Games suddenly loading much slower

[mattyk69]

Hi gang,

I've noticed recently that games on my computer are taking a much longer time to load up than they used to, both the splash screens, main menu and loading into a game itself. There have been no changes that come to mind on what could have caused this. The computer is normally set to hibernate each night and shut down around once a week if it should matter.

I've attached an image of both Defraggler and CrystalDiskInfo. I noticed that it seems to be pretty fragmented but when using Defraggler the normal version takes days and renders the computer unusable and the quick version doesn't really seem to make a difference. Any input would be appreciated as I'm pretty concerned about my HDD health

CDI/Defraggler:

https://ibb.co/dn3NYk


Full specs:

i5 6500
r9 380 4gb
8gb ddr4
Seagate 2TB

 

[SgtScream]

Based on your description, your hard drive could be failing. Do you see any disk errors in the event viewer under system or application logs?

 

[mattyk69]

Based on your description, your hard drive could be failing. Do you see any disk errors in the event viewer under system or application logs?

Hi,

Not exactly sure what I am looking for, but under Windows Logs > System there are quite a lot of Service Control Manager Errors and Distributed Com. Also a Kernel Power error each time I hibernate or wake up the PC from hibernate

The Application logs are essentially empty.

 

[SgtScream]

No disk errors? You could type this into check disk command line "chkdsk /f C:" with out quotes, assuming your system drive is drive letter c.

 

[ss202sl]

get HDTUNE and see what HDD diagnostics say.
http://www.hdtune.com/

 

[mattyk69]

Hi, thanks for the help so far. Running CMD as admin and putting in the command gives back this result:

"The Type of file system is NTFS, Cannot lock current drive."

"Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process"



I have downloaded HDTune, I think it says the HDD is in good health. I ran a quick error test and all blocks were green with 0 damaged, and it took 42 seconds. In the health tab everything says ok but

(0A) Spin Retry Count

(B8) Unknown attribute

Are both highlighted in yellow but say ok.

I can add any screenshots if needed

 

[SgtScream]

Was there a recent windows update that was installed?

 

[mattyk69]

Hi,

Yes infact I've installed two sets of updates from Windows Update within the past week, both were around 300mb


Thank you for all the help so far.

 

[SgtScream]

Hi,

Yes infact I've installed two sets of updates from Windows Update within the past week, both were around 300mb


Thank you for all the help so far.

What were the updates?

 

[mattyk69]

Hi,

The updates can be found here:

https://ibb.co/eXR4Dk


I had a quick Google of the update names but couldn't find anything

 

[SgtScream]

Now try to think of when the issue started. Uninstall all recent updates that installed after that date.

 

[mattyk69]

Is there any reason it could be caused by Windows Update? Just seems like a strange place for the problem to occur from.

 

[SgtScream]

Is there any reason it could be caused by Windows Update? Just seems like a strange place for the problem to occur from.

You have to ask yourself what recently changed? Was it hardware? Most likely not, but possible failure. Was it software? Also possible. Yes windows updates are known to cause problems sometimes.
Have you checked to see what processes are utilizing your hard drive's performance? Did you recently install antivirus that likes to constantly scan your drive treat everything as a virus? You can use "Resource monitor" native to windows or sysinternal's "diskmon" utility to monitor drive usage. You might want to get your hands on an extra monitor so you can easily see the utilization as you are gaming.
If you have a spare hard drive you could take the old hard drive out and install windows on the spare. If the problem stops, then you know the problem was something software related OR possibly hardware related as it's still possible your hard drive is failing. If that's the case you could back up your data, format and reload on the suspect hard drive. FYI - defragging a drive is rarely needed unless you've had a hard drive that has been heavily used and hasn't been formatted/reinstalled in a very long time.

 

[mattyk69]

Is there any reason it could be caused by Windows Update? Just seems like a strange place for the problem to occur from.

You have to ask yourself what recently changed? Was it hardware? Most likely not, but possible failure. Was it software? Also possible. Yes windows updates are known to cause problems sometimes.
Have you checked to see what processes are utilizing your hard drive's performance? Did you recently install antivirus that likes to constantly scan your drive treat everything as a virus? You can use "Resource monitor" native to windows or sysinternal's "diskmon" utility to monitor drive usage. You might want to get your hands on an extra monitor so you can easily see the utilization as you are gaming.
If you have a spare hard drive you could take the old hard drive out and install windows on the spare. If the problem stops, then you know the problem was something software related OR possibly hardware related as it's still possible your hard drive is failing. If that's the case you could back up your data, format and reload on the suspect hard drive. FYI - defragging a drive is rarely needed unless you've had a hard drive that has been heavily used and hasn't been formatted/reinstalled in a very long time.

As far as I can remember nothing has changed. Hardware definitely not. Nothing major on the software side either other than maybe a few Steam games. I've uninstalled the updates but so far no difference. In task manager when running a game it's normally the game itself taking the bulk of the disk but System and System Interrupts are normally the next two in the list. There's been no change to the antivirus, I use Eset Smart Security and have not had an issue in the past with it. I'm unsure if I can get a spare hard drive or monitor.

 

[mattyk69]

Sorry to double post but I've decided to further investigate Windows Update, upon monitoring task manager it appears that "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" or BITS is always running and is taking more resources than it should. I have tried to stop this service in Services but it appears to be stuck in a "stopping" state and I am unable to interact with it. I have also tried elevated Command Prompt with "net stop bits" but it still has not worked. I have found this command online which apparently works but would like your input on what it does or what I should do.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

I'm under the notion that this will reset my windows installation which is something I would prefer not to do.