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FPS drop and CPU usage drop while playing any game

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Brand new Acer laptop with Windows 7, core i5-520m, 4gb ddr3 memory, 1GB ati radeon HD mobility 5650 graphics card. While playing any game, CoD4 to WoW, i get really high FPS, then all of a sudden, any game will freeze for a second or 2, then back to high FPS. Now this laptop is only a couple of days old. It's a brand new install of Windows 7 with barely any software. Drivers are current, power management is high performance with CPU set to max 100%.

At first I thought it might be the memory loading a new area or something causing it to freeze, but I can stand still in either game and it will happen. It happens about once every 2 minutes, lasts from 1 - 3 seconds, and I opened up task manager to see if that could point me in the right direction, and I got an interesting result. The CPU usage was good (like 50-60) then all of a sudden it drops to very low usage then its back up again. This coincides with all the freezes.

So my question is, what could cause the CPU to dip like that in the middle of playing any game? I'm at a loss here, any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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A long-shot, but (if possible) you might want to try disabling speed stepping in the BIOS. However, if that does fix it contact the manufacturer because it shouldn't be doing that.

EDIT: check the temps too. Intel's allow thermal control that will lower the clock rate when getting too hot.

I'd guess either one of those or something is eating CPU cycles somewhere.

I had a problem like this on my desktop with temperature polling software. Do you have anything like HWMonitor running? As far as I know, speed stepping is usually not adjustable on a laptop.

Also, make sure you don't have windows defender/windows firewall if you have any other antivirus or firewall programs on. I had the problem with that as well.

kslghost said:
I had a problem like this on my desktop with temperature polling software. Do you have anything like HWMonitor running? As far as I know, speed stepping is usually not adjustable on a laptop.

Also, make sure you don't have windows defender/windows firewall if you have any other antivirus or firewall programs on. I had the problem with that as well.

Some notebooks, like my Dell Latitude 420, have an option to enable or disable Speed Stepping.
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Thanks for replies. I have not looked for speed-stepping, (havent even been in the BIOS yet lol) but as far as i know, it shouldnt do that when a program is running, correct? Also, in CPU-Z it shows full CPU speed w/ speedboost (2.9ghz) when no programs are running. I made sure all background processes were killed, only bare essentials.

I do not have any hardware monitoring for temps, but I doubt its heating up enough. It could happen 20 seconds into a game, and I have fan set to 100% all the time so I doubt its overheating, but I will d/l a tool and report temps tomorrow and try the other suggestions. I do have windows defender enabled, but no other antivirus/firewall programs installed.
Laptop Expert

Does your HDD activity light go on while it pauses? Perhaps some read/write operation causes the pause. I've seen it happen with a bad hard disk, as well.

Does the CPU load drop occur running Prime95 as well?

Perhaps try to disable windows defender and firewall and see if the problem is related to that? It shouldn't be, if you don't have conflicting software, but the computer may have had something preinstalled that you didn't notice.

Obviously, take necessary precautions while you disable those programs. They gave me very similar symptoms that you describe, but I did definitely have a norton program installed.

@ frozenlead, it does access the HDD but it does it all the time when playing a game. Sometimes it wont freeze when loading a new area, but I have stayed still in a game with nothing going on and it still happens, so I doubt its HDD access related. And this is a 5400rpm HDD btw, maybe I should upgrade it?

@kslghost, I dont think there is any other software than windows defender but I will definitely try it with it disabled. Seeing as I am not using it until tomorrow night, I will try then, and then report back whether the issue is still happening or not.

@ apache, what do you mean by sleep mode? I have disabled all that kind of stuff in the windows power management. It's not set to turn off hard-disk while plugged in to outlet.

Also, I checked the BIOS. Can't change anything other than passwords and boot order, so there is no CPU throttling while idle.
Laptop Expert

I would probably reinstall windows if I were you. It's a pain, but it seems like you've covered all your bases if there aren't any other programs running and your temps are fine.

I got a new game (Just Cause 2) which is CPU and GPU intensive, and yet it runs like butter. I wonder why the other games are having problems. WoW is very non CPU/GPU-intensive, yet it has this lag. Very strange indeed.

Unfortunately, my computer shipped with no re-install CDs but I did have to make restore CDs. I wonder if it's actually just Windows 7 clean install or if its an actual copy of what my PC had on it when it shipped (bloatware and such). But I guess it can't hurt it to re-install. I've done it a million times with XP but Windows 7 I am new too, so I just wanted to avoid this step. But seeing as my new game runs fine, I am thinking there is another problem here...

WoW was copied as a folder from a P4 laptop, maybe it has a config file that needs to be defaulted or something, but CoD4 was a clean install, and its annoying to play with the lag, but I am kinda used to it so I guess it doesn't really matter...

Thanks for all your input guys, it's much appreciated. :) 
Anonymous
Laptop Expert

Hey, I have a Dell studio 1749 with i5 430M and I have the same problem.

I have noticed that it usually happens when my fan slows (but that could be an effect instead of the cause) and whenever it's about to stop freezing my HDD does click.
When I check with argus monitor the CPU speed drops from 2400 MHz to like 1700 during the freeze and goes back to 2400. It's really weird and very annoying since I also have it when I'm browsing or working in office.

When I turn of speedstep my pc becomes VERY slow the fading of windows when you start explorer takes like 3 whole seconds. And I also reïnstalled windows 7. so if anyone can think of a solution i would be very gratefull because I called dell tech support like 5 times and they can't help me :o 

Thanks :) 
Anonymous
Laptop Expert

MSI GT740 i7 720qm same problem.

bumping this forum because its the only one with what appears to be the exact problem that ive been having for the past month + since i got this laptop...

L4D2 = Works
Metro2033 = Works
HL2 = random freezes with big cpu drop and solid HDD light
Starcraft original = freezes sometimes when interacting with units / starting missions, solid HDD light
WoW = VERY low average cpu ( please check this on your system ) average cpu usage of 10-15%, then 0-2% during freezes when interacting with npcs, looting, and opening inventory / achieve / other interface options, also random freezes when not doing anything.

bought this laptop for gaming and now all i want to do is quit playing games :kaola: 

check out your cpu usage while playing wow, id like to know if the low cpu usage is another common factor.

GL solving this, ive tried everything imaginable 10 times over myself, hope you have more luck :) 

I am having the same problem as well and can't figure it out. Tried new drivers, re install etc etc.

See this videos and you guys try doing the same thing and see if it helps. Its doesn't have to be camstasia, any programs that keeps your cpu active

I know this is a bit late but after reading everything I have a good suggestion, games that aren't very cpu/gpu intensive cause the cpu/gpu to drop in usage and speed because it 'knows' that it isn't needed so to speak. When playing a game that is very intensive gpu/cpu usage is high because it is working very hard to 'keep up' with the user. The less intensive the game the less work the cpu/gpu are going to be doing causing it to slow down for power saving purposes.

Found this article while trying to figure out the exact problem when I'm playing WOW. I have dual monitors so I set the Task Manager up on the second screen to watch it.

When the problem (lag, drop in FPS) occurs the WoW-64.exe process drops from about 30% down to around 3%.

Has anyone solved this yet?

I will be relentlessly searching for a solution and if I find anything I will report back.


Intel Quad Core CPU 2.66GHz
4GB Crucial Ballistic Ram
2 320Gb WD Hard Drives Striped
nVidia GeForce 9800GT
Windows Experience Index - 6.9

John
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