1. #1

    PC keeps stutter freezing

    Hey guys, I'm hoping you guys can help me troubleshoot this issue I'm having with my PC.

    My PC will have these random mini stutter-freezes for 0.5-1 seconds. During these freezes my audio freezes, mouse stops moving and if I'm moving my camera or something in WoW that stops as well and then when the freeze ends it all catches up. The freezes happen sporadically and don't appear to be linked with any particular action.

    I'm thinking it could be a RAM related issue? But I'm not sure how to effectively troubleshoot/fix this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    PC Specs:

    GPU - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
    CPU - Intel i7-6700k
    RAM - Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16 GB DDR4-2133
    Mobo - Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151
    PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750 W 80+ Gold
    HDD - WD Blue 1TB
    SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 500gb

  2. #2
    Its most likely your graphics card. Go to windows Event viewer and look for errors in the system section. The symptoms are atleast the same when your graphics card driver crashes and it automatically restarts.

  3. #3
    Immortal Evolixe's Avatar
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    First thing to do is shutting down any and all non critical programs. Anything that isn't necessary to make your computer run, at all.
    Does it happen in windows too, or only with the game active? Try once without addons on.

    If it still happens then, you could go look into your hardware.

  4. #4
    I had a similar problem which ended up being caused by Windows turning off my HDD and when it tried to access it later it would cause my computer to freeze for a second.

    If you haven't already, try going into your power plan settings and setting "turn off hard disk after" to 0.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Corroc View Post
    Its most likely your graphics card. Go to windows Event viewer and look for errors in the system section. The symptoms are atleast the same when your graphics card driver crashes and it automatically restarts.
    Hey Corroc, thanks for the reply. I've had a look in the Event Viewer, theres a few warnings under Systems log but otherwise its predominantly "information" level events in the log. I'm not 100% sure what the log looks like normally but it doesnt look like theres anything showing errors or critical events in there.

    Quote Originally Posted by Moon449 View Post
    I had a similar problem which ended up being caused by Windows turning off my HDD and when it tried to access it later it would cause my computer to freeze for a second.

    If you haven't already, try going into your power plan settings and setting "turn off hard disk after" to 0.
    I've changed it to 0 (it was on 20mins by default) but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. I don't think that'd be the cause because the freezes happen more frequently than every 20mins.

    Quote Originally Posted by Evolixe View Post
    First thing to do is shutting down any and all non critical programs. Anything that isn't necessary to make your computer run, at all.
    Does it happen in windows too, or only with the game active? Try once without addons on.

    If it still happens then, you could go look into your hardware.
    I'll try this now. Might be hard to actually notice the freezes other than moving my mouse around constantly and see if I notice it freeze but i'll try it. If it seems ok with nothing open i'll try disable all addons and test that.

    *UPDATE*
    PC still has the mini freezes with all applications closed.
    Last edited by Axphyxiate; 2019-12-30 at 05:21 AM.

  6. #6
    Well its most likely not hardware related because everything is still working fine. If there was memory issue you might get bsod. You can always try running memtest to see if there are errors in the memory.

  7. #7
    Several reasons can cause it:
    1) Throttling due to overheat - download HWMonitor and check temps
    2) Dying video chip - it usually starts with lags and then graphics driver crashes and restarts, check your system logs, use FurMark to check system stability under load
    3) HDD constantly parking heads - it's recommended to disable it, as constant parking can cause premature HDD wear, the most user-friendly way to disable it, download CrystalDiskInfo, check "Function->Startup" option, go to "Function->Advanced feature->AAM/APM Control", slide AAM and APM to "Performance" and check "Function->Advanced feature->Auto AAM/APM Adaption"
    4) HDD has bad sectors, that are slow - check SMART via CrystalDiskInfo (in case of big problems - perform backup first or even buy new HDD and perform full disk copy via DDResque), perform full surface test via Check Disk (it's enough in most cases), download Victoria HDD or HDDScan, perform full disk test
    Other common problems:
    1) Weak PSU
    2) Adware/Malware/Junkware - some program can eat whole disk bandwidth, uninstall all unnecessary software, use Malwarebytes Antimalware
    3) Viruses - use anti-virus or virus removal tool, such as Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool or DrWeb CureIt

    P.S. Sound stuttering happens on some cheap laptops, but I don't mention this possibility
    Last edited by WowIsDead64; 2019-12-30 at 07:03 AM.

    I don't care about Wow 11.0, if it's not solo-MMO. No half-measures - just perfect xpack.

  8. #8
    @WowIsDead64

    After going through the whole list without much luck I ran the anti virus scan, it found 2 random files and so I got rid of them and for the last 30mins I haven't had any issues. Not jinxing myself but it might be sorted!

    Thank you very much for your help. Crossing my fingers that I haven't just had a random lucky streak of 30mins with no mini freezes xD
    Last edited by Axphyxiate; 2019-12-30 at 01:20 PM.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Axphyxiate View Post
    @WowIsDead64

    After going through the whole list without much luck I ran the anti virus scan, it found 2 random files and so I got rid of them and for the last 30mins I haven't had any issues. Not jinxing myself but it might be sorted!

    Thank you very much for your help. Crossing my fingers that I haven't just had a random lucky streak of 30mins with no mini freezes xD
    Sound stuttering means, that either 100% CPU is used by high priority thread or 100% disk bandwidth. This can happen with cheap laptops, but shouldn't happen with your configuration.

    If you encounter this while playing Wow only, then also check obvious thing - outdated addons can cause freezes. For example Rarity always freezes my game for around 2-3 seconds right after log in.

    I don't care about Wow 11.0, if it's not solo-MMO. No half-measures - just perfect xpack.

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