Question Certain games freeze for 2 seconds at incredibly random intervals

[bp1696]

System:

OS: Windows 10
Motherboard: ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming SLI/sc LGA 1151
CPU: i7-9700k
GPU: RTX 2070
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650w Gold 80+
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4

The PC is maybe two years old.
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I'm at my wit's end. So, about 2 months ago I started having an issue with certain games. It initially happened with Resident Evil 2 Remake on Steam. At completely random, impossible to replicate moments, my game would freeze for a second, un-freeze, and then freeze for another second. During this time, I lose all input over the game, to the point that it's gotten me killed a few times. I tried everything to fix this. It finally stopped just after I changed the Nvidia settings for the game to Application Controlled refresh rate, set in-game refresh rate to 60hz, and forced my monitor to 60hz.

However, I think it was just a coincidence, as the issue has returned months later and that "fix" no longer works. It came back in RE2R, and the EXACT same freeze/un-freeze/freeze (while losing input) issue has also being happening in a JRPG called Ao no Kiseki/Trails to Azure (and I was playing the game fine for about 20 hours before the issue started happening again). Now, this only happens with certain games, and once again it's not something I can replicate. Sometimes it happens again after 5 minutes, sometimes after an hour, so on and so forth. It does not happen in stuff like Final Fantasy XIV, Heroes of the Storm, Final Fantasy VII, and lots of other stuff. I have tried so many things to diagnose and fix this issue, and nothing works. Here is what I've tried:

-Changing nearly every Nvidia setting individually for the game in question and testing endlessly
-Making sure things are set to Maximum Performance in Nvidia and Power Settings
-Running CCleaner
-Closing all 3rd party apps and disconnecting unnecessary hardware
-Closing Steam altogether (Trails to Azure is not a Steam game, but I was running it as a non-Steam game)
-Having Task Manager open on my second monitor, nothing spikes when these freezes happen
-Having HWMonitor open on my second monitor, nothing changes when these freezes happen in CPU/GPU stats
-Uninstalling audio drivers from recent new devices I've gotten
-Connecting to completely different displays
-Disconnecting from the internet
-Moving games between my NVME and my SSD
-Updating Nvidia drivers (fresh install)
-Rolling back drivers and Windows 10 updates

I know I've tried even more, but I can't think of it all. Does anyone have any ideas I could try? I just want to game in peace. Thank you.

 

[Colif]

try running chkdsk on both drives, since i see it doesn't matter which you use.

 

[bp1696]

try running chkdsk on both drives, since i see it doesn't matter which you use.

Yeah nothing came up out of the ordinary.

 

[revodo]

No one likes it, but the quickest way to (almost) rule out software issues is to reinstall Windows 10. Not a refresh, but a full reset. Then install the bare minimum as you test things out to see if the issue persists.

Short of doing that, have you tried switching the hardware scheduling on and / or off to see if that makes a difference?

 

[bp1696]

No one likes it, but the quickest way to (almost) rule out software issues is to reinstall Windows 10. Not a refresh, but a full reset. Then install the bare minimum as you test things out to see if the issue persists.

Short of doing that, have you tried switching the hardware scheduling on and / or off to see if that makes a difference?

I tried doing the hardware scheduling to On and it still happens. I'm not quite ready to fully reset Windows 10 yet, haha. But I won't rule it out.

What's strange is that my internet dropped yesterday, and during this time I played one of the games this affected for an hour and a half and I never had the freeze. Does that even make sense? I feel like it's just coincidence.

 

[revodo]

I tried doing the hardware scheduling to On and it still happens. I'm not quite ready to fully reset Windows 10 yet, haha. But I won't rule it out.

What's strange is that my internet dropped yesterday, and during this time I played one of the games this affected for an hour and a half and I never had the freeze. Does that even make sense? I feel like it's just coincidence.

Maybe, or maybe there's a glitch or bug with your network adapter?