SSD and HDD Lag

[78jimm]

OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview x64
Version    10.0.16278 Build 16278
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6100 CPU @ 3.70 GHz
Motherboard Asus H110M-D
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    8.00 GB DDR4 2133 MHz
SSD 120 GB Kingston V400,       62 GB free, contains OS

HDD 1 TB Seagate                      4 partitions, 

Power Supply Corsair 450w

 

I built this PC two months ago, it's is my first build. From the start windows had seemed slow. Programs such as This PC or Settings take some time to open. The computer shuts down quick but takes forever to restart. The menus from right clicking icons take a long time to open and then options such as Properties take even more time to open. Performance according to the task manager is OK but the task manager itself takes a lot of time to open. CPU usage and temp both are normal. Once everything is opened and running, they all perform fine. The health of both drives is good according to CrystalDiskInfo. For antivirus I use Kaspersky Free, with or without it lag remains. Sometimes after a long usage session the lag disappears but it's back on next boot.

In the video i attached i had been using the PC for some time so the lag is minimal but imagine a few more seconds added to it.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

2017-08-30 20-19-18 - converted with Clipchamp.mp4

[Jurrunio]

OS in SSD?

[78jimm]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

OS in SSD?

Yes.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Check to see if the OS partition is 4K aligned by doing:

• Go to the Start Menu and type in the search: msinfo32.Open the program it finds
• Go to Components > Storage > Disks
• Verify the value in the entry "Partition Starting Offset" is evenly divisible by 4096

The partition shouldn't have been misaligned, but it'd be good to start here as a sanity check. If the partition isn't 4K aligned, then performance can degrade.

[78jimm]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Check to see if the OS partition is 4K aligned by doing:

• Go to the Start Menu and type in the search: msinfo32.Open the program it finds
• Go to Components > Storage > Disks
• Verify the value in the entry "Partition Starting Offset" is evenly divisible by 4096

The partition shouldn't have been misaligned, but it'd be good to start here as a sanity check. If the partition isn't 4K aligned, then performance can degrade.

Description    Disk drive
Manufacturer    (Standard disk drives)
Model    KINGSTON SUV400S37120G
Bytes/Sector    512
Media Loaded    Yes
Media Type    Fixed hard disk
Partitions    3
SCSI Bus    0
SCSI Logical Unit    0
SCSI Port    0
SCSI Target ID    0
Sectors/Track    63
Size    111.79 GB (120,031,511,040 bytes)
Total Cylinders    14,593
Total Sectors    234,436,545
Total Tracks    3,721,215
Tracks/Cylinder    255
Partition    Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size    450.00 MB (471,859,200 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    1,048,576 bytes
Partition    Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size    99.00 MB (103,809,024 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    472,907,776 bytes
Partition    Disk #0, Partition #2
Partition Size    111.24 GB (119,440,146,432 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    593,494,016 bytes
    
Description    Disk drive
Manufacturer    (Standard disk drives)
Model    ST1000DM010-2EP102
Bytes/Sector    512
Media Loaded    Yes
Media Type    Fixed hard disk
Partitions    4
SCSI Bus    1
SCSI Logical Unit    0
SCSI Port    0
SCSI Target ID    0
Sectors/Track    63
Size    931.51 GB (1,000,202,273,280 bytes)
Total Cylinders    121,601
Total Sectors    1,953,520,065
Total Tracks    31,008,255
Tracks/Cylinder    255
Partition    Disk #1, Partition #0
Partition Size    232.49 GB (249,629,245,440 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    135,266,304 bytes
Partition    Disk #1, Partition #1
Partition Size    233.06 GB (250,250,002,432 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    249,764,511,744 bytes
Partition    Disk #1, Partition #2
Partition Size    241.23 GB (259,016,097,792 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    500,014,514,176 bytes
Partition    Disk #1, Partition #3
Partition Size    224.61 GB (241,172,480,000 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset    759,030,611,968 bytes
 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Those both check out.

 

Does task manager say the disk usage is 100%?

[78jimm]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Those both check out.

 

Does task manager say the disk usage is 100%?

No. with this one chrome tab open it remains below 5%.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I recommend the doing the following (try one, if nothing unusual doesn't come up or doesn't fix it, go to the next):

• Use memtest86 to check if the RAM is bad
• Reinstall Windows (you can put anything you want to keep on the HDD)
• Pull everything hardware wise that's unnecessary to get the computer running. So this means boot with only the OS drive, keyboard, mouse, video card, and RAM. If things improve, start adding one piece of hardware back in at a time until the problem starts again.

[78jimm]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I recommend the doing the following (try one, if nothing unusual doesn't come up or doesn't fix it, go to the next):

• Use memtest86 to check if the RAM is bad
• Reinstall Windows (you can put anything you want to keep on the HDD)
• Pull everything hardware wise that's unnecessary to get the computer running. So this means boot with only the OS drive, keyboard, mouse, video card, and RAM. If things improve, start adding one piece of hardware back in at a time until the problem starts again.

I am in the windows insider program so on every new weekly update windows re-installs.

I've already tried without the HDD. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

13 minutes ago, 78jimm said:

I am in the windows insider program so on every new weekly update windows re-installs.

I've already tried without the HDD. 

Then run memtest.

[78jimm]

20 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Then run memtest.

It ran with just one core and showed DDR3 instead of DDR4. But the it found no errors after one pass.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, 78jimm said:

It ran with just one core and showed DDR3 instead of DDR4. But the it found no errors after one pass.

I'm almost certain a complete run of memtest on 8GB of RAM takes more than 20 minutes to complete.

 

However one pass usually isn't enough for confidence. It's recommended to leave it on at least overnight.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Also does this happen even on an absolutely fresh Windows install or after you've installed everything?

[78jimm]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Also does this happen even on an absolutely fresh Windows install or after you've installed everything?

Yes it does.

And i can't leave the pc on over night, we have constant power outages where i live.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, 78jimm said:

Yes it does.

And i can't leave the pc on over night, we have constant power outages where i live.

Try installing Linux and see if the issue persists. If even Linux has trouble, your hardware is borked.

 

(though your hardware is probably borked anyways if a fresh install of Windows has problems)

[78jimm]

One thing forgot to mention is the mouse pointer sometimes becomes really laggy, like slow fps game. This occurs randomly about once a week and lasts about 10 seconds.

[78jimm]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Try installing Linux and see if the issue persists. If even Linux has trouble, your hardware is borked.

 

(though your hardware is probably borked anyways if a fresh install of Windows has problems)

Everything is still under warranty but i have to pinpoint the problem.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, 78jimm said:

Everything is still under warranty but i have to pinpoint the problem.

Then you have to start cutting the problem in half.

• Put the storage in another known working computer and verify they perform fine
• Put the RAM in another known working computer and verify it performs fine
• Put the CPU in another known working computer and verify it performs fine
• etc.

 

You could also try Prime95 as a torture test on the CPU to make sure it's operating as it should, but like memtest, that requires at least an overnight run to gain enough confidence.

[78jimm]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Then you have to start cutting the problem in half.

• Put the storage in another known working computer and verify they perform fine
• Put the RAM in another known working computer and verify it performs fine
• Put the CPU in another known working computer and verify it performs fine
• etc.

 

You could also try Prime95 as a torture test on the CPU to make sure it's operating as it should, but like memtest, that requires at least an overnight run to gain enough confidence.

Can't do any of those. I don't have another computer or other parts and i don't know anyone that uses a desktop.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, 78jimm said:

Can't do any of those. I don't have another computer or other parts and i don't know anyone that uses a desktop.

Then you're going to have to start a painful process of replacing each component one by one. You can start with the more painless items to replace like RAM and OS drive, but if that doesn't work, then go with the motherboard, then the CPU.

[78jimm]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Then you're going to have to start a painful process of replacing each component one by one. You can start with the more painless items to replace like RAM and OS drive, but if that doesn't work, then go with the motherboard, then the CPU.

Yeah it take a couple of years to save enough for 4 gigs of ram. I am a student and disabled at that. Wanted a gaming pc. I was saving for a graphics card.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, 78jimm said:

Yeah it take a couple of years to save enough for 4 gigs of ram. I am a student and disabled at that. Wanted a gaming pc. I was saving for a graphics card.

If you want to delay the nuclear option, you must

• Run memtest as long as possible to verify the memory is fine
• Run Prime95 as long as possible to verify the CPU is fine
• Install Linux to verify it's not Windows (also have you tried the regular build and not the Insider ones? You're not supposed to use Insider builds as your daily OS)

And just because it's nagging at me that I didn't mention it:

• You may be excessively wearing out the SSD with the constant reinstalls
• If the SSD is full, its performance will degrade significantly.

[78jimm]

34 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

If you want to delay the nuclear option, you must

• Run memtest as long as possible to verify the memory is fine
• Run Prime95 as long as possible to verify the CPU is fine
• Install Linux to verify it's not Windows (also have you tried the regular build and not the Insider ones? You're not supposed to use Insider builds as your daily OS)

And just because it's nagging at me that I didn't mention it:

• You may be excessively wearing out the SSD with the constant reinstalls
• If the SSD is full, its performance will degrade significantly.

It has gone through about ten updates. I haven't let it go below 45 GB.

I'll try and run memtest fully.

Thank you for all your help.

[Carfax83]

Go into your UEFI and make sure that the SSD and HDD are using AHCI and not IDE, and that aggressive link power management is disabled.

[78jimm]

35 minutes ago, Carfax83 said:

Go into your UEFI and make sure that the SSD and HDD are using AHCI and not IDE, and that aggressive link power management is disabled.

Neither of those options are available in my PCH Storage Configuration.