Mid-Game Stutter

[mjvbosox]

I am having an issue that renders the game unplayable.. For the past few months, without fail, I can only get a few innings into a game (ranges from 2-6 inn.) before it begins to stutter constantly. It will play smooth as can be up until then, but immediately becomes impossible to play. I'll then exit the ballgame to the main menu and the menu animations continue to stutter. I'll exit to desktop and restart the game, but the stuttering is still there. It's only when I reboot the computer that I am able to start the game with smooth gameplay again, only to have the stuttering return mid-game. Since it first started I've never gotten through an entire game without this problem occurring. I have to save, exit, and reboot to continue my games. It's happening in all game modes.

I've had the game since May 2012, and it played perfectly on my system for almost a year (and I have not made any hardware changes). It began on the DVD version of the game prior to the 1.2 patch, which I then applied but the problem persisted. I thought maybe it was a mod issue, so I uninstalled and purchased the Steam version and tested it out without applying any mods, but no luck, stuttering began in the 2nd inning of my first game.

I have looked all through the forums here, over at 2K and on Steam, but nobody else seems to be having this problem. MLB2k12 is the ONLY game this problem is happening with (I can smoothly run system-heavy games like Skyrim, Bad Company 2 and Borderlands 2 without any problems). It's almost like something begins to run in the background, sucking resources 'til I reboot, but when I exit and view Tasks/Processes, there is nothing out of the ordinary. I've even tried gameboosters that close down everything in the bg and manually ended as many processes as possible. I am at a total loss and out of ideas. Here are my specs and everything else I've tried so far:

Win 7 32bit, Pentium D 3.4 GHz, 2GB RAM (I know this is low by today's standards, but the game performed fine for the better part of a year with these specs), AMD/ATI RadeonHD 4800 1GB vid mem., Realtek HD Audio.

- I cleaned system registry, temp files, etc., Defragged

- Ran full scans with the latest versions of all the following virus/spyware tools, none of which found anything: Microsoft Security Essentials, MRT, SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, Ad-Aware, AVG. ~Only had one installed at a time as I know they can conflict with each other.

- Updated all drivers (video, sound, printer, everything). WIndows is up to date as well.

- Ran tests on all hardware (vid card, sound card, hard disk, memory) but no errors were reported. Monitored temperatures and manually inspected all connections.

- Applied Microsoft Hotfix for audiodg.exe memory leak bug (though I never noticed it hogging memory)

- Combed through all Windows system and error reports, performance monitor logs, and tried the game with all kinds of different Windows configurations (such as turning windows firewall off/on) and my video card control panel settings (Catalyst), but the problem always occurs no matter what I do.

- Problem occurred before and after patch, with and without original rosters and mods.

The only thing I can conclude is that there's either a virus on my system I can not detect, or the video card, sound card, or memory is going bad but testing tools aren't showing anything yet. I know it's impossible

for someone to diagnose a more serious problem on this information alone, but I'm curious if anyone else has dealt with this problem? Any ideas whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading!

[dennisjames71]

Geez Louise...it sounds like you've done about everything that could be asked of a user having these issues. I haven't had the exact same problem, but a couple of years ago with NBA 2K11; I was getting some inexplicable stuttering issues after halftime. I updated video card drivers and it did not really improve. Also, it only happened on that 2K game and Skyrim for whatever reason.

I ended up downloading and running a superb (and free) Malware-killing program called "Combofix.exe" http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/

I have fixed issues with computers for over 17 years and this is one of the best and effective programs that will find the most obscure and potentially dangerous bits of malware on your system. I ran this program, re-booted, and un-installed/re-installed my latest video drivers and I swear to you that I had never had another stuttering issue with games.

So, I would recommend running this program and perhaps completely un-installing/re-installing you video card drivers. Also, you might want to open the case of your PC (if it's not a laptop, obviously) and make sure that the fan of the video card is running and that the fan/heatsink is not clogged with dust or overheating in general. This also goes for your CPU fan/heatsinks and any other fans in the case.

I sincerely wish you luck with this, because that has to be completely aggravating when you've gone through all of those other steps to try and fix the problem. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.

p.s. running Combofix could potentially take up to 20-30 minutes; but be patient and let it run it's course.

-Dennis

[mjvbosox]

Thanks very much! Yeah, one of the first steps I took was to clean all the dust out of the hardware and make sure the fans and temp were OK. It definitely feels like a video card problem though, so strange that it would only occur with this game.

I will definitely try out combofix and uninstall/re-install vid driver. Will report back. Thanks again

[mjvbosox]

SO.... I convinced my neighbor to let me try his older ATI 3650 card in my machine and sure enough the game played great without a hitch. To be sure it wasn't a fluke, I played three in a row. Looks like my card was shot after all. Definitely learned my lesson.. Next time I'll make sure it's not the hardware before spending days pulling my hair out with Windows. Ah well. Off to Best Buy...