Question Stops and starts when gaming. Could SSD be the issue?

[mvenezia02]

Hello everyone. So about 6 months ago I built my first gaming PC and for the most part it works excellent, but for some reason I have this one recurring issue that has been happening since I built it and I figured I would finally try and find a solution for it.

When I am playing a game, occasionally(and by this I mean every 30-60 minutes or so) the game will completely freeze for about 3 seconds, and then afterwards it will play everything out that happened during that frozen time(like it's catching up) and be fine again. The reason I suspect it is my SSD is because every time, just before the freeze happens, it sounds like my drive is spinning up and reading/loading something. This issues occurs no matter what is happening on screen. It has happened during cutscenes, during gameplay, during low action on screen and high action on screen. It also seems to occur if I ALT+TAB away from the game and to a web browser.

Since this was my first PC build I don't have a ton of experience troubleshooting, so it definitely may have nothing to do with my SSD, but that is what I suspect.

Here are the specs for my build:
Intel i3 8100
Gigabyte H310M Motherboard
Patriot Viper Elite DDR4-2400 RAM(16GB - 2x8GB)*
EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 3GB GPU
ADATA Ultimate SU800 256GB 2.5" SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM HDD(currently I have nothing on my HDD. My OS and games are all on my SSD.)
EVGA BR 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

*I recently(in the past month or so) upgraded my RAM from 1x8GB to 2x8GB. However, this issue was occuring before I upgraded when I still only had 8GB of RAM

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

 

[prophet51]

You overclock your gpu? Tried underclocking it?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

make sure your ssd or hdd is set to AHCI mode in the bios and windows config

run disk testing software like CrystalDisk or such. make sure you are in AHCI mode first, then test disk, if ok test games.

 

[mvenezia02]

You overclock your gpu? Tried underclocking it?

I do not overclock, no. Never have. My CPU and motherboard are not able to.

make sure your ssd or hdd is set to AHCI mode in the bios and windows config

run disk testing software like CrystalDisk or such. make sure you are in AHCI mode first, then test disk, if ok test games.

OK. I will definitely try this. Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 14196]

also remove any overclocks until you have this sorted as mentioned above

 

[mvenezia02]

I finally got around to trying this and here is an update...

My SSD was already in AHCI mode. I ran a disk scan program and it found no errors or issues whatsoever.

I installed and ran EVGAs PrecisionX1 software to monitor my GPU clock times, temps and fan control. My GPU was not overclocked in any way that I could tell. I manually set all my fans to high speed(GPU, CPU and case to rule out a high temp issue just in case) and then set my GPU to underclock.

Underclocking seems to have helped, though not completely. The sudden stops/freezes I described earlier do seem to come at less frequent intervals now(almost always 60+ mins though I don't get super accurate with the timing so it may not be making a big difference), but they do still happen.

Not really sure where to go from here. Anything else I could try? Thank you in advance and for the help so far!

EDIT: Forgot to mention my GPU is a EVGA GeForce 1050 Ti. I believe I initially said it was just a 1050, but it is actually 1050 Ti. Not sure if that matters, but I figured I would correct that error.

 

[popatim]

Try moving the game to the HDD and see if it clears up.

 

[mvenezia02]

Try moving the game to the HDD and see if it clears up.

I was thinking about this earlier. Guess I probably should have tried that first. Will do! Thanks!

 

[mvenezia02]

Well, it does appear to be my SSD that is causing the issue. After transferring some games over to my HDD and playing them for a few hours I never once encountered the freezing or slowdown.

Case closed. Quick side note, is there any way to repair my SSD/is it worth it to get repaired? Or should I just not bother and buy a new SSD?

Thank you everyone for the help!

 

[popatim]

I’ve read about this happening but not seen it in person to look into it further.

 

[mvenezia02]

I’ve read about this happening but not seen it in person to look into it further.

Fair enough. I'll probably just make it simple and buy a new one. Thanks again!