Question SSD causes 1-2 seconds freezes in games (TLDR included)

[Argapharus]

Not my video but this is what my issue looks like:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDdd1_iEs8c&feature=emb_logo

Been having it for the last couple of months starting with Battlefield 5. Initially I thaught it was an issue with the game but the freezes kept happening in other games as well, like Mass Effect 1/2, Darkest Dungeon, Bulletstorm. Last night I found this: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/m...ns-when-sounds-are-about-to-be-played.421953/ Dude had the same issue and he figured it was his HDD. That is also where I got the video from. So I moved my games to my other SSD where the OS is installed and the stuttering is gone.

The issue is completely random, no events regarding the SSD are recorded in Event Viewer. Kingston SSD Manager/SSD Life/Crystaldisk don't show any errors. The only clue that I have is that the Disk Active Time graph in Task Manager spikes only when the stuttering happens. Nothing weird on the other graphs for GPU/CPU/Memory or the other Disk.

My question is, where should I start troubleshooting this? Could it be a software issue or is it clearly a hardware one? I had an SSD die on me before and it was pretty obvious something was wrong (no drive in file explorer, a ton of warnings in Event Viewer, etc), this time nothing gives me any idea what might be causing problems.

I checked the CPU using intel Diagnostic Tool and the RAM using memtest and all is well, 0 errors. I never got BSODs or other types of crashes. I changed the MOBO, CPU, RAM and PSU a few months ago, the only parts that are over a year old are the GPU and the SSDs.

TLDR: Random 1-2 seconds freezes in all games. Issue gone when games are moved on second SSD so 99% sure first SSD is the cause. No errors/warnings in Event Viewer. Spikes in the Task Manager graph for the Disk when the stuttering happens. Where do I start fixing this? What might be causing this?

 

[helpstar]

update the Kingston´s firmware if available

Which Kingston SSD is it?
Which motherboard are you using? Update the BIOS of the motherboard

is the system overclocked?

check the speed of the SSD with AS SSD and post a screenshot of it (upload to imgur.com or similar and post the link of it)

Did you reset windows or reinstall it after the mobo change?

Move a game back to the Kingston SSD, is it gone too?

 

[TerryLaze]

TLDR: Random 1-2 seconds freezes in all games. Issue gone when games are moved on second SSD so 99% sure first SSD is the cause. No errors/warnings in Event Viewer. Spikes in the Task Manager graph for the Disk when the stuttering happens. Where do I start fixing this? What might be causing this?

Could be just a bandwidth issue,games especially those made for consoles are made to stream the data from the disk while you play,if you do this at an increased rate because you get more FPS than a console does you could be near the limit of what the disk can provide and as soon as the game (or some background task) has to access anything that is not part of said stream access times switch from sequential read to random read and the stream gets interrupted.

 

[Argapharus]

update the Kingston´s firmware if available

Which Kingston SSD is it?
Which motherboard are you using? Update the BIOS of the motherboard

is the system overclocked?

check the speed of the SSD with AS SSD and post a screenshot of it (upload to imgur.com or similar and post the link of it)

Did you reset windows or reinstall it after the mobo change?

Move a game back to the Kingston SSD, is it gone too?

1. It's a KINGSTON SA400S37960G, the firmware is up to date. The motherboard is a Aorus Z390 Pro on the latest BIOS version.

2. No overclock, default settings. Not even XMP is turned on.

3. Here you go:

https://imgur.com/a/qNK8VGU

View: https://imgur.com/a/qNK8VGU

4. Yes I did reinstall Windows after the mobo change.

5. I don't think I understand this question. I moved the games back and forth between the drives at least 5 times now and I'm always able to reproduce the issue on the Kingston and not on the ADATA drive where Windows is installed.

In the meantime I tried doing a clean boot with everything but the Windows processes disabled and the issue persisted.

 

[Maxxify]

Check LatencyMon to try and track down the source. You mention ADATA - what's the primary drive? Is it a NVMe SSD? If so, if it's only impacting the A400 it's likely SATA drivers or similar.

 

[Timotytimotyy]

Hello! I was just about to post the same here, I have the exact same SSD as you! The Kingston A400! Having the exact same stuttering issue. It even stutters when moving files etc. My whole desktop can stop for a couple seconds.