empire update and disappearing buttons

[Bubu]

Hi,
I am having the worst case of disappearing buttons since the empire update. Anyone else ? I can't even sit down. This is with an ATI 9800 graphics card on XPsp1.

[JAque]

No problems with mine on SP2. Any reason you don't want to update?

JAque

[Chu]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi,
I am having the worst case of disappearing buttons since the empire update. Anyone else ? I can't even sit down. This is with an ATI 9800 graphics card on XPsp1.

[/ QUOTE ]

After some testing I'm pretty sure this problem has nothing to do with graphics drivers and everything to do /w a fast system clock. Some motherboards are prone to this, ESPECIALLY nForce2 boards. There are utilities out there that will let you tweak it, but they are a little hard to find since they're considered cheating utilities since adjusting the system clock tick has a dramatic effect on any benchmark.

[Bubu]

Yes ! I have and nForce2 based EPOX 8RDA3+ motherboard with a Barton 2500+. Is my system ticking too fast or too slow?

I have not played with any of the bios settings ( I think I run it at the self-determioned optimal settings). I think I can adjust them to clock my machine up or down. I'll try with them. Otherwise, what are these "cheating programs" ?


Thanks !

[Bubu]

Really ? SP2 is fine ? I am afraid of updating due to compatibility/bug issues. Hell, the sys admin at my school recommended that we _not_ upgrade... MS doesn't seem to inspire that much trust.

However, i am only interested in sp2 effects on the following mission critical applications:

-empire
-ub
-stars
-firefox (the browser)
-ptracker
-doom3

Bubu

[sammy_g]

I updated to service pack 2, and I haven't had any problems with Empire, PokerTracker, and Firefox. The other applications I haven't tried to run.

[JAque]

In my system, casinos clients were not affected, As a matter of fact, all my applications are running normally.

JAque

[Chu]

What's going on is the code in the IGM client is esentially going 'Show the buttons for 20 seconds, and then Hide Them' when the actuial fold happens server-side. The problem is there is a 'master clock' that is being set when you first sit at a table, so clock drift doesn't auto-correct itself (i.e. your clock starts at 17, then 15, then 12, then lower and lower until you don't get buttons at all).

The utilities I am talking about simply change the time controller in windows to tick at a fraction of the system clock instead of at the system clock, i.e. if your clock is going 50% too fast then you can set the ticker to tick at 50% the system clock speed and you'll be fine.

This is totally independant of the bios -- though some people claim after a bios flash (even to the same version) they tame the clock problem for a bit.

Some people claim replacing the battery also helps, but I have no clue how an undervolted battery could lead to a fast system clock.
The cheating aspect has nothing to do with poker -- it's about benchmarks and certain other games that use the system clock since for example, if you set the ratio at 200% then your benchmarks scores double since you now have seconds that are really 2s.

As for finding these utilities, good luck /images/graemlins/frown.gif I can't even remember the name of the program, and asking on a computer forum board will probably get you accused of being a cheater since the horrid abuses of this utility to corrupt MadOnion's 3DMark database are fresh in some minds.