Random lag spikes in every game.

Fireprufe15

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Nov 13, 2011
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My computer isn't extremely good, but it isn't horrible either. This problem came out of nowhere. A game would run fine, at around 30-35 FPS and then suddenly drop down to a crawl of 3 FPS. After staying there for a minute or so, it would jump back up to normal and stay there for a while. It's in normal more than in lag-mode, luckily, but the problem is that the lag spikes are extremely annoying.

I have no idea what could be causing this. Any suggestions?

Edit: Sorry for the incomplete post. Here's my hardware specs:

-CPU: Intel i5 650 3.2 ghz
-GPU: Nvidia GTS250(drivers are updated, update did not fix problem)
-RAM: 4 GB
-OS: Win 7 Proffesional 64 bit
-Monitor: 1 Monitor 1920x1080, another 1600x900 (unplugging second monitor does not stop problem)

It is important to note that the games worked perfectly fine up until a few days ago, and I did not make any changes to my PC since then.

Thanks for any help!

 
Solution


1. Well first if your on steam check the cache on all of your games or reinstall the games if not (remembering to copy the save game files)

2. See if you can install an older driver to see if that will resolve your issue

3. The GPU could be overheating

4. Your ram could be the issue, try and take the sticks out and re-insert them

5. De-fragment your Hard Drive

Fireprufe15

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Nov 13, 2011
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I have a GTS 250. And yes, I updated the drivers a day ago, thinking that that might fix the problem (it didn't). Also these are games that ran flawlessly just a while ago.
 

NerdyComputerGuy

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1. Well first if your on steam check the cache on all of your games or reinstall the games if not (remembering to copy the save game files)

2. See if you can install an older driver to see if that will resolve your issue

3. The GPU could be overheating

4. Your ram could be the issue, try and take the sticks out and re-insert them

5. De-fragment your Hard Drive

 
Solution

Fireprufe15

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Nov 13, 2011
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1. It's doing this in all games. Some of them freshly installed, some of them have been here for years. Cache checks out on steam games.
2. I've tried multiple drivers
3. I thought that might be the problem, but I've tried many solutions and cannot get my graphics card lower than the temperature it currently has. It's also been running at those temps for way longer than the problem has been appearing.
4. Tried, didn't work. I took the whole PC apart and put it back together in the hopes of solving the problem.
5. 0% fragmentation.
 

Fireprufe15

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Nov 13, 2011
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Clean of viruses, res change does nothing, and no, not all the games are internet related. Also, this card runs games just fine, as I said most modern games it pumps out an okayish 30-40 FPS at medium settings. And it never had any lag spikes like this until the problem started.
 

NerdyComputerGuy

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This leads me to believe that your GPU could be just playing up, if you have vysnc on try and turn it off to see if this will resolve the issue but the probem could be caused by the GPU, the ram or even the Power Supply in most cases, if you have spare ram sticks you could try them, if you had a spare PSU, you could try that but in the unlikely case that you have another GT 250 to change there isn't really a solution

It's most likely just one of your components playing up