I just did a quick search in the forum and found no mention of this. It's quite weird. When it first happened years ago I figured I simply had an odd hardware configuration. It has now happened on the third computer in a row. That is why I'm posting it now. Please forgive me if this is well known.

(There is a point to this story.) I got iRacing. Spent two weeks in. Went back to LFS. Took a long time to get up to speed because there is so much more traction in LFS. I kept pushing and pushing and there seemed to be no limit. A matter of perception, yeah? Anyway, found the limit, ran with some friends, went back to iRacing for about a month. The point to this story is the perception of grip.

I was about to name this thread "traction bug" then I realized no one would read it. It is, also, in fact, about the 'sound lag' option.

My desktop mobo blew in October, wouldn't play 3D games, but ran my work software until April when it finally gave out. I had been racing LFS and iRacing on the laptop. Ran well. Not out of the ordinary. I do remember running on the blown desktop, same experience. Good laptop. So... finally bought a new computer. Installed all my software and when I went in to LFS - no grip. When I say no grip, I mean it was like driving on packed snow. Not quite ice, but early morning after 6" of fresh and 100 cars up the road before you, but still before removal has made it through.

I tried different cars on different tracks, loaded different setups, tweaked setups, and the things were so unruly I couldn't believe it. It was only a few weeks ago they had gobs and gobs of grip. I remember it very distinctly and my sets are designed to be safer, rather than quicker.

Naturally I assumed I must have clicked the wrong thing when cranking up my graphics. (BTW, LFS is gorgeous with the graphics turned up high!) So I started checking my options. I finally get down to the 'Misc' page and "ding-dong!" a light goes on. All of the sudden I remembered that I had had and cured this problem before. I stopped where I was and put the car on track. Yep, sliding like it was on ice. Went back to options, clicked 'Sound Lag' down to 0.09 then back up to 0.10 where it was to begin with and went back out on the track. Bingo. I'm driving LFS again. Perfect grip.

So... I remember doing this on at least three destops. I don't think I did it on the lappy. My computers have all been AMD based, two on MSI and this one on nForce. The lappy is an HP AMD Turion X2. I do run different settings than most to encourage my software and hardware to work. I always run with either professional or prosumer audio cards, and always disable the motherboard audio card.

(Loosely based on memory.)

AMD Athlon. Can't remember the chip. Ran at 1.4
MSI K7T266 Pro
1 gig ram
M-Audio Quatro
TSW2 Sport
XP

AMD Athlon 64 3800+
MSI K9MM-V
2 gig DDR2
460v PSU
Radeon 9600 XT 128
M-Audio Firewire 1814
TSW2 Sport
XP SP2

AMD Phenom X4 9500
XFX nForce 750a SLI
4 gig OCZ SLI PC6400 DDR2
650v PSU
nVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512
RME Fireface 800 (sound card)
Momo
XP SP2 (SP 2 for the audio soft/hardware. Finicky stuff.)

Also, this is what I do to the OS every time:

Tip Description More 1. Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services

2. Visual effects should be set to a minimum.
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Visual Effects Tab > Adjust for best performance
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3. Switch Off Desktop Background Image
Right Click Desktop > Properties > Desktop Tab > Background None
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4. Disable Screen Saver
Right Click Desktop > Properties > Screen Saver > None
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5. Disable Fast User Switching
Start > Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts > Change the way users log on or off > Untick Use Fast User Switching
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6. Switch Off Power Schemes
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Always On > Turn off monitor and turn off hard discs to Never
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7. Switch Off Hibernation
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate > Untick Hibernation
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8. Disable System Sounds
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab > Sound Scheme to None.
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9. Do Not Map Through Soundcard
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Hardware Tab > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties > Audio Devices > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties, and check the "Do not map through this device" checkbox.
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10. Disable System Restore
Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > System Restore Tab. Tick the "Turn off System Restore on all Drives"
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11. Disable Automatic Updates
Switch off Automatic Updates by going to Control Panel, System, Automatic Updates and ticking the box labelled "Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually.".
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12. Startup and Recovery Options
Right click My Computer and click on Properties > Advanced > Start Up & Recovery Settings and uncheck "Automatically Restart".
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13. Disable Error Reporting
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced TAB > Error Reporting > Click the Disable Error Reporting box (Tick the "But Notify Me When Critical Errors Occur" if you prefer)
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14. Disable Remote Assistance
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Remote > Untick "Allow Remote Assistance Invitations to be sent from this computer"
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15. Fixed Swap File (Virtual Memory)
Select the Advanced tab of the Systems applet and then select the Performance settings button. Then select the Advanced page. In here it is possible to customise the Virtual Memory. For custom size, this is often recommended to be 1.5 to 2 times the amount of your total RAM for both initial and maximum size. Set this to a fixed minimum and maximum value according to your existing RAM
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16. Speed Up Menus
You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key. Click Start, and then click Run. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop folder. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1. Click OK.
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17. Disable Offline Files
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Folder Options > Offline Files > Untick "Enable Offline Files"
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18. Disable Remote Desktop
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Remote > Untick "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"
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19. Disable Internet Synchronise Time
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Date and Time > Internet Time > Untick "Automatically synchronize with an internet time server"
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20. Disable Hide Inactive Icons
Start > Settings > Taskbar and Start Menu > Taskbar TAB > Uncheck "Hide Inactive Icons"
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21. Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Desktop > Customise Desktop > Untick "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days"
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22. Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only)
Start > Run > regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CURRENTCONTROLSET > CONTROL > FILESYSTEM Add a new DWORD value - "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" (without quotes) and set the value to 1. Then reboot to make changes effective
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23. Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips
Click Start , click Run , type regedit , and then press ENTER. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips . Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0 . Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.
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24. Disable CDROM Autoplay
One of the very important (and well documented) tweaks in Windows 98SE, was to disable CDROM autoplay (auto insert notification). Disabling CDROM autoplay no longer offers a significant performance benefit in Windows XP, and therefore you do not need to disable it. Just don't insert a CD during a crucial recording.
However, if you really want to disable it then here a few different methods.
Method 1
Start > Run > Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom
Set autorun to 0.
Method 2
Open My Computer Right Click on each CDROM and choose Properties Click on the Auto Play tab In the drop down box you can choose the Action for each choice shown in the drop down box
Method 3
Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System Double click Turn off Autoplay Enable it.
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25. Disable Disc Indexing
Text below taken from XP help.
Indexing Service is a service that extracts the information from a set of documents and organizes it in a way that makes it quick and easy to access that information through the Windows XP Search function, the Indexing Service query form, or a Web browser.
This information can include text from within a document, (its contents), and the characteristics and parameters of the document, (its properties), such as the author's name. Once the index is created, you can search, or query the index for documents that contain key words, phrases, or properties.

Sorry about the formatting, easier that way.

If this concerns you in any way I can provide exact details.

OK. I forgot a couple of things. Someone PM'd me demanding a replay so my reply is here because it's pertinent.

1. No replay. I really wish I had been aware enough to record one. But I wasn't because of point 3. If I have time this weekend I will try to recreate point 4.

2. It's not a persistent problem. It happens once, then goes away for the life of the machine.

3. It has only happened after a fresh OS install. I've only seen this three or four times over six years or so.

4. It might only happen when I am copying an LFS folder intact from another drive.

5. I am using the same version of windows XP home edition. I'm looking at the receipt but it's so old all the information has faded off it. The disk says, "includes service pack 2, version 2002, 0304 part no. x10-52220". I do all the windows updates for service pack 2 before installing any software. I do not install SP3.

I'll be happy to drag the folder and start it from another drive tomorrow. Hopefully it will do the thing and I can record replays. I will not, or I hope I will not be installing a fresh OS until 7 Full is released.

I promise, I am not making this up. What would be the point?

"Yep, sliding like it was on ice. Went back to options, clicked 'Sound Lag' down to 0.09 then back up to 0.10 where it was to begin with and went back out on the track. Bingo. I'm driving LFS again. Perfect grip."

I wish to believe you on this matter, but honestly..

I very much doubt it. Send us some proof.

Rest of your 1. - 56. is pointless - as about all of the community already got some Ueber-PC to handle LFS and doesn´t have to disable anything to get a more then 100 FPS at all time.

Some of your recommendations I´d straight away say to NOT do it at any time at all.

Quote from R.Kolz :

I wish to believe you on this matter, but honestly..

I very much doubt it. Send us some proof.

Wow. I really hope you are not a software developer. Or if you are, it would explain a lot of things about Mac computers.

The reason I do all those tweaks is because on any given day my work may require up to 40 audio streams at 96khz sample rate at 24 bit depth resolution all playing back simultaneously. Along with that bandwidth from my drives I will also be using 50 plug ins, 16 or 24 virtual tracks by way of mix busses, 2 or 3 synthesizers and a buttload of automation of all those things. Those tweaks come from a well reputed source that has been helping people in my industry for years. It's real help for people that use computers the way I do.

That is neither here nor there to you. But it may well be why LFS is acting weird on my machine. In which case it may be a problem no one else has.

It also may be a problem the devs couldn't have expected but their awareness of it might lead them to discover something they would rather not be in their code.

I have no idea why I am explaining this to you.

I think R.Kolz was trying to tell you if there really was a bug creating a difference in tyre physics, the replay should go OOS.