Question Confusing gaming issue seemingly related to disk usage

[Franzliszt]

Howdy.

I'm aware there are tons of threads about the dreaded "100% disk usage issue", but my case seems to have some odd specificities.

Here are the facts :
Since June I have had trouble playing a turn-based game called Humankind, freezing seemingly because of a 100% disk usage. I had played Humankind before that in January and had no issue whatsoever.

The freeze occurs...:
- On fastest quality : every 6-7th turn on average
- On fast quality : every 4-5th turn on average
- On simple quality : every 2nd turn on average, or possibly right after exiting the loading screen
- On good quality : right after exiting the loading screen and skipping the opening cinematic

Here's how it usually unfolds :
- Humankind on lowest settings : flirts with 100% disk usage a few times until it freezes --> blue rotating icon --> Windows task bar staying alive for a minute or two until i click on it - then it also dies (rotating blue icon). Same for the task manager. Task manager shows that it is the game itself using 100% of the disk usage.

For comparison, here's what happens when I play TW Warhammer 3 :
- Ultra settings : flirts with 100% CPU usage until it freezes. No blue rotating icon, just straight up freeze, including the mouse-cursor. But it is CPU-related and has nothing to do with disk usage, from what I can tell.
- Medium settings : CPU survives the benchmark, but weirdly I hit a 100% disk usage for no apparent reason (I specifically clicked on the disk-usage tab in the task manager before launching the benchmark, and there wasn't anything using my disk ; the highest was a Service Host thing using 0,1 Mo/s... didn't crash tho)
- Lowest settings : gets real close to 100% cpu usage several times but survives the benchmark. Still no freeze caused by disk usage.

Memory is around a stable 50% for both those games.

In each of those scenarios, nothing responds and therefore I am forced to do a force-shutdown holding the power button for 5 seconds. It is noteworthy that before formating, it usually ended in a straight up blue screen of death.

The issue :
I am fine and have always been fine with having performance issues, freezes or crashes caused by my CPU. It is normal and makes sense. But that disk usage issue just popped out of the blue for a single game, and even on that specific game I did not have that issue before playing it in June. My SSD seems to be in otherwise pretty good form, which is confusing. I remember checking on a dedicated app about SSD health (CrystalDisk I believe) saying it was in tremendous shape...even though I've had it for nearly a decade now.


In light of all that has been said, a few questions arise :
- Generally speaking, what is your diagnosis?
- Is it my SSD dying or is it Humankind that has exceptionnally bad optimization? My SSD has never had any issue with anything else, but I also find it hard to believe that it can't handle Humankind on the absolute lowest quality setting.
- How come Warhammer 3 uses 0% of my disk usage but Humankind uses 100%, even tho they're both infamously demanding games?
- What's up with those 100% disk usage spikes with nothing using the disk?


I have tried the following :
- Latest GPU driver
- Latest SSD driver/firmware (or so Samsung Magician tells me)
- Latest motherboard driver
- Latest Windows 10 update
- Reinstalling DirectX
- Reinstalling Dot Net
- Reinstalling VCRedist 2012/2013/2019
- Running Steam + Humankind on administrator
- Verifying files integrity
- Forcing Vulkan mode
- All sorts of cmd lines
- Formatting my SSD


Thank you for your attention.

EDIT : Specs
Windows 10 (not activated)
SSD : Samsung 970 EVO 500GB
CPU : Intel Core i5-8600K 3.60 GHz 3.60 GHz
RAM : 16,00 GB
GPU : NVidia GeForce RTX 2070
Motherboard : Gigabyte Z370P D3​

 

[Ralston18]

PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full? (Noted the Samsung 500 GB SSD.) Any other drives?

= = = =

There are three tools that may be able to help identify or otherwise diagnose the problem(s):

Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free).

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time. You will need to keep the tool window open so you can watch what is happening. Having the tool window open may or may not affect game play. A second monitor could be used if you have monitor available.

Simply watch the tool. First when not gaming and then while gaming paying close attention to the turns etc. where freezing occurs.

It may take some trial and error to get the process down so you can easily note what happens or changes before or at the time of the freezes.

Also, with BSODs, you can look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer for any related errors, warnings, or even information events. Specific error codes may prove helpful.

And Reliability History presents a timeline format. There may be some pattern that matches turn numbers and freezes.

 

[Franzliszt]

Hi Ralston. Thank you for your swift reply.

Well, that's odd. I just played Humankind on Very high quality for more than 25 turns straight without issue. I then stopped cause I had other matters to attend to.
I was looking at Resource Monitor the whole time and noticed several dozens of instances of my SSD spiking to 100% (usually when a big change occured in-game), but no freeze this time. That doesn't make me too optimistic tho because even though I remember that, in June, the freezes usually happened when a big change occured in-game, it could also be very random some other times (like just selecting a unit or a city or something ; sometimes even while AFK). For all I know, it could've froze at turn 26. Still, it is an improvement.

I had also looked in June at the Event Viewer and I remember it wasn't very helpful. Only an error code about Kernel-Power or Kernel-Programme, something like that.

I'll try it again later today and keep you posted.

PSU : Corsair VS650
- MAKE : not sure what this means (english isn't my mother tongue)
- MODEL : 75-001837
- WATTAGE : 650W I guess?
- AGE : 10 years old in a few months
- CONDITION :
- - On the day of purchase : new
- - Today : probably used. Looks fine to me

SSD : Samsung NVMe M.2 970 EVO
- MAKE : not sure what this means
- MODEL : MZ-V7E500
- CAPACITY : 500 Gb
- HOW FULL : about 30% full
- AGE : 5 years old in a few months
No other drives

 

[Franzliszt]

UPDATE : I now freeze every 25-30 turn, which is a welcome but confusing improvement since I have changed absolutely nothing. Guess my SSD saw me posting here and figured it better get it together before ending up in a recycling center

I still haven't been able to take a look at Resmon during the freeze because Alt-tabs dont respond anymore when it does. And I don't have a second computer screen...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Check, what is causing excessive disk activity.
Use Resource Monitor,

switch to Disk tab and​

see Disk Activity section.​

Order Disk Activity section by column Total.​

​

Make a screenshot and post here (upload to imgur.com and post link)

BTW - are you using shadowplay? If yes, then turn it off.

 

[Franzliszt]

Well, I am now well over turn 100 without freezing so it seems like the issue resolved itself. I am happy but also very frustrated because all this began and ended for no apparent reason. For all I know it could start malfunctioning again in a few weeks.

Thank you both for your replies and sorry for wasting everyone's time