Question Entire PC stutters when playing certain games ?

[DeffMavvy]

TL;DR; Certain games make entire PC stutter for 10-20 seconds, followed by my headphones audio peaking as loud as possible. system background process goes high in % when this happens. Thanks for any help!

This is a weird one.. and I consider myself a pretty techy guy and this still makes 0 sense to me. While playing select games (The Finals, and a few others), my in-game FPS will go to basically 0 and my ENTIRE desktop stutters and my mouse moves at like 1FPS. This would last about 10-20 seconds before going back to normal. I troubleshooted by checking my task manager during when this would happen and my system process would JUMP up anywhere from 40%-80%. I have used process explorer as well to see if it was a hidden process but to no avail.

But wait for the weirdest part; about 10 or so seconds after the PC stuttering would stop my headphones would BLASTTTT AUDIO like earr*pe. I would have to switch default audio device back and forth to resolve it. I have the wired Arctis Nova Pros and have reinstalled the drivers numerous times, as well as rolled them back. I also suspected the Steelseries GG sonar software to be messing with it but again, nothing. If anyone has ANY advice I'd really really appreciate it. Let me know if you guys need anything! Thank you

Specs:

Windows 11

AsRock Taichi x670 motherboard (newest bios)

Ryzen 7 7700x

4070 Ti

32gb g skill flare X5 6000MHz (running at 5800 because expo hates me)

 

[Colif]

what are full specs? including storage drives

i haven't seen Killer internet drivers in years... since Intel bought them
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X670E Taichi/index.asp#Download

the sound after could just be a reaction
what do you use sonar with?

 

[DeffMavvy]

what are full specs? including storage drives

My boot drive is a samsung 980 pro 1tb. My other storage drives are another 980 1tb and a 970 250gb. and my psu is a corsair rm 750x

 

[Colif]

have you run Samsung Magician on them and checked their health?

System process runs entire PC so makes it difficult to be sure.

I wonder, try running this and see what result you get - https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

latency can be internet drivers.

try running this and see if newer LAN drivers - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/intel-driver-support-assistant.html

 

[DeffMavvy]

have you run Samsung Magician on them and checked their health?

System process runs entire PC so makes it difficult to be sure.

I wonder, try running this and see what result you get - https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

latency can be internet drivers.

try running this and see if newer LAN drivers - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/intel-driver-support-assistant.html

I checked Hwinfo and samsung magician for drive health and they all seem to be healthy. I used sonor with my wired arctis nova pros. And sounds good im downloading the killer suite rn and will see if any updates are needed. and ill test out the resplendence thing if i can figure it out lol. Thank u so much for ur replies i have been trying to figure out this issue for a while now. * Just checked and my killer ethernet drivers are about a year old and im pretty sure those are the newest. and nothing about the lan drivers

 

[Colif]

Yeah, newest appear to be last year - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059060/wireless.html

try running latencymon and see what it shows. since process exploder isn't finding anything, it could be a driver.

 

[DeffMavvy]

Yeah, newest appear to be last year - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059060/wireless.html

try running latencymon and see what it shows. since process exploder isn't finding anything, it could be a driver.

Should i run it while testing one of the games that freeze? or just while idle

 

[DeffMavvy]

Yeah, newest appear to be last year - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059060/wireless.html

try running latencymon and see what it shows. since process exploder isn't finding anything, it could be a driver.

https://imgur.com/a/cAOebeQ

View: https://imgur.com/a/cAOebeQ

This is during a freeze

 

[Colif]

nvidia drivers are always at the top, that doesn't show us a lot.
Windows Driver Framework seems to be a favourite as well.

the driver tab might be more useful.

It is likely a driver but working out which is fun part.

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload to imgur, I see if I can find anything new among them. Could be sound drivers themselves

 

[DeffMavvy]

nvidia drivers are always at the top, that doesn't show us a lot.
Windows Driver Framework seems to be a favourite as well.

the driver tab might be more useful.

It is likely a driver but working out which is fun part.

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload to imgur, I see if I can find anything new among them. Could be sound drivers themselves

*Not sure if this matters but I ran latencymon again and now ACPI.sys is the culprit.
Here is the driver tab of latencymon after the last test:

https://imgur.com/a/67mgJEY

View: https://imgur.com/a/67mgJEY

and here is driverview:

https://imgur.com/a/1oo6uLT

View: https://imgur.com/a/1oo6uLT

thank you again for your help!!!

 

[DeffMavvy]

nvidia drivers are always at the top, that doesn't show us a lot.
Windows Driver Framework seems to be a favourite as well.

the driver tab might be more useful.

It is likely a driver but working out which is fun part.

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload to imgur, I see if I can find anything new among them. Could be sound drivers themselves

Sorry to bother you again. I cant express my appreciation enough. Did you figure anything else out? Thanks again

 

[Colif]

I was asleep in half that time

acpi.sys used for manaing lug & play devices, as well as power management. I don't know what it means for it to be top.

Your installed wifi drivers are newer than I would have expected. they from this year.

have you installed latest chipset drivers?
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X670E Taichi/index.asp#Download

Do you use the VPN much? updated it?
Kaspersky up to date?

really, could be any driver. Ethernet is obvious place to start.
I won't suggest sound as finding newer drivers is fun.

 

[DeffMavvy]

I was asleep in half that time

acpi.sys used for manaing lug & play devices, as well as power management. I don't know what it means for it to be top.

Your installed wifi drivers are newer than I would have expected. they from this year.

have you installed latest chipset drivers?
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X670E Taichi/index.asp#Download

Do you use the VPN much? updated it?
Kaspersky up to date?

really, could be any driver. Ethernet is obvious place to start.
I won't suggest sound as finding newer drivers is fun.

Thanks for the reply!!!

I dont really use my vpn at all on my desktop. And Kaspersky is up to date.
I tested something though because you mentioned acpi managing plug & play usb devices. Theres this game that LAGS like hell every time I open it, basically bricks my entire computer for about 15 seconds before going back to normal (With ACPI being the one that spikes like crazy). I unplugged every USB except for my mouse, and opened the game, NO LAG AT ALL, it opened normally, and THEN 10 seconds after opening normally THEN it started to lag my entire PC for the normal 10 seconds. Which has never happened before.. But also this time ACPI's latency was almost triple the latency that ive seen it peak at. So i dont really know what that means lol, maybe its a USB issue???

Also, some games run perfectly, 0 hitching whatsoever.. so so so confusing

And im pretty sure all my drivers are up to date.. So confused lol

Thanks again and apologies for the word salad