Annoying computer problem, minor lag spikes during games

Samhfx · 16 Aug 2016 at 21:34

I'll try and keep this short and simple.
During games sometimes I will experience brief lag, as if the game freezes for a split second, specifically 1-2 seconds. These lag spikes occur randomly and it becomes relatively annoying especially when I'm shooting someone for example in CSGO, I die because of it.
It's not a FPS problem because I get a solid 350+ FPS on CSGO and a solid 120+ FPS in Overwatch, the freezing happens in both games.

Last week I got sick of it happening so I decided to reformat my whole PC hoping it would fix the problem, luckily it did, which means it could have been a driver problem of some sort.
However the spikes have appeared again recently, they don't seem as bad but I know it's definitely there. It's like I have bad internet but that's definitely not the case, I can't figure out what the problem is.

Not sure if this is related but sometimes randomly I would hear a brief grinding noise coming form the tower, I can't figure out where the noise comes from but it could be either the PSU or HD. Which makes me think it's the HD which is the problem, is there any tests I can run to determine what is causing this? The grinding noises don't appear regularly at all, it's a hard noise to describe, like two metals plates grinding against each other.

My PC is new, I've had this for around 3-4 months now.

Efour · 16 Aug 2016 at 21:38

Story of my life

I think there's something screwy with 6700k and z170 at the moment.
I have an ASUS motherboard though.

Disconnect the HDD problem gone ?

Samhfx · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:08

Efour said:
Story of my life

I think there's something screwy with 6700k and z170 at the moment.
I have an ASUS motherboard though.

Disconnect the HDD problem gone ?

Ugh. I guess I'll have to try that. Will it damage anything? Luckily my OS is on my SSD.

Efour · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:14

no just unplug the power cable on the back of it.
As long as your game is on the SSD too it won't make the slightest difference

mattpj · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:16

I was trying help out Efour on a different thread as we seemed to be having same issues.

Mine have been a lot better since I did a fresh install on a new SSD and put windows on there.

it's 95% gone.

Only other thing I would like to try without spending the money unnecessarily is seeing if a PCIe sound card would change things.

Samhfx · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:18

mattpj said:
I was trying help out Efour on a different thread as we seemed to be having same issues.

Mine have been a lot better since I did a fresh install on a new SSD and put windows on there.

it's 95% gone.

Only other thing I would like to try without spending the money unnecessarily is seeing if a PCIe sound card would change things.

Just to up date. The minor lag spikes seem like it could be internet lag, but it's not. For example at the start of a CSGO round I r7un into a player it often spikes then, it's like quick freezes. It's so annoying man, I need this fixed.

Danny75 · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:43

Have you tried increasing the DRAM voltage by 0.05v? e.g. if at 1.35v then 1.4v. A few people have had success with latency issues this way in the past. Not sure about this present spate of latency issues but it won't hurt to test.

Samhfx · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:54

Danny75 said:
Have you tried increasing the DRAM voltage by 0.05v? e.g. if at 1.35v then 1.4v. A few people have had success with latency issues this way in the past. Not sure about this present spate of latency issues but it won't hurt to test.

I wouldn't know how to do that.

seercirra · 17 Aug 2016 at 18:19

I am guessing by lags spikes you are talking about frame rate drops, rather than latency?
If the problem resolved for a while once formatting your computer, my guess it is due to a program you have installed. Use the windows task manager performance monitor to see if your CPU use is spiking every time you are getting these lags. It could be anything from an antivirus program updating itself to malware. If this fails, then try and rollback to a previous save state using system restore and see if that helps. You can also try monitoring your hard drives to see if something is intensively accessing your game drive when these spikes happen.

mattpj · 17 Aug 2016 at 18:23

Samhfx - I need to do a list of all the things I've done. Mostly recommendations on Efour thread.

I'm no longer having spikes at all it seems. Touchwood!

New Nvidia drivers came out for 10xx series. Seemed to have helped me too.

Samhfx · 18 Aug 2016 at 20:28

mattpj said:
Samhfx - I need to do a list of all the things I've done. Mostly recommendations on Efour thread.

I'm no longer having spikes at all it seems. Touchwood!

New Nvidia drivers came out for 10xx series. Seemed to have helped me too.

Ugh, it's still happening for me. IN fact in CSGO it's happening a lot today, more than ever. I can't understand, I get 300 FPS but I get stutter lag? and my connection is fine. Please helpppppppppp

Blame · 18 Aug 2016 at 20:42

Other conflicting software?

I recently had a problem with NZXT CAM. worked fine, but after a update it screwed my overwatch. i uninstalled it and games worked fine. worth a look at

Samhfx · 18 Aug 2016 at 20:47

Blame said:
Other conflicting software?

I recently had a problem with NZXT CAM. worked fine, but after a update it screwed my overwatch. i uninstalled it and games worked fine. worth a look at

I can't understand what type of software would do this. I reformatted my PC, I don't really have much installed other than a few programs for my corsair keyboard and razer mouse.

Samhfx · 18 Aug 2016 at 21:03

This is all I have installed really...

Samhfx · 19 Aug 2016 at 21:50

I still need help with this. Sometimes video/streams freeze for a few seconds too, if that means anything.

Samhfx · 20 Aug 2016 at 04:25

I've uninstalled and installed all drivers, problem still persists :c

TWiNKLeT0Es · 20 Aug 2016 at 07:10

Run Data LifeGuard Diagnostics on the HD. Or try another SATA Cable. Sounds like a mechanical issue with the drive.

If the drive comes back clean then you could try to pinpoint the cause using LatencyMon.

[HB]Rugrat · 20 Aug 2016 at 09:29

Blame said:
Other conflicting software?

I recently had a problem with NZXT CAM. worked fine, but after a update it screwed my overwatch. i uninstalled it and games worked fine. worth a look at

Had the exact same problem and also traced it to nzxt cam software. I've also seen it reported with corsair fan controller software and some nvidia drivers. Run this:

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

And if the bars are anything but green then something you've got running is most likely the problem. Start disabling them and see if it improves.

I've also had a similar issue with a SATA cable - I thought a new SSD was duff but it was in fact the cable (didn't initially think it could be the cable, I've never had a cable fail on me!)

Samhfx · 20 Aug 2016 at 12:18

TWiNKLeT0Es said:
Run Data LifeGuard Diagnostics on the HD. Or try another SATA Cable. Sounds like a mechanical issue with the drive.

If the drive comes back clean then you could try to pinpoint the cause using LatencyMon.

Does this look normal?

Danny75 · 20 Aug 2016 at 13:39

You have MSI Live Update installed, I'd only use it to check if any new drivers are available but then download manually from website. Most importantly, never use Live Update to update BIOS.

You could also uninstall the Killer Network software if you have that installed, and just install the driver on its own. "On-Board LAN Drivers - Killer Network Driver (driver only)" from the webpage for your motherboard. ke2400w10-x64 folder. Right-click on the "Setup Information" file in that folder and choose Install.

Try uninstalling the Corsair software too.

Just to trim unnecessary/sometimes problematic stuff in the hope there's some improvement.