Weird FPS/stutter problems

[boazz]

Dear all,

I have had the following PC for a few months now:
HP Pavilion Gaming TG01-2320nd

Normally I used to build my own stuff but in this case it was cheaper to buy a pre-built one so that’s why. Now I have a bit of a strange problem.

Every time I start up the PC and start a game the FPS behaviour is very weird. Sometimes the fps periodic goes high some seconds low and sometimes the ‘fps counter’ shows permanently high fps but the gameplay is jerky. When I restart the PC and do everything the same again, gameplay is fine and fps is high as you would expect with the specs.

I tried the following things:
-Check the specs with the game (there are not many games that would not run with this hardware)
-Set power plan to full power + disable fast boot
-Full-screen optimization disable
-Hardware check via cmd or memtest tools etc
-Drivers updates
-Drivers roll back
-Clean Windows install
-Temperatures checked
-Hardware does not run permanently at 100% either
-Games are on an SSD
-Change power adapter
-Change hdmi cable
etc etc

Anyone have any idea/fix for this very irritating problem? 8)7

Thanks in advance, Boaz

[phillpower2]

HP Pavilion Gaming TG01-2320nd

HP and others should be banned from labelling this type of computer as “gaming” they are basically a notebook motherboard in a desktop chassis and any add on GPU has to be dumbed down because the notebook type power supply can`t produce the required output that a full blown GPU needs.

They also cheap out on the RAM and use a single 16GB stick rather that two Xs 8GB sticks, this means that the RAM can only work in single channel rather than dual channel meaning that you are losing 50% of the RAMs potential performance.

You don`t mention what games you are playing, if online, you need to factor in the Internet connection, wireless gaming online is the pits so a LAN connection is a must.

[boazz]

Well thats not very fun to hear but yeah

Ram problem should not really be a problem as I added an additional 16gb stick. (yes same voltage, timings and speed etc) I shouldve mentioned that.
I also use LAN connection so that shouldnt be the issue.

Could you give me any information on how to actually fix/try to fix the problem?

[boazz]

Addition:
I personally think it is weird that it only occurs pre reboot, after the reboot everything (also fairly heavy demanding games) run spotlessly.

[phillpower2]

I personally think it is weird that it only occurs pre reboot, after the reboot everything (also fairly heavy demanding games) run spotlessly.

For clarity by pre reboot do you mean that you choose the Restart option rather than Shutdown.

RAM info acknowledged and a wise decision made by upgrading.

Could you give me any information on how to actually fix/try to fix the problem?

Have an idea based on the additional info that you provided but do need the answer to the above question first.

[boazz]

I will type out the full process for clarity!

Start up PC from 0 → Start up game (doesnt matter if immediately or after working for 2 hours etc) → stuttering/fps problems → restart pc with indeed restart option and not shutdown and start again → problems solved

If it could help I could also try to shut down the pc and start it up and see what that does

[phillpower2]

Thanks for clarifying (y)

Explanation of what I suspect is going on;

What happens from a cold boot, Windows has to load all of the system drivers and unfortunately while doing so it gets slowed down by bloatware that the likes of HP and Dell etc preinstall on the computer, this not the case with a Restart as all the system drivers and bloatware have already been loaded from the initial cold boot.

Have only ever purchased brand name notebooks and the first things that I have always done is format the HDD/SSD and reinstall Windows on it`s own partition, faster boot times, easier to back up and better protected from data corruption and malware attack.

[boazz]

Hmm sounds logical.
One question, this problem also occurs after starting up the pc and like working on it or just watching a movie for a couple of hours and then start the game. Wouldnt this bloatware than be fully loaded already too?
Would it help just uninstalling all the bloatware or would you recommend trying the clean install (Got a lot of programs and data I have to shift around but not impossible)

Lastly, thanks a lot for helping me man! Its much appreciated.

[phillpower2]

Don`t forget that game any specific drivers need to be installed as well and they are not automatically loaded from a cold boot.

Easiest thing that you can do is to try a Windows 10 clean boot, see steps here

Disable all non essentials then do a full shutdown, wait a moment or two, boot the computer and see how long it takes to boot into Windows, if faster, re enable some of your most used programs a couple at a time, restart and repeat until you find any program/s that cause the issue.

If no improvement at all, post a Speccy url for us;

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s.

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.

In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.

Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.

[boazz]

Alright so I did the clean boot.
Unfortunately within the first clean boot (everything disabled apart from windows processes) I still encounter the same problem. Which makes a further debug with manually adding programs redundant right?

Speccy link:

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/rrnqphB3l3H0kOF1PdbQOtb

[phillpower2]

Yes, no point in doing the rest of the procedure and have to hold my hands up and confess to an oversight on my behalf.

-Games are on an SSD

Your games being on a separate device means that the games drivers need to be loaded separately as well, back to this later if needs be.

Looking at Speccy;

Antivirus
Windows Defender
Antivirus: Disabled
Virus Signature Database: Up to date
[COLOR=rgb(226, 80, 65)]AVG Antivirus
Antivirus: Enabled
Virus Signature Database: Up to date

It is between AVG and Norton as to which is the worst for slowing down a computer and causing problems in general, you don`t need it so suggest you uninstall it to see if after a restart things are any better, see canned info below;

Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and 11 come with an improved Windows Defender, it offers the same real-time anti-virus/anti-malware protection as Microsoft Security Essentials. Windows Defender also shares the same malware signature definitions as Microsoft Security Essentials, and Forefront Endpoint Protection. Technically, Microsoft Security Essentials has not been renamed Windows Defender, or combined with it in Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.

[COLOR=rgb(226, 80, 65)]If any AV product that you have is a paid for version you should always make sure that you have a copy of the product key kept somewhere safe just in case you ever wish to reinstall it.

How to uninstall AVG here

once any other AV has been correctly uninstalled, check to see if Windows Defender has auto enabled and allow it to update and carry out a full scan of your computer.

Once done, restart, test by using the computer as you normally, post back with an update when you are ready.

If the above does not help you are looking at having to clean install Windows to get rid of all the HP bloatware talking of which, take a look at all the crap under Scheduler in Speccy, most of those will check for updates as soon as an internet connection is detected and that will for sure cause poor performance.

When you post an update after doing the above, can you let us know if the games that you have issues with are online games.

[COLOR=rgb(44, 130, 201)]NB: The additional storage devices, additional screen + the other devices that you have plugged in will impact performance and being that you only have the equivalent of a notebook power supply you need to be careful not to overload the system.[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]

[boazz]

I uninstalled AVG didnt know the windows defender was good enough so thanks for that! It unfortunately did nothing for the issue

The clean install will take a bit longer as I will have a busy upcoming week… I will update as soon as ive done it.

The games I play are indeed online games and are indeed installed on a separate SSD.

Peripherals are mostly connected to a separately powered USB hub. Problem also occurred before the extra SSD.

[phillpower2]

No problem about when you can get to the clean install Windows but please see my canned info below;
Once Windows has been clean installed you must then install first the chipset drivers, then the storage/SATA drivers and third the graphics drivers, the drivers can either come from a disk provided by the motherboard manufacturer or downloaded from the site and saved to a flash drive etc, this is a must and Windows should not be allowed to check for updates before it has been done as more often than not Windows installs the wrong drivers or in the incorrect order and this can cause all sorts of problems.

Something for you to do before the clean install;

See how your present set up handles video when not online gaming;

Use the free versions at the following links;

Stress test your GPU with Furmark

Check your FPS etc with SUPERPOSITION

[boazz]

Seems like there are no problems with the benchmarking

[phillpower2]

Meaning that there is nothing wrong with your hardware, drivers or your settings.

The internet connection is the most likely source of the problem.