms 7 ms 8 ms gig4-0-0.dllatxchn-rtr6.tx.rr.com [70.125.217.101]
5 4294967079 ms 13 ms 12 ms gig2-0-0.hstntxl3-rtr1.texas.rr.com [24.93.37.10
6 12 ms 13 ms 14 ms ae-2-0.cr0.hou30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.108]
7 4294967078 ms 11 ms 12 ms ae-0-0.pr0.dfw10.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.181]
8 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms 66.109.9.189
9 13 ms 14 ms 13 ms ae1-p110.msr2.mud.yahoo.com [216.115.104.101]
10 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms te-8-1.bas-c2.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.193.7]
11 14 ms 14 ms 15 ms f1.www.vip.mud.yahoo.com [209.191.93.52]

Trace complete.

Example 2:
Tracing route to trinitygames.com [75.126.13.136]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 10 ms * 15 ms gig1-3.dllatxcrl-rtr1.tx.rr.com [70.125.218.228]
4 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms gig4-0-0.dllatxchn-rtr6.tx.rr.com [70.125.217.101]
5 14 ms 11 ms 12 ms gig0-1-0.hstntxl3-rtr1.texas.rr.com [72.179.205.74]
6 4294967077 ms 11 ms 14 ms xe-9-0-0.bar1.Houston1.Level3.net [4.79.88.29]
7 22 ms 18 ms 17 ms ae-13-13.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.137.138]
8 25 ms 17 ms 18 ms ae-81-81.csw3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.136.130]
9 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms ae-3-89.edge3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.68.19.136]
10 18 ms 18 ms 17 ms te2-1.cer01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com [4.71.198.18]
11 20 ms 36 ms 18 ms po1.dar01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com [66.228.118.201]
12 18 ms 17 ms 18 ms po1.fcr01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com [66.228.118.154]
13 4294967083 ms 17 ms 19 ms trinitygames.com [75.126.13.136]

Trace complete.