Laptop hangs briefly but periodically while gaming

[RocketsFan]

Hi:

I've noticed something strange while playing various games. My laptop will hang briefly (2-3 seconds) every so often while I play games. It's running fine, hangs briefly, then continues going fine again for a few minutes, repeats.

I seem to notice it most when I activate something in a game or trigger an encounter with something (say for example triggering an interaction with an NPC).

I have noticed this in three completely random games so far.

Killing Floor (Steam)
Diablo 3 Beta
Warcraft III & Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

I have switchable graphics on the laptop and all games are set to "High Performance". Games look spectacular and run fine for the most part minus the hang.

I originally thought it was a memory issue but I just upgraded to 8GB from 4 and just installed Killing Floor (not a taxing game exactly...) and I am getting the hangs in this game.

Computer specs are as follows:

Acer 7750G-6662
i5 2430M 2.4 GHz
Switchable Graphics - 2GB AMD Radeon HD 6650M
8GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium x64

 

[RocketsFan]

No love...

 

[Lak3rsFan]

I'm in the same predicament..same laptop

 

[Lak3rsFan]

Also for me to note..

Custom setup BIOS 1.17 for switchable Gfx
LeshCat Drivers

 

[RocketsFan]

Linking these two threads together...

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/174004-computer-hangs-while-gaming.html

 

[M1GU31]

try defraging the hard drive, Also can you open up task manger and show me all the programs running so I can take a look at it and give some suggestions on whats needed and unneeded to run 24/7. Having a lot of services open can make it hiccup.So take a screen shot or 2 and show me whats showing up in task manger. Here is a tutorial if your unsure how to take a screenshot then upload it please (click the blue link) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9717-screenshot-paint.html

 

[Lak3rsFan]

This only started happening a few days ago..before it was perfect

Only programs I run are AIM and WoW, I use AIM to voice chat with my friend..

I even disable my AV..no works

 

[event3horizon]

Run this and check if you have latency problems which may be caused by a certain driver

DPC Latency Checker

 

[M1GU31]

Can I still look at the process running in task manger if you don't mind. I just want to make sure your not running something you don't need like I had a hiccup problem on my rig and got rid of it by disabling some itune apple services that were running in the background. Having aim open is fine shouldn't make the cpu spike I believe but still want to make sure and would like to see whats running which could possibly be making the cpu spike which leads to small freezes. Also did you defrag the hard drive like I suggested? Fragmentation causes the files to scatter and thus making it longer for your hdd to look for files which can cause problems at times.

 

[Lak3rsFan]

Alright.

Do you want me running the programs I usually run when it occurs? (Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude in my previous comment)

Yes, I did a de-frag!

event:

 

[Lak3rsFan]

Here you go:

Now in Win Updates..there is an Update for my Intel HD card. Wasn't sure if I should upgrade that since I'm on LeshCat drivers..

 

[event3horizon]

you are automatically getting "some device on this machine behave bad and will cause drop outs" message. On a computer without a problem you WONT get this message.

Run the game with it running in the background. It will record the latency spikes. Then follow the instructions on the DLC latency link on how to troubleshoot the latency.

 

[M1GU31]

Cpu usage seems normal and yes I see your running amd video drivers. I wouldn't put the intel hd video drivers sense there is no need for them since your using the amd ccc drivers instead. Could be a connection problem possibly like event3horizon says since the games your having problems with all involve connecting to the internet. Suggest trying out his method. If you have any single player games but don't get the same problem in them then it's a network problem. If it happens in both then it could be a video or cpu problem.

 

[Lak3rsFan]

I'll give that a run in a few mins..

btw I have de-frag set to Every Wednesdays at like 1 am..is that an okay time? I mean I'm a med student, so my laptop is on thru the night, since when I wake up in the morning, I use it to watch school vids and such lol..

 

[Lak3rsFan]

Alright, so I ran WoW with AIM in the BG..

I waited..but they didn't say anything on the program ..

 

[Lak3rsFan]

Here's task manager too.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[event3horizon]

there you go you have huge lag spikes ... the program however won't magically tell you what driver is causing this. Read the instructions on the website for details, but essentially you will have to disable things in the device manager temporarily to see if the lag goes away.

 

[Lak3rsFan]

I'm sorry, but I don't really know where to start at..

(In relation to..needed drivers vs. drivers that the laptop can still function even when they're off)

 

[event3horizon]

Don't worry you won't do anything bad. It's just temporary disabling non-critical drivers for operation. Read:

You can find out the driver which causes the excessive DPC latencies by disabling individual devices using Windows Device Manager. To open Device Manager, choose Properties from the context menu of the My Computer icon on your desktop and click the Device Manager button on the Hardware tab.

In Device Manager disable individual devices, one at a time. To disable a device, right-click on the corresponding item (e.g. on the Ethernet adapter) and choose Disable from the context menu. Windows marks a disabled device with a read cross as shown in the figure below. To enable a device again, choose Enable from the context menu.

After you disabled a single device, carefully watch DPC Latency Checker. When excessive latency values disappear you found the responsible device driver. If there are still exceptional large DPC latencies try the next device.

In many cases DPC latency problems are caused by specific types of devices. So you should try the device types listed below first.

• Network adapters for Ethernet and Wireless LAN (W-LAN)
• Internal modems
• Internal sound devices (on-board sound systems)
• Any PCI or PCI Express add-on card, any PCCard or ExpressCard, e.g. TV tuner cards, ISDN or DSL adapters, modems, etc.

Warning: Don't disable devices that are essential for your computer to function!
You should not disable:

• any device listed in Device Manager under System devices or Computer,
• the hard disk that contains the system partition,
• the IDE/ATAPI or SATA controller this hard disk is connected to,
• the system keyboard,
• the mouse, track point or touch pad device,
• the USB controller external keyboard and/or mouse devices are connected to,
• the display controller listed under Display adapters.

 

[Lak3rsFan]

So just disable, then run DPC Lat again?..Or would I have to do a restart on the laptop?