[SOLVED] Minecraft choppy after motherboard replacement

[xscrewygirlx]

I have been playing a modded version of Minecraft called Enigmatica 6. It has been running very smoothly with no lagging issues. It took a while to load, but once it did, it ran beautifully at high graphics settings. This is for both online and single player.

I had an issue with my usb intermittently connecting and disconnecting, so I used my warranty to have it repaired. They replaced the motherboard. Everything works perfectly... except Minecraft, now.

It is choppy, laggy, and takes much longer to load now. I have adjusted the graphics settings to the lowest possible, but it makes no difference. I updated my graphics driver, but it did nothing. I uninstalled that instance of modded Minecraft and reinstalled it. No difference. I clean installed Java. No difference.

I have an Alienware Area-51m
CPU: i7-9700 @3.0GHz octa core
RAM: 32GB DDR4 SODIMM 2400MHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GD DR6
Windows 10 Home 64bit
HD: 1TB

I just can't figure out what changed. It doesn't affect any other games. Only Minecraft. I tested this by playing some very graphic-intensive games. They work beautifully. I tried playing Vanilla Minecraft, and that does work... but there is still some choppiness (though not as much. The memory usage for the modded Minecraft is currently at 6GB, but I have it set to allow for up to 10GB.

Does anyone have a suggestion? What changes when one replaces the motherboard (other than the MAC Address)? What am I missing? This is making the game unplayable. I will try to upload a video so people will have a visual.

 

[Phaaze88]

Well, you do need to clean install Windows when changing/replacing motherboards, then install/update all drivers again after.
Obviously, backup the important files on the C drive before you do the clean install.

If you had any edited power plans or Nvidia Control Panel settings, you'll have to change all those back to what you had.

 

[xscrewygirlx]

Just got done doing a clean install. I am still having the same issue.

 

[Phaaze88]

And all the Alienware drivers?
And your original game settings?
All that gets wiped when doing a clean install.

 

[xscrewygirlx]

I did a clean install. Everything was wiped (yes, I backed up my user files to an external. The game takes a very long time to load up, and now while a lot of the choppiness is gone, there are still some lag spikes... but now there are other issues. My LAN connection, for example, sometimes switches off and on and off and on rapidly. Things seem to execute slower.

Ever since this motherboard was swapped out, it seems like the laptop is possessed.

 

[Phaaze88]

Long load times:
Is the HDD your only storage? If it is, does the disk drive hit 100% while the game is running? How full is it?
I know either of those can cause slowdowns. Heat can too - if you don't have a means to check that, here's a link to Crystal Disk Info which shows that and more: https://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskInfoInstaller

Lan connection:
Well, you should've already covered the Lan driver when updating the motherboard's drivers...

Cpu and gpu thermals?

 

[xscrewygirlx]

Yes, the HDD is the only storage. The disk had about 165GB of space remaining on it with everything installed on it. But, with the clean install, there was over 500GB left.

The heat... I can say that while I play games, the area under my left hand heats up quite a bit. It always has. The hard disk is hovering at around 100 degrees F.

But, before they replaced the motherboard, everything was working just fine. Currently, the average temperature of the CPU and the GPU is sitting at 112 degrees F. It hops up to about 135 to 140 while playing games.

I think I know what the LAN issues are, but time will tell.

Anyway, here is that video. I promised. I even turned the settings down to the bare minimum, and it did nothing.

Minecraft

 

[Phaaze88]

I see there was a frequent 'Waiting on Server' message up top.
You don't have RTX turned on.

The heat... I can say that while I play games, the area under my left hand heats up quite a bit. It always has.

Not unusual, but some parts can get too hot, throttle down and slow things down. HDDs are good until 50C.
100C for the 9700, and like 83-84C for the 2060... though the system integrators do have the option to set lower thermal and power limits for these 2 devices if they choose to.

I don't think it's entirely hardware related, but some cache or runtime error.

Is the game actually running on the cpu's iGPU instead of the gpu?

https://www.minecraftforum.net/foru...s-minecraft-so-slow-on-my-computer?page=3(old thread though

1. Find out a way to see which processor has the most usage(hwinfo)...memorize this processor number.
2. Open Task Manager
3. Right click 'javaw.exe'(your minecraft process)
4. Select Affinity
5. Change this to ONLY the processor which has the LEAST amount of usage, this is generally the second processor
6. Wait a few seconds
7. .....
8. IS IT FIXED???

 

[xscrewygirlx]

I probably should have mentioned this before, but I play the java version of Minecraft, which doesn't allow RTX. These are also single-player games. I don't play them online. The Windows version forces you to buy Minecraft yet again and then has no support for modded Minecraft. Before the motherboard replacement, I only received that "Waiting for server" message when I reloaded datapacks or mods. I never lagged, and the game was never choppy. I looked into possibly a "slow mode" for my motherboard, but it doesn't have a "slow mode." I've loaded up other graphically-intense games, and even though they take longer to load now, they are still completely playable (yet I can still tell the difference. It is not where it was before the replacement).

For example, I can't even enter "Fly Mode" because it requires a quick double-tap on the space bar. It's lagging so badly that it doesn't register the second "tap". It's like the computer can't keep up with the commands... like its reflexes are slower.

It is definitely using the NVidia GPU. The iGPU shows no usage. It's only using 8% of the GPU, too. It feels like almost everything on the laptop is lagging. I'll click something, and it will take a moment to register. It shows 13 of the 32 GB of RAM being used, 9-12% of the CPU, and anywhere from 20 to 60% of the HDD.

I can't even play the normal Minecraft because it lags so badly, now. This is Alienware, for heaven's sake! That was why I bought it... specifically so that it could handle any game.

 

[Phaaze88]

I don't think it's the hardware. Other games run ok, but not this one?
Minecraft is programmed to be able to run on potato hardware, yet it appears to be one of the hardest games to troubleshoot; the usual methods often don't work.

Already tried updating Java? Reinstalling it?

Run Windows in Clean Boot mode. A clean boot is performed to start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs.
This may help troubleshoot or determine what conflict is causing the problem. How to here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

Try to run the game in a Clean Boot state. If successful, and performance improves, then comes the process of finding what program(s) is causing the hiccup.

 

[xscrewygirlx]

Hi there. It was, indeed, a problem with the motherboard. The technician came out and replaced it again with a brand new one. No problems. Everything is fixed and operating smoothly... better than before this whole thing began. I guess every now and then, you should do a hard factory reset on your machine. It really helps.

Thank you so much for your help. I learned a lot from this experience and appreciate all of your sound advice!