Strange lag sometimes

[Mithradantor]

Hi,

I find it very difficult to describe my problem so the text will be long. I will split my "problem" and "question" in two separate parts for easy reading. Excuse for my bad English as well

The problem
For example I am playing Tom Clancy's The Division with all settings on ultra. This shouldn't be a problem since I have done this before and I never had any lag or stuttering. Sometimes I get strange things happening i.e:

1. ESC or WIN key not working anymore
2. I press A (walk left) for 5 seconds, my char starts moving 2 sec later and after I stop holding down the A button he will still walk left for x-seconds.
3. I have to press the "M" button multiple times before the game registers
4.Various other strange (lag) things

I know point 1 has nothing to do with lag, nevertheless it is strange that this happens sometimes.

Sometimes it also feels as if my whole computer lags i.e. I ALT+TAB out of the game and type a message in Facebook. The letters will appear 0,5 sec after I pressed the button... some kind of input lag. This might be due to the game still running of course so maybe this is just logic and it has nothing to do with my problem.

My hardware specs are:

Intel i5 3570K 3.40GHz
Corsair 8GB DDR3 668MHz CL9-9-9-24
MSI GTX 980 TI Lightning
Windows installed on a SSD 550/500
Games installed on a SSD 550/500 (or 550/550 can't remember)
Microsoft Windows 8.1

I have tried various things:

I tried to check my CPU and GPU temperature, they are all fine. I made an entire new CAT6 Cable which goes directly from my router (Ziggo (UPC) internet, Netherlands) to my computer.

I tried the onboard (directly in my mainboard) LAN connecter, as well as a PCI LAN card.

I tried installing Razor Cortex.

I tried putting the game settings on "low", this helps a little bit it seems but the lag is still there obviously.

I did a scan on virus, malware and various other things with Malwarebytes, Avast et cetera. I cleaned my computer with CCleaner.

I also installed the game on a regular HDD (old-school HDD not SSD) and even there I had the same problem.

I am kinda out of options, and have no clue what can cause this lag, or in any way how to find out what is causing it.

I would reinstall but I use professional software for my work and a lot of tools do not have a export option and thus it would take days and days for me to reinstall and get everything up and running again, and still then have a possibility to data loss.

A complete Windows reinstall would be my last resource


My question
Can anyone tell me how I can find out what is causing the lag? i.e. monitor my CPU/GPU/LAN because personally I have the feeling my LAN is spiking and this is causing lag / data transfer delay but I might be wrong.

Is there a tool which I can use, that gives me a log that I can post on tomshardware so you guys can help me out?

If you need any more information I will be more then happy to provide it to you.
I really hope someone can help me out, as I am literally unable to play the game with this lag.


Yours sincerely,


Angelo

 

[Zethran]

To me it sounds like an issue with your CPU, I have an i5 4690 and i sometimes have lag if i run to many things at once while running a high performance game. As you have an i5 even lower i would suspect its just not handling everything as well as you want it to. It may also be an issue with the HDD but i would try to monitor CPU usage as you play and see how often it goes to 100%

 

[Mithradantor]

Hi Zathran, thanks for your answer! I will run a CPU monitor but like I said, I used to play this game on even higher settings and it went as smooth as it can be, no lag at all!

I quit the game for 6 months or so, and now I cant play it anymore. They haven't made any changes to the games graphics or anything, basically nothing changed lol. Only difference is I was running Windows 10 back then and now I am running Windows 8.1 but that shouldnt matter should it?

 

[Zethran]

Hi Zathran, thanks for your answer! I will run a CPU monitor but like I said, I used to play this game on even higher settings and it went as smooth as it can be, no lag at all!

I quit the game for 6 months or so, and now I cant play it anymore. They haven't made any changes to the games graphics or anything, basically nothing changed lol. Only difference is I was running Windows 10 back then and now I am running Windows 8.1 but that shouldnt matter should it?

Do you only get the lag while playing that game or does it happen when you play anything thats fairly higher end?

 

[Mithradantor]

I can play Battlefield 1 with all settings on ultra and no problem, and that game is (I think) much more CPU/GPU load then this game. And like said, in the past I played this game without problem on even higher settings then now

I checked CPU load... it is non-stop at 100%... when I ALT+TAB out of the game the load returns to normal... when I ALT+TAB back into the game the load returns to (almost non-stop) 100%.

But isnt that normal? 100% tought that was the same as before when I had no issues at all

P.S. the lag is not constant, sometimes its there sometimes now, its just that it is more there then not lol

 

[Zethran]

I can play Battlefield 1 with all settings on ultra and no problem, and that game is (I think) much more CPU/GPU load then this game. And like said, in the past I played this game without problem on even higher settings then now

I checked CPU load... it is non-stop at 100%... when I ALT+TAB out of the game the load returns to normal... when I ALT+TAB back into the game the load returns to (almost non-stop) 100%.

But isnt that normal? 100% tought that was the same as before when I had no issues at all

P.S. the lag is not constant, sometimes its there sometimes now, its just that it is more there then not lol

You may be right then that your connection could be buggy, if its just that game it may make sense as its an MMO like game vs battelfield that has a more contained server when playing matches. I would test it out by playing some heavy stress internet games like WoW or other mmos, that or use internet stress tests and see if they find anything at fault.

 

[Mithradantor]

Think I fixed it... I reinstalled my GPU driver multiple times (which obviously didnt fix the problem).
Then I found this tool at 3d Guru called "Driver sweeper" or something like that. Ran it, booted... reinstalled GPU driver and so far everything is working perfectly fine again!?

I have no clue why it works not, and not before when I reinstalled the driver but yeah... it works lol. Ill keep testing and let you guys know for sure if this fixed it

 

[Zethran]

Think I fixed it... I reinstalled my GPU driver multiple times (which obviously didnt fix the problem).
Then I found this tool at 3d Guru called "Driver sweeper" or something like that. Ran it, booted... reinstalled GPU driver and so far everything is working perfectly fine again!?

I have no clue why it works not, and not before when I reinstalled the driver but yeah... it works lol. Ill keep testing and let you guys know for sure if this fixed it

One thing ive learned working in IT is that sometimes things just decide to work or break for no readily apparent reason. It may have been a problem with the drivers not completely uninstalling themselves when you uninstalled. GPU's can be weird with their drivers from my experience.

 

[Mithradantor]

I found out that this indeed did solve my problem BUT... everytime I reset my computer the problem comes back and I have to follow the same steps again:

1. Remove nVidia Drivers
2. Run Drive Sweeper (without, the problem wont go away)
3. Reinstall nVidia drivers
4. Reboot computer

so yeah, pritty strange and still no clue why or what is wrong lol

 

[James Mason]

Use DDU to remove your drivers, it has the option to disable automatic GPU driver updates from windows that may be causing it.

If you have graphics or driver issues, one of the most common fixes is a clean uninstall and removal of your graphics drivers.

To uninstall your drivers, first download and run Display Driver Uninstaller, and follow it's recommendations of booting into safe mode and ect.
(This is a direct download link so you don't grab the wrong version)
http://www.guru3d.com/files-get/display-driver-uninstaller-download,20.html

You'll download a compressed file called "[Guru3D.com]-DDU.zip"
Right click and choose extract.
Go into the folder and run the DDU v##.##.exe
This will extract more files to this folder.
Run Display Driver Uninstaller.exe
Choose Yes when it asks you to boot into SafeMode.
After you've rebooted into safe mode.
When DDU comes up, if it hasn't selected your GPU manufacturer (Nvidia/AMD/Intel) then choose it from the drop down list
Press the Clean and Restart option
If a window comes up asking to disable the Windows automatic installation of display drivers click yes.

After (or before removing the old drivers, just put the new ones on the desktop or somewhere handy) rebooting back into Windows, manually download the latest drivers from Nvidia or AMD, don't use auto detect, choose you GPU model and OS from the drop down lists.
Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
AMD: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
Intel: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

 

[Mithradantor]

Thanks for your reply, that is exactly what I do everytime but after a reboot the lag is back and I have to redo all those steps again to fix the lag