HDD causing game stutter (probably)

[incorefoysal]

Hi, I am using a "Samsung HD103SJ" HDD 1TB capacity and 7200RPM. It is running in AHCI mode.

 

I mainly play online multiplayer games like League of Legend [LOL] and Counter Strike Global Offensive [CSGO]. I recently seem to be facing huge amount of stutters every now and then on LOL and slight stutter very occasionally on CSGO.

 

I have cleaned my whole case inside and out, replaced CPU thermal paste and also cleaned the GPU fan. None of them fixed the issue.After some trail and error i believe the issue is caused by my almost 4 years old HDD. I left Win 8.1 task manager running and whenever i get a stutter in LOL i minimize and find that disk performance is at peak 100%. I tried lowering all the graphics setting to the very minimum and also the resolution to 1280x720. Nothing seemed to fix the issue.

 

I am posting here to figure out if there is any way to confirm that it indeed is my HDD that is causing these stutters. Some specific tests that i can run to confirm the issue.

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

My Specs:

Intel i5 2nd Gen

Gigabyte Mobo

2x2GB Ram

AMD 5850 GPU

[soaringchicken]

Theres a command in-game that lets you monitor cpu/gpu/probably even hdd levels in game... You could try looking at that... I doubt it's a hdd problem though because they barely do anything once the level is loaded

[Frankie]

If you suspect HDD, just download Crystal Disk Info and check it out

[DevilishBooster]

 

Hi, I am using a "Samsung HD103SJ" HDD 1TB capacity and 7200RPM. It is running in AHCI mode.

 

I mainly play online multiplayer games like League of Legend [LOL] and Counter Strike Global Offensive [CSGO]. I recently seem to be facing huge amount of stutters every now and then on LOL and slight stutter very occasionally on CSGO.

 

I have cleaned my whole case inside and out, replaced CPU thermal paste and also cleaned the GPU fan. None of them fixed the issue.After some trail and error i believe the issue is caused by my almost 4 years old HDD. I left Win 8.1 task manager running and whenever i get a stutter in LOL i minimize and find that disk performance is at peak 100%. I tried lowering all the graphics setting to the very minimum and also the resolution to 1280x720. Nothing seemed to fix the issue.

 

I am posting here to figure out if there is any way to confirm that it indeed is my HDD that is causing these stutters. Some specific tests that i can run to confirm the issue.

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

My Specs:

Intel i5 2nd Gen

Gigabyte Mobo

2x2GB Ram

AMD 5850 GPU

 

Download HDTune and run both the benchmarking and error test. The error test will probably take several hours.

[incorefoysal]

Theres a command in-game that lets you monitor cpu/gpu/probably even hdd levels in game... You could try looking at that... I doubt it's a hdd problem though because they barely do anything once the level is loaded

Can you kindly share the command? I face the problem mainly in LOL. It now to a such extent that the game is barely playable.

On a side note i can rub Far Cry 3 at 1280x720 with visual settings at low and the game runs much quite well. Shocking how LOL is the main problem.

[incorefoysal]

If you suspect HDD, just download Crystal Disk Info and check it out

 

 

Download HDTune and run both the benchmarking and error test. The error test will probably take several hours.

 

Okay I will run these and post update

[soaringchicken]

Can you kindly share the command? I face the problem mainly in LOL. It now to a such extent that the game is barely playable.

On a side note i can rub Far Cry 3 at 1280x720 with visual settings at low and the game runs much quite well. Shocking how LOL is the main problem.

Ahhh i don't know it by heart so you'll have to look it up

[incorefoysal]

If you suspect HDD, just download Crystal Disk Info and check it out

I installed Crystal Disk Info. I am a little bit confused. What a, I supposed to be doing with this tool or what should i look for?

[Frankie]

I installed Crystal Disk Info. I am a little bit confused. What a, I supposed to be doing with this tool or what should i look for?

 

It shows you S.M.A.R.T. info about your HDD. Important is health status what does it say ?

 

[incorefoysal]

It shows you S.M.A.R.T. info about your HDD. Important is health status what does it say ?

It shows Good

[incorefoysal]

Download HDTune and run both the benchmarking and error test. The error test will probably take several hours.

Error test show all sectors as green using HD Tune

[LogicalDrm]

I have had same drive since 2012 and I have never encountered such behaviour. How much free space you have on drive and how much of pagefile you have set for it? Also any scan performed in background like virus scan, indexing etc. can cause peaks on usage.

[Captain_WD]

 

Hi, I am using a "Samsung HD103SJ" HDD 1TB capacity and 7200RPM. It is running in AHCI mode.

 

I mainly play online multiplayer games like League of Legend [LOL] and Counter Strike Global Offensive [CSGO]. I recently seem to be facing huge amount of stutters every now and then on LOL and slight stutter very occasionally on CSGO.

 

I have cleaned my whole case inside and out, replaced CPU thermal paste and also cleaned the GPU fan. None of them fixed the issue.After some trail and error i believe the issue is caused by my almost 4 years old HDD. I left Win 8.1 task manager running and whenever i get a stutter in LOL i minimize and find that disk performance is at peak 100%. I tried lowering all the graphics setting to the very minimum and also the resolution to 1280x720. Nothing seemed to fix the issue.

 

I am posting here to figure out if there is any way to confirm that it indeed is my HDD that is causing these stutters. Some specific tests that i can run to confirm the issue.

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

My Specs:

Intel i5 2nd Gen

Gigabyte Mobo

2x2GB Ram

AMD 5850 GPU

 

 

 

Hey incorefoysal,

 

Games don't rely on storage for anything except for their loading times. FPS and graphics should stay unaffected regardless of what HDD you are using. 

I would suggest that you try running those games without any background programs and see if the stutters occur again (I see that you have a rather small amount of RAM for multitasking and gaming).

Also, you can check your system's resource monitor and see if anything is bottlenecking your system (does anything hit100% during those stutters - GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD). 

I would suggest getting the check tool provided by your HDD's manufacturer and check its health with it just to be sure the drive is healthy and OK to use.

 

Captain_WD.

[incorefoysal]

I have had same drive since 2012 and I have never encountered such behaviour. How much free space you have on drive and how much of pagefile you have set for it? Also any scan performed in background like virus scan, indexing etc. can cause peaks on usage.

Well i have around 10% free space. I did perform complete de-fragmentation but it did not help. I also shifted my LOL game from one drive to another, reinstall windows. None of them helped.

I also turn off my antivirus and other programs when i play the game. The only thing that runs in background is Garena Client and Skype.

However what is that paging thing? I am not sure. Kindly elaborate.

Thank You

[incorefoysal]

 

Hey incorefoysal,

 

Games don't rely on storage for anything except for their loading times. FPS and graphics should stay unaffected regardless of what HDD you are using. 

I would suggest that you try running those games without any background programs and see if the stutters occur again (I see that you have a rather small amount of RAM for multitasking and gaming).

Also, you can check your system's resource monitor and see if anything is bottlenecking your system (does anything hit100% during those stutters - GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD). 

I would suggest getting the check tool provided by your HDD's manufacturer and check its health with it just to be sure the drive is healthy and OK to use.

 

Captain_WD.

 

I kept windows task manager of win8.1 on in the background and after the stutter/hickups i minimize the game. The CPU/RAM utilization graph never crosses 75%. But the HDD is at 100%.

And generally my system is extremely slow. I reinstalled windows, degragged the HDD, nothing improves it. 

[LogicalDrm]

Well i have around 10% free space. I did perform complete de-fragmentation but it did not help. I also shifted my LOL game from one drive to another, reinstall windows. None of them helped.

I also turn off my antivirus and other programs when i play the game. The only thing that runs in background is Garena Client and Skype.

However what is that paging thing? I am not sure. Kindly elaborate.

Thank You

 

Pagefile or virtual memory is thing on your drive (default same as OS) which some programs use like RAM. Also windows uses it when every RAM runs out. You should try both increasing its size or move it to another drive and see if that has effect.

 

Worst case here is that your drive is starting to die.

[Captain_WD]

I kept windows task manager of win8.1 on in the background and after the stutter/hickups i minimize the game. The CPU/RAM utilization graph never crosses 75%. But the HDD is at 100%.

And generally my system is extremely slow. I reinstalled windows, degragged the HDD, nothing improves it. 

 

 

@LoGiCalDrm's suggestion is good. I could add to try the drive on a different computer and see if it's working slow. Try bench-marking it to see what results it will show. Here's Hitachi's official guide on how to check your drive for errors before applying for RMA: http://www.hgst.com/support/downloads#DFT. I would follow those steps to see if there's an actual problem with the drive.

 

Captain_WD.