Anyone else get the error "iw3mp.exe has stopped working" whenever they launch CoD4 MP? I just upgraded to Win7 Pro 64-bit. Installed CoD4 with all patches (in order), updated all drivers, uninstalled my Realtek HD Audio drivers as per suggestion on some other board all with no luck at all. Then on a whim I plugged my old $10 USB headset into the front panel and everything works fine.

My other issue is that my FPS sometimes stutters from 125 down to 69-75 for a second and the video sort of skips and freezes a little bit when it happens. Really annoying. I'm not underpowered or over heating. I have a GTS 250, and when I uncap the fps I get anywhere from 225-300 on maxed settings (no AA) @ 1024x768. Riva Tuner shows my temps never climbing above 65, which from what I understand is really cool (PC is in a very chilly basement room). Dropping texture settings from max to high helps considerably, but it still comes back once in a while. There's got to be a way to fix this though, I don't see any reason why my brand new i5-750, GTS 250, and 4 gigs of Corsair RAM shouldn't be able to max this game out @ 1024x768. Single player runs perfectly on max settings including AA at 90-250 fps depending on the level, indoor/outdoor, etc.

Anyone have the same problems? The USB thing isn't a huge deal as the game still works, but I'm a neat-freak and it bugs me having that ugly headset plugged in when I don't even use it. The framerate thing is trouble though.

tried updating your graphics drivers?

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us

Maybe your OS isn't compatible with the version of Cod you have since your OS is 64bit and Cod is 32bit... As for the lag spikes I made a couple vids about this even though I upgraded my system the spikes are smaller but still exist and its caused by PB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi972K196H8

Video drivers are all up to date. This machine is a brand new build. I basically booted it up for the first time, installed Win7, installed all current drivers, installed Fallout 3, and then installed/patched CoD4 and that's all I changed.

Weirdly enough I turned all the textures back up to Extra and AA to 4x and it stopped doing it for the most part. Still does it a little bit, but generally only for the first minute or so. Slightly annoying, but playable now. For anyone else having this problem, turning multi-gpu on helped considerably as well (I haven't the slightest idea why, but whatever).

As for the USB headset needing to be plugged in to start the MP exe still no solution. Its got to be one of the weirdest bugs I've ever dealt with. I came across one other person on some random forum who had the same problem, but nobody there could figure it out either. The same error can also be fixed in some cases by disabling all audio interfaces except the headphone port, removing any Realtek HD Audio drivers (mine don't seem to cause any issue though), and a few other sound-related things that I can't remember right now. It has something to do with audio codecs and specific motherboards (in my case an MSI P55-GD55) from what I can tell. I guess Vista had this problem too and the solution was to install some Vista-specific codec package.

I'm just glad to be able to play this game on higher settings now. My old machine rocked an old Radeon x1600 mobile. Got around 70fps max. Doing 125 rock-steady now with everything on high, 4xAA, 1024x768, using Nabore's config. My reg is massively better than it used to be.

/edit @ knott: yeah, looks really similar to your video. Wasn't quite that bad though. Was it actually network lag, or was your fps dropping?

Both really, pb would spike or whatever and then my fps would drop to 40 from 125 and now it drops from 250 to 75 when pb lags but the spikes arent so intense. That video was made with my single core system and ddr3200 now i have dual core and ddr2 and its pretty much gone, just small spikes every 3-4 seconds when I first connect then usually tames itself. As for multi-gpu I heard of alot of people who use then even with 1 video card and it seems to reduce lag might just be a myth lol. Oh and my video card now is 4670 1gb and I have everything maxed out on CCC but in cod I use my own config and I get constant 250 its dope Last card was a 7800GTS 512.

Im on win 7 ultimate 64 bit, so that wouldn't be his problem. put cod4 dvd in, let the splash screen load an try installing direct x 9

Yeah, since fiddling around with settings it seems to have quieted down a bit. It just spikes every two seconds or so for the first minute of every map. I don't know if anything I changed actually fixed it or if it just went away. Weird. I'll just put up with it since this game is pretty much dead and its never going to be fixed. I just have to hide somewhere the first round of every game.

hey spook, i had these problems when i first bought the game, however once i updated by bios, all the problems stopped, is there a new version for your bios? if so, try upgrading, if you don't know how, see if any of your friends know how, or take it to a professional.

I'll look into it. Tbh, I'd rather chew off my own leg than let your average "professional" take care of it for me. I built this thing from the ground up by myself and I'm not about to pay some other guy to get his grubby little fingers all over my baby.

I haven't flashed a BIOS before, but a few weeks ago I'd never built a computer before either, so I think I can figure it out. Assuming there is an updated one anyway.

thats why its good to have friends that are in the business lol, least than you can trust them.