Games are loading slowly randomly but with consistent good FPS

[Hansrutger]

Hello there community! I have a real butt-biting issue that I have to deal with that has been ongoing ever since a few months after I bought the components of my computer and I built the computer. The computer was built by me, with all the components checked if they fit together and after all computer ran very good and smoothly without any issue for a few months.


The Problem
A few months ago let's say back in June I encountered the same issue that I am encountering today. Games were periodically not loading everything properly after I am already in-game. This happened in open-world games such as World of Warcraft or PUBG (mentioning PUBG since it has a big world) but also games that have a set small map like Overwatch. So I know that this is not a game-specific issue, and it doesn't matter if I have all settings turned down to "very low" or not, the same issue persists.

The loading can vary everything between from just not loading a few dynamically made objects (such as a temporary object flying from one player to another in World of Warcraft) all the way to the game fully freezing and no objects are loading (will display picture later on).


Lowest Level of the Problem
As an example of what I mean with dynamic object, for instance in Overwatch when you shoot with a character that has slow bullet movement speed, can actually see the bullets "flying" in the air, that is not shown until everything is "loaded properly". While this is happening, FPS is great. The FPS is going between 110-140 according to the game-implemented meters and I am able to move around my characters without any issue!


Mediocre Level of the Problem
As described in the "lowest level" paragraph, if I ADDITIONALLY decide to manually open a window for instance a map-viewer in the game in games like World of Warcraft, the map isn't loading and usually the game along with windows freezes. I am underlining this as it might be useful to find the problem. I am still able to communicate with my fellow team players on for instance discord, I can interact with google chrome. But if I attempt to let's say press the windows-button to open up Start or just right click on the task bar, it is all frozen.


Highest Level of the Problem
The worst case scenario is that everything freezes fully and I can't do anything. Note that I am still able to listen to Spotify, hear my team mates, interact with OTHER programs besides anything windows related or game-related... A clear example would be like this in World of Warcraft: https://i.imgur.com/XFjOEvI.png

You can see that maps aren't displaying, if you are a WoW player you know that the minimap on upper right should not be black but actually load the map in a mini-format for instance and so on.


The Ultimate Solution that Works!
There's a very simple solution to all of this: reinstalling windows and removing everything on the harddrives (SSD + HDD, but I'm guessing mainly the SSD since it has windows and HDD is barely being used other than for saving recordings of gameplay). This is a VERY dull solution and I do not accept it unfortunately. Why? Because the problem reoccurs again after a few months.


How does this problem start appearing?
I do not want to give out indirect answers because I am looking for an accurate solution before jumping into my wallet to pay for new computer components, but by the looks of it... The issue is always starting when I am installing more and more games. I currently have almost 50 / 222 GB free space on my SSD (and the HDD doesn't matter much but I have 2 partitions on it; 423 / 499 GB free on first partition, 878 GB / 3.15 TB free on second). But the only thing that counters this statement is that it worked fine to have almost 1 GB / 222 GB free on the SSD for a few months after building the computer. I am not saying I only had 1 GB, but you get the point, I had only a few gigabytes space free and everything was working smoothly.


Does your PC even lift?
To see the specs of the PC here is a benchmark of it back when I reinstalled windows 10 and cleared the SSD fully for the second time (I have reinstalled and emptied it 2 times (excluding when I bought it) in total): https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/27789064

All components EXCEPT the SSD are new. The SSD was used in an older computer that was running smoothly and didn't have this issue at all, I upgraded because I wanted to start recording my gameplay.


What have I tried?
Besides reinstalling windows, which we know by now is the temporary solution:
- Updated drivers on all hardware including the BIOS.
- The usual defragging disks, cleaning disks.
- Installed various programs to clean the PC and installing missing dll's, completing issues and so on, including scanning for malware.
- Checking windows event logs right AFTER the freezes happened to see if any errors appear there (none were displayed unfortunately).
- Simple "debugging" by seeing if the problem persists if I only have the games opened and nothing else (no discord, no unnecessary processes, etc).
- Manually checking for processes on task manager that might be shady.
- Having task manager up on second monitor WHILE the freezes happen to see if anything spikes to (nothing goes to 100% neither goes down to 0%).
- Reinstalling windows but keeping all the files, in order for the temporary solution to work everything needs to be wiped clean.
- More things that I probably even forgot that I have attempted.


I beg for help on this issue, I have tried so many things but I am not certain if it's just the GPU failing for whatever reason or if it is the SSD (which would be 1-2 years old) that started to fail. I do NOT have any additional computer parts to debug with, as in exchanging them to see if the problem persists.

An additional note is that, I seem to NOT be able to force the problem to happen at all. I can have ridiculous amount of programs up and running at same time and nothing will happen, I can have only a simple game like Hearthstone up and running and it will fail to load certain things. This is utterly ridiculous.


Thanks in advance for ANY feedback or assistance, cheers!

 

[drivinfast247]

Nice write-up. Since the PC seems to work fine when these events happen, I'm thinking its GPU related. Have you used DDU to remove all traces of GPU driver? What PSU do you have? What temps are you reaching during gameplay?

 

[Hansrutger]

Nice write-up. Since the PC seems to work fine when these events happen, I'm thinking its GPU related. Have you used DDU to remove all traces of GPU driver? What PSU do you have? What temps are you reaching during gameplay?

I will defintively download this DDU and try this. I hate that you said it might be the GPU, since it's the most cost worthy piece unfortunately.

PSU is a EVGA 850W Supernova G2 one, it was also

The temperatures are normally at 50-60 when I game, I remember hearing the fan working so much on my older computer, this I buy a lottery if I hear it even remotely overwork. I haven't checked the temp recently, but I did back when this issue was "new" for me.

 

[terry4536]

First what are the components?

Assuming that you have adequate memory (?), freeing up system resources will help.

Go to Windows Task Manager and select the Start Up tab. That is a list of all of the applications constantly running in the background. First scan the list for apps with medium or igh impact on start up. Highlight those and use the Disable button at the bottom. Next do the same for applications that you don't use every few days. That should pare down the list. This doesn't delete the applications it just prevents them from running constantly.

 

[terry4536]

Next. increase system resources by increasing Virtual Memory.

Search Windows for "performance", and select Adjust Windows Appearance and Performance. Then select the Advanced tab. Then select Change Virtual Memory. And then select the system drive and the Custom option. I suggest setting the Minimum to 10,000 MB and the Maximum to 15,000 MB .

This uses a small amount of your drive as temporary memory. You can do the same for other drives.

You should notice the difference.

 

[drivinfast247]

Next. increase system resources by increasing Virtual Memory.

Search Windows for "performance", and select Adjust Windows Appearance and Performance. Then select the Advanced tab. Then select Change Virtual Memory. And then select the system drive and the Custom option. I suggest setting the Minimum to 10,000 MB and the Maximum to 15,000 MB .

This uses a small amount of your drive as temporary memory. You can do the same for other drives.

You should notice the difference.

He has 16gb RAM. Why would he want to do this?

 

[Hansrutger]

I don't want to jinx it but hopefully this will provide a bit more information: It seems that uninstalling steam games (CS:GO and PUBG were the only ones I had there) made everything smooth. I am now on 85 / 222 GB free space on the SSD. I don't know if this changes anything or not and I still have to see if it actually "fixed" anything but if it did it's very odd. I don't understand if this works and then I am wondering how to fix this?

(( Edit: Thinking about it, back before I wiped the SSD clean for the first time, I started noticing these issues when I had played a bit of European Truck Driving Simulator 2 that was also installed from steam. It's unrealistically that I will not be able to install games from steam though just to have things "work", especially not with todays PC gaming standards where steam is basically needed for most games that are not related to EA, Blizzard or Activision... ))

If issue persists I will attempt in the following order as you guys have posted:
1) DDU uninstalling drivers and installing again
2) Changing Virtual Memory.

To answer your question terry, my specs are under "Does your PC even lift?" and the PSU was also included in a post above that quoted another user.
To answer your other solution, I have already gone through all programs to not have any unnecessary startup ones.

Thank all so far with ideas and feedback, anything might help!

 

[terry4536]

Because the RAM isn't the only resource for memory, and in this case it is temporary memory in addition to the RAM. It helps a lot when managing system resources. And it is free.

 

[Hansrutger]

I tried reinstalling the GPU drivers with DDU and cleaning, didn't work.

I have also tried the memory thing that terry suggested, still no improvements unfortunately.

 

[terry4536]

The only other thing I can think of is to look into the internet connection. Perhaps the problem is just buffering. Check the upload and download Mbps. Are they what you are supposed to be from your IPS? Is your router and modem adequate?

Apart from that, you can start switching out hardware. If it is still within the return period, exchange the motherboard.

 

[Hansrutger]

Making my OS freeze due to internet is not really what I'd say is even remotely close to the issue, especially since I have had zero issues with lag for a very long time. I want to know what the probability is that it's the SSD versus that it's for example the CPU, GPU or MB being the issue? But I believe that at this point I just want to believe it's the SSD that is the problem since it's far the cheapest product to replace.

The shop that I bought all the components from have a 1 year and I made the order on 1/1-2018 so I have pretty much until the end of the year. Whether it's a VALID thing to replace them without knowing the issue is my concern though with exchanging the components, because I can't really pinpoint what it is that I would replace. Again thanks for the feedback though, it's highly appreciated, afterall I just want to solve this thing... :/

 

[terry4536]

Unless your SSD is failing, it would not cause the problems described. If you want you can run diagnostics on the SSD. Here is a list of them.

https://mashtips.com/ssd-health-test-and-performance-monitor-tools/

I can't see the equipment. I can only respond to what you post. And frankly you don't seem that interested in my help anyway.

 

[Hansrutger]

Thanks for that link, I will download one of them shortly.

As for your suggestions, I have so far followed all of them:
- Startup was already done.
- The memory was increased but it didn't make any difference for me.
- Internet was not the issue, it just didn't make any sense for me why it would be that since internet is the last thing I have had trouble with and it's not like I have a problem with it every 3 months give or take.

It did however feel like you didn't read half of my post since you asked about my specs when I wrote them by giving a link


As for what is going on right now, I am trying to do a system file check through cmd prompt and I will also test the disk monitor.

Update: I see that my health of the SSD is on 27%. Does anyone know what this means with the software "Hard Disk Sentinel"?
https://i.imgur.com/Rd8xZHZ.png

Update 2: System file checker was completed and it said that it found corrupted files but that it now repaired them. I have a CBS.log from that if someone wants to look into that for whatever reason.

 

[drivinfast247]

That's not good. Backup whatever you need and install a new SSD. I'd go with a fresh install of Windows also.

 

[Hansrutger]

So the probability of it being the SSD is higher then. I was thinking of upgrading a 500 GB, so I'm glad I made this thread then just to confirm. Again thank you terry!

Will let you guys know how it goes, will most likely buy a new SSD tomorrow and install it immidiately ASAP.

 

[Hansrutger]

Working well so far, it says it has 100% health (which isn't uncommon for a new component lol) so we'll see and hope everything works. So far nothing is lagging or freezing, did a 3DMark test and results were similar to the first time I did the test: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/29734611

Cheers for everyone's help, let's see in a few months if problem occurs.