[SOLVED] HDD spikes to 100% and CPU usage decreases for a second while gaming

[Streamer123]

Hello everyone.

I just bought a new laptop (Acer Nitro 7; i5-9300h, 8GB RAM, GTX 1650, 256 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD), and it runs fine except for one thing: my games occasionally freeze for about a second. It doesn't matter which game - this happened while playing more demanding titles like Monster Hunter World to less demanding titles such as Terraria or Team Fortress 2. These games are all installed on my HDD, while Windows is installed on my SSD.

So, I went on Task Manager and continued playing, and noticed that my HDD spiked to 100% for that split second when the game froze. Here's an image of that (the post didn't allow me to add an image directly, sorry):

https://imgur.com/a/9t285v1

View: https://imgur.com/a/9t285v1


At that same time when the HDD spiked to 100%, I think that my CPU usage went down a lot... at least that's what the screenshot suggests.

Is this possible because of undervolting? I'm using a ThrottleStop preset for an i5-8300h from here: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/577183/throttlestop-undervolt-profiles-pre-made/p1?new=1

I ran CrystalDisk and it told me that both my HDD (32 degrees celsius) and my SSD (38 degrees celsius) have a health status of 'Good'.

Is there anything I can do? I don't really want to return this laptop as everything else works fine... the game freezes and continues immediately, and with the whole COVID situation, it would be a pain to get a replacement.

Any help is appreciated, thank you

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention that I ran Terraria without ThrottleStop active (because it's not demanding), and this issue still arose - doesn't seem like undervolting has anything to do with this.

 

[Streamer123]

Okay, now that Steam and all other game launchers themselves are on the HDD along with the game, it feels like the issue is gone. I think it happened once, but I didn't have task manager open at that time to check. Either way, is it still possible for somebody to look through the Windows Performance Analyzer report to see if there's something more concrete, like a particular process, to isolate as the issue?

Thanks

 

[boju]

Interesting. Installed performance analyzer and managed to view your log. It was wide eye at first trying to see whats going on, there's so much information, quite difficult to diagnose the guts of it. One thing that popped out at me was GamebarPresencesWriter. I know what this is so that's why it popped out at me. Not sure if you have recording enabled though, seems like it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...why-cant/bb38539e-9228-42b0-8b7c-0bd044e92ca8

DVR recording app if enabled in Gamebar automatically records your game play and stores it and disposes if nothing is done with it. Might explain storage activity spikes?

 

[Streamer123]

Interesting. Installed performance analyzer and managed to view your log. It was wide eye at first trying to see whats going on, there's so much information, quite difficult to diagnose the guts of it. One thing that popped out at me was GamebarPresencesWriter. I know what this is so that's why it popped out at me. Not sure if you have recording enabled though, seems like it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...why-cant/bb38539e-9228-42b0-8b7c-0bd044e92ca8

DVR recording app if enabled in Gamebar automatically records your game play and stores it and disposes if nothing is done with it. Might explain storage activity spikes?

I've had Xbox Gamebar disabled in my settings since I got this laptop... Nothing else that catches your eye? I noticed that there are these two huge spikes under Storage (File I/O) as well as under Memory (Hard Faults) that seem to coincide to the moments my game froze.

The Steam on HDD didn't solve it, but it does seem to me that it happens less often. That might just be me imagining things though, I'm quite desperate at this point haha

 

[boju]

Don't really know sorry. Under File/io, Searchindexer spikes high, not sure if that means anything. Could just mean the hdd is slow at searching for files.

I run Steam games from a 7200 hdd and they're fine besides the long load times compared to what im used to with games on the ssd.

Maybe it's just the hdd that's in the laptop.

 

[Streamer123]

Don't really know sorry. Under File/io, Searchindexer spikes high, not sure if that means anything. Could just mean the hdd is slow at searching for files.

I run Steam games from a 7200 hdd and they're fine besides the long load times compared to what im used to with games on the ssd.

Maybe it's just the hdd that's in the laptop.

Oh. I used CCleaner to completely uninstall the Xbox app, but I doubt that was it. I guess I'll just have to live with this until I get a new HDD I guess.

Thanks for your help again!

 

[boju]

No problem. More ram and a 2TB ssd would go well.

Let us know how you go.

 

[Streamer123]

https://imgur.com/a/Lmin4Eg

View: https://imgur.com/a/Lmin4Eg


It's getting worse.... Should I return this laptop?

 

[boju]

You haven't been happy with it. Returning it could be on the cards.

Maybe run a Malwarebytes scan on the hdd?

 

[Streamer123]

Malwarebytes says the HDD is fine.

I sent in an Acer Repair request with the details of this issue, the links to the images, as well as all of the methods we tried to solve this with. It seems like it's a hardware issue after all, perhaps something to do with the SATA cable not being connected properly. I don't want to open it and check because it'll void my warranty, so I'll just leave Acer to fix it.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[boju]

Good luck! Yeah let us know.

 

[Streamer123]

Okay, so I've installed a new HDD from Acer Support. However, the issue still exists. Again, it's only on the HDD and not the SSD.

If there is anyone who understands Windows Performance Analyzer, and is willing to help, could you please look at this? You can see where the CPU usage dips and the HDD usage spikes.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GT3lu9ffGXjY7bThjeNoso4dZID1ENak?usp=sharing

Thanks.

 

[boju]

If it's not the drive itself then it could be the cable/ and or storage controller. Not sure what to suggest. Replace data cable or update storage controller driver.

 

[Streamer123]

If it's not the drive itself then it could be the cable/ and or storage controller. Not sure what to suggest. Replace data cable or update storage controller driver.

What cable do I need to purchase?

 

[boju]

You'd have to look inside to see what they use to connect and see a part number