Weird frequent stuttering problem on new laptop when playing games

[racie]

Hello everyone. I am very concerned as to what is wrong with my laptop because it is not even a year old yet. I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. Also, I am uncertain of what is causing the problem.

I used to play Portal, The Sims 3, and Fallout 3 on my laptop with no issues. Recently, I've been having the strangest issue...

I first noticed it when playing Minecraft about a month ago when my little brother wanted me to try it. It was fine at first, but seemingly after every 20 minute interval, the game would go through extreme stuttering and slow to a crawl, making it literally unplayable for maybe 20 seconds. If sound was playing in the background, it would become very distorted and extremely slow as well.

Was I concerned? Not at first. See, I have a switchable graphics card and for some reason it will not allow me to use my better graphics card with Minecraft.

I stopped playing games for a while except for Minecraft and managed to live through the annoying bouts of "unplayableness" every 20 minutes.

Recently, I decided I would play Portal again in addition to Assassin's Creed. Both games are set to run with my better graphics cards. To my horror, the same issue persists in both of these games as well!

Is this a graphics card issue, a processor issue, an issue with Windows itself?

Please, if any of you could help me, I would really appreciate it. As I stated before, this PC is relatively new, and was a gift that costed a lot of money. I would hate to have it die on me now.

 

[bootready]

Antivirus biting Windows Defender.
Either way disable the Defender for good, if you use another Antivirus software.
Or disable the Antivirus software, when you start playing (enable, when finished of course).

With a regular PC it does not matter.
Their HDDs have faster RPM (7200+ RPM), while most Laptops have slower HDDs (onlyy 5400 RPM).
Though your Antivirus on/off will have a performance impact.

 

[racie]

I already have Windows Defender disabled and I really don't think this has anything to do with my other antivirus software (Avast!)...as this is a relatively new development. Any other suggestions?

 

[bootready]

Are these problems only related to games or also stuttering movies for example.

Can you keep an eye on the resource monitor of the taskmanager?
In case you do not know how to open it:
Start the taskmanager and navigate to the "performance" tab
Click on "Ressource Monitor"
Go to the "disk" tab and additionally "disk activity"
Sort the activity with "write"

Now you can track the application which writes the most on your HDD.
This might be one step getting closer.

Track the games and also other applications and compare the used bandwidth.
This is to sort out, if it is a hardware issue related to your HDD or any other issue (drivers?).

 

[racie]

Hmm...I haven't watched any movies recently on my PC...I'll have to test that out. I will say that watching long YouTube videos in 720p causes no problems.

Thank you for your response. I will definitely be watching resource monitor. However, when these slowdown events occur, it is somewhat difficult to control the computer. Also, what exactly am I looking for? Unusually high spikes in writing to my HDD?

 

[racie]

Okay sorry to bump, but this is now very likely a problem with my graphics card. The reason why two cards are listed in my specs is because they are switchable.

Now, I was on YouTube, as usual, when all of a sudden my screen went black when trying to watch a video. It came back on a split-second later and a notification popped up that said "AMD Display driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered." Then, I tried to play the video again, when all of a sudden I got a BSoD with error code 0x000000116 (video card).

This has NEVER happened to me before. According to HP, my drivers are up to date. I'm not sure how to check if they are up to date on the AMD website because of the switchable graphics.

 

[bootready]

Oh my.

You have two graphicadapters?
One integrated in your CPU (Intel Core 2nd Generation have HD2000/HD3000 integrated graphics), the other is dedicated (AMD/ATI), I guess.
Do you use Virtu, to switch between them (especially for gaming)?


Anyway, remove the drivers of both cards first (at once!) and restart.
Use the drivers from your driver-DVDs or windows update as a base.
The AMD/ATI drivers should help you out with an auto-update or update-notification service.

 

[racie]

No, I don't use Virtu. The AMD card has switchable graphics options. I will try reinstalling them...but recently I had to do a reinstall of Windows and the problem was still there, so I'm not sure that it's the drivers.


Is there any sort of diagnostic program I can run for this as well?

 

[bootready]

Maybe GPU-Z will help you out.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

It is not a real diagnostic tool, but provides good information about your video card.
You will be able to compare the details in tech-forums or the like (for example "is XY temp in idle OK for model 123" etc.).


You already re-installed windows and still have the same problem?

Did you use newer drivers of your video card or the ones from the driver DVD?

Sometimes the drivers from the DVD are recommend after a fresh installation.
If you want to remove the newer ones, do this in windows safe mode.
Uninstall the drivers and then remove the hardware from the device manager.
Reboot and install the drivers from your DVD or the standard drivers from windows update.
These are always stable/tested versions of the respective devices.

 

[M1GU31]

Are you by any chance using firefox?That would happen to me and i got the display driver stopped responding when i would watch videos after a while.I stopped that by disabling hardware acceleration in firefox.There's something wrong with the drivers i believe or something with the latest firefox release.Anyways if you go in firefox options,you untick the box called hardware acceleration in firefox.About the games what driver version are you using?12.4 or the beta 12.6?If you updated drivers recently and before updating everything was working fine then i suggest rolling back to a earlier version of drivers until amd releases some drivers that are more stable. Btw i'm using the 12.6 beta drivers and encountered that problem with the drivers stop responding then re-enabled when watching videos in firefox but my games run fine.

 

[bootready]

Are you by any chance using firefox?That would happen to me and i got the display driver stopped responding when i would watch videos after a while.I stopped that by disabling hardware acceleration in firefox.There's something wrong with the drivers i believe or something with the latest firefox release.Anyways if you go in firefox options,you untick the box called hardware acceleration in firefox.About the games what driver version are you using?12.4 or the beta 12.6?If you updated drivers recently and before updating everything was working fine then i suggest rolling back to a earlier version of drivers until amd releases some drivers that are more stable. Btw i'm using the 12.6 beta drivers and encountered that problem with the drivers stop responding then re-enabled when watching videos in firefox but my games run fine.

Your unchecking the "hardware accelerator" is more than obvious regarding problems with your hardware and/or drivers.
I point out, that I use a Nvidia card and never got into trouble like that.
My guess would be problems with the AMD/ATI drivers (again).
I recently upgraded my FF from 12-something to 13.0.1.
I did not have any problems with video playback and hardware acceleration.

Look into the latest driver discussions from your video card manufacturer (AMD/ATI).
There might be several threads in their respective forums.

Have you tried rolling back a version of your drivers or do you use beta drivers (which are also causing problems somtimes)?

 

[racie]

Thanks for the program, bootready. Yes, I still have the same problem after re-installing Windows. Unfortunately, the laptop didn't come with any driver CD's. The driver version on the HP website is the one that is currently on my laptop, though. I am going to check AMD's website and see if there is an update for my card.

*edit* AMD tells me that my card is not supported....Hmm...

Thanks M1GU31, but I am running Chrome. My major issue is not being able to play games on my laptop despite my very capable hardware.

 

[M1GU31]

Are you by any chance using firefox?That would happen to me and i got the display driver stopped responding when i would watch videos after a while.I stopped that by disabling hardware acceleration in firefox.There's something wrong with the drivers i believe or something with the latest firefox release.Anyways if you go in firefox options,you untick the box called hardware acceleration in firefox.About the games what driver version are you using?12.4 or the beta 12.6?If you updated drivers recently and before updating everything was working fine then i suggest rolling back to a earlier version of drivers until amd releases some drivers that are more stable. Btw i'm using the 12.6 beta drivers and encountered that problem with the drivers stop responding then re-enabled when watching videos in firefox but my games run fine.

Your unchecking the "hardware accelerator" is more than obvious regarding problems with your hardware and/or drivers.
I point out, that I use a Nvidia card and never got into trouble like that.
My guess would be problems with the AMD/ATI drivers (again).
I recently upgraded my FF from 12-something to 13.0.1.
I did not have any problems with video playback and hardware acceleration.

Look into the latest driver discussions from your video card manufacturer (AMD/ATI).
There might be several threads in their respective forums.

Have you tried rolling back a version of your drivers or do you use beta drivers (which are also causing problems somtimes)?

I believe it's a driver problem,my hardwre is really new and has no problems everyelse.I might roll back to 12.4,been using beta 12.6 amd drivers

 

[bootready]

@M1GU31:

The roll-back to a non-beta driver should fix your problem (it might be a compatibility problem with latest Flashplayer).
Get the last WHQL or working driver you used.
Do a safe start and uninstall the drivers properly, also remove the video card from the device manager, than restart the system.
Configure the settings for 2D/3D after you installed the working drivers.
Do not forget to re-install Directx (June 2010 was the last one I found).
Just to be sure...

DirectX offline installer ~96 MB (June 2010)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

After a reboot start windows update again to be sure.



@racie:

No problem, this is a very useful tool (also look into CPU-Z!).
Keep an eye on the specs and compare them with similar cards.
Also look into frequencies and temperatures.
Would yoube so kind and include some screens from GPU-Z?
On a sidenote, you installed the drivers/DirectX properly (re-install as admin again)?

 

[racie]

Sorry for the late response. I've been a bit busy lately.

Well I completely removed the drivers, rebooted, then reinstalled them, then rebooted again. The extreme slowdown problem still persists and I got another blue screen from watching a YouTube video! These BSoDs are a relatively new development and I wasn't expecting it to happen a second time.

I also looked into this, and it seems AMD does not support my driver because of my switchable graphics. Lame. So it seems I am unable to get any sort of updated driver. What I do not understand is why my system worked perfectly fine previously with the exact same driver.

Ahh yes, I love CPU-Z. I can't believe I had never heard of GPU-Z, though.

Here are screenshots from GPU-Z. Do you know of any place where I can compare this? The card doesn't appear to be overheating or anything at the moment. Of course, it is kind of difficult to check what is going on when the PC slows down, as it is difficult to navigate things.

*edit* Hmm...I just found this link from AMD's website. I'll have to read through all of their suggestions and try a few of these things as well.

 

[bootready]

Heya,

thank you for posting the screens.

I have an idea:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Dynamic-Switchable-Graphics-vs-Nvidia-Optimus.64378.0.html

I think you have to select the applications, which use the AMD/ATI video card in the drivers control center (described in the linked article).

Do you mind looking into the article and compare the settings with your own setting?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/3d3be7a81f.jpg

 

[racie]

Hmm...yes I already have set which video card the computer to use for many of my programs, including the games. This isn't the issue and I'm really at a loss of what to do. I don't see why AMD can't support my switchable graphics cards when nVidia supports their switchable cards. I wouldn't have got this laptop if I would have known I'd have this ridiculous problem.

 

[bootready]

OK, thank you.

AMD/ATI does not support this technology anymore?
What do the people talk about in the AMD/ATI forums about this matter.
Have you complained with a support ticket, your problem, as well about the bad support?

 

[racie]

Well, here's how it goes....Apparently there is an updated driver for my graphics card. However, because it is a switchable graphics card on my system, AMD does not have an update for me that supports the switchable graphics. It's a bit silly and I don't know why this is.

I haven't posted this in other forums yet because I didn't know initially that this issue was likely due to my video card drivers.

Also, I haven't complained to AMD or HP yet, but I will soon.

 

[racie]

Hey sorry for the bump. I just wanted to add this little bit of information...

It seems that this might NOT be the video card drivers after all. I was recently revisiting RCT2. You know, that old game from 2002. A few hours in, I had the same slowdown issue! I couldn't believe it. However, it should be noted that I was using the Intel card this time and the error happened after an hour or two instead of twenty minutes.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm open to suggestions because I have no clue what to do here.