# [SOLVED] Can a bad HDD cause game and general lag/stuttering?



## AciPunkEx

Ok so basically Ive built a new PC, well I say new, its mostly all second hand components as it was on a very tight budget, specs are as follows..

Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit

i5 2500 @3.3ghz/3.7ghz
PNY GTX 580 1.5gb
4gb DDR3 Ram
Gigabyte H61M-USB (New)
Fractal Tesla 650w PSU (New)
250gb 7200rpm HDD
120GB 5400rpm HDD

1440x900 Res

First of all some games run perfectly fine. Ive maxed out skyrim with mods and it still runs silky smooth. Guild wars 2 is fine, as is Assassins creed 4.

However ive noticed choppiness in battlefield 3 and 4. Ive tried changing drivers, graphics, installing on different HDD'S, nothing seems to fix it.

I then noticed windows taking longer and longer to load things up. Hanging on windows opening, and freezing when trying to close down programs. Task manager sometimes not even being able to shut down programs.

Ive just got Borderlands Pre Sequal on steam, and whilst battlefield stutter regularly, but at different intervals. Borderlands Pre Sequal seems to be consistant, stutter for lets say a second for every 2.

Is it possible my second hand hard drives are failing and on their way out, causing certain games to stutter and freeze, or could this be software related?

Ive tried benchmarking the cpu and gpu and memtesting, all passed after running for a night each.

I doubt its the mobo or psu as their new.

Ive checked to see if its RAM usage and it seems to be staying under 3.5gb in most games is stutters on.

Ive also tried unparking cpu cores and changng pre rendered frames in nvidia control panel to no avail.

Please help im at a loss here!

Thanks!


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## AciPunkEx

Oh also ive set up a custom fan profile on the 580, never exceeds 74c.

CPU never exceeds 60c.


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## thrasherht

A bad drive could absolutely cause lag. If the drive stops reading quickly for a second or two, you would feel that in games.
Seems like you have some pretty old drives, might be worth looking into getting a newer drive soon.

Also try running a hard drive benching software like HD tune, that might give some clues about the drives performance under load.


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## southernyankey1970

Run a good Defrag Utility and back up those old Hdd's ASAP. I've been using Diskeeper for years on my Hdd's and it makes a difference.You might be better off upgrading to a Boot SSD and a 7200 rpm1 Tb Hdd. I'm sure that Black Friday is going to be chock full of great deals this year on storage! SSD's are getting cheaper by the hour, it seems.


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## Slinkey123

Once the game is loaded into the RAM it shouldn't really make a difference as the game will only reach out to the HDD if your RAM is maxed out. With most new games especially BF4 you will notice stutters with 4GB RAM or less with high texture settings. When I had 4GB of RAM i needed to knock the texture settings down to medium to stop stuttering.

Hope this helps


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## warr10r

I had a dodgy 160GB HDD in my PC once that caused all the games installed on it to stutter as you are describing it. Only once I replaced the drive did it stop. It wasn't my primary drive though.

Install Windows on a totally different drive and play a game without your other hard drives plugged in. Is it smooth then?

I also recommend HD Tune as thrasherht suggests.


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## AciPunkEx

Thanks for all the responses guys!

@thrasherht

I muted my sound and actually, the hard drive sounds like its almost jittering in time to the in game stuttering so i think you may be right.

@Slinkey123

I did think maybe it was a memory issue, but the game does say 4gb minimum. Ive tried the game on lowest possible settings with the same results, ive also ran BF3 on an older set up with 4gb ram on ultra with no issues =/

@warr10r

I shall give that a go, but seeing as i think it may be both drives at fault it would be hard to get fair results >_<

Seems like I'll have to fork out for a new SSD boot and HDD like southernyankey1970 suggested, didnt wanna have to spend more money as just moved apartment but it does seem to be heading towards the old HDD's being at fault.


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## Slinkey123

OK yeah if its happening on lowest settings then i'd definitely say there's something wrong with the HDD. Save your pennies and get yourself an SSD







just not a second hand one!


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## BinaryDemon

Just my guess based off what you described but:

I would think if you have no issues with Skyrim, then it's not the harddrive since that's an open world game and must stream data off the hard drive as needed. Games like BF3/BF4 probably load all the world data at the start of the match and don't require much access to the HDD during play.


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## AciPunkEx

Hmm, gonna make one last effort and completely wipe my primary drive, install windows 7 instead, install the latest drivers and then install and try again just the games im having problems with. Gonna disconnect the other drive in the mean time. I'll report back with my results later!


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## AciPunkEx

Solved the issue. Im a little embarassed but hey, somethings you just never expect.

Basically ive moved into a new apartment, whilst waiting for broadband to be installed, i'd been tethering off my phone.

Broadbands finally gone on, but my PC doesnt have wireless and is in another room so i carried on tethering but connected my phone to the router using wifi and tethered that connection.

Little did i know the impact it would have on not just the internet, but my computer as a whole.

Even offline games were affected.

I disconnected my phone, and every game now works flawlessly. Just moved PC to living room and hooked up and ethernet cable.

Thanks for the help, peace!~ xD


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## Slinkey123

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AciPunkEx*
> 
> Solved the issue. Im a little embarassed but hey, somethings you just never expect.
> 
> Basically ive moved into a new apartment, whilst waiting for broadband to be installed, i'd been tethering off my phone.
> 
> Broadbands finally gone on, but my PC doesnt have wireless and is in another room so i carried on tethering but connected my phone to the router using wifi and tethered that connection.
> 
> Little did i know the impact it would have on not just the internet, but my computer as a whole.
> 
> Even offline games were affected.
> 
> I disconnected my phone, and every game now works flawlessly. Just moved PC to living room and hooked up and ethernet cable.
> 
> Thanks for the help, peace!~ xD


Glad you sorted it! Yep networking can cause all sorts of strange issues. I would imagine there would have been some kind of IP conflict somewhere.


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