ping spike for 4~5 seconds every 10 minutes exactly

[orchidforest]

Hello hello~

I have a bit of an odd problem. For the past few weeks, I have been having some very short lag spikes on which I though were at random intervals but after a bit of investigation with pingplotter I realized that those lag spike (last about 4 to 5 seconds) were happening at the exact same interval every 10 minutes.

The issue only happens on my laptop which has a Intel dual band wireless-AC 7260. I have tried updating my drivers and all that basic stuff but with no results so far.

Does anybody know or might have a clue to what could be causing this and if not an idea to what I should be trying to fix those spikes?

I am on windows 10 and the laptop is somewhat new but I didn't have that problem a few weeks ago. Feel free to ask if you need more information to help me with my issue! Thank you very much and have a great day~

 

[Ralston18]

With that sort of consistency (i.e., 10 minutes) you have some choices:

1) Look at the router logs

2) Look at the Windows logs

3) Run perfmon /res on the laptop and see what happens at the "10 minute" mark. Could be some app starting up, something phoning home, etc.
Several tabs to watch.

4) Check your environment for signs of some interference - cannot think of anything that would perhaps be a 10 minute event but who knows what someone may have set up that is, in turn, messing with the channel you are on. Look for other networks on the same channel.

That all said - please remember to run your AV software. Could be something slipped in.....

 

[orchidforest]

thank you for your answer. I completely reformatted the computer to be sure it wasn't an issue from an existing program but I still have the same problem even after a fresh windows install. Does this automatically mean it's an hardware/environment issue?

 

[Ralston18]

At this point it would be pretty much a guess....

I think software is somewhat more likely to be the problem because hardware issues per se are probably not so consistent.

However, trying to stay open-minded I went to Intel's website - here:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/wireless/n7260

Did not note anything specific but suggest you take a look at the site and maybe something there will trigger some additional ideas for you.

You said the lag spike only happens on the laptop. But what other wireless devices, if any, do you have? Router make and model would be good to know.

Do you have any "10 minute" settings to reduce power consumption? Launch a backup, call a cloud site? Maybe a default value somewhere?
Again, the router logs and the performance monitor are a tool that you can use. Any log events that correspond with the lag spikes could prove meaningful.

Environmental interference would be my next consideration.

Maybe your wireless is okay but someone else on your ISP service lines is doing some sort of regular, timed, upload or download. Cannot see any such activities being just 4 - 5 seconds. Anyway all the bandwidth is grabbed and everyone waits. Maybe some security or backup system sending out data. Especially if the lags occur 24 x 7. And on your wireless frequency, channel, etc.

What wireless frequency, channels, and band are you using? Do you have InSSIDer or Net Spot? Might be useful to know what other wireless networks are in your area.

Run ping plotter for a minute or so before, during, and after an expected lag spike. Then look at the logs for that time period. Look for programs, processes, anything that is consistently logged around the spike time.

That all said: "Brute force" aka reformating and reinstalling Windows 10 did not resolve the problem although that might have done so with some mis-configuration or bug being undone.

Therefore, for now, just try to get more information about the lag spikes.

All a bit tedious but you have put up with it for a few weeks. A few more days checking things may pay off.

 

[orchidforest]

Hi~ thanks for the answer again.

I have another older laptop, an ipad and two phones connected to this network. I've ran pingplotter on both the ipad and the other computer and they didn't have those spikes. The router is an airport extreme. I've tried switching the channels for 2.4 around but it didn't seem to have changed anything. I tried looking on all the tabs with perfmon /res to see if anything could pop up when the spikes happen but again nothing seemed to catch my attention.

I will try to install InSSIDer or Net Spot and see if I come up with any results. I will try to connect to another WiFi as well to see if I have the same issue on someone else's network.

I can't thank you enough for your time, it's very much appreciated!

 

[George Phillips]

The best way to figure out what program or service is causing the latency spike is to use Resource Manager. Pay close attention whenever there is a spike and check what program or service is running as shown in the RM that can be opened in Task Manager's Performance tab.

 

[orchidforest]

I have been monitoring the resource monitor for the past few days and haven't been able to find anything during the time of those spikes. Is there any way to see some sort of logs from the Resource Monitor? Because everything happens really fast, the spikes only happens for about 3 seconds.

I also reformatted the computer yesterday but I still have the issue. Also tested outside of home on another network, same thing. I'm a little bit confused...

edit : screenshot of pingplotter https://gyazo.com/feab04f1c0fe6c88980c677023b2a875

 

[ooshaku]

Hi Orchidforest,

I have the exact same issue as you do. I finally resolved my problem by using the WLAN Optimizer.

http://www.martin-majowski.de/wlanoptimizer/

I had to set Background Scan OFF and Streaming mode ON to get it to work.