Sudden and temporary slowdowns. .exe processes "not responding"

Pyrotonic · 12 Aug 2016

Hi guys,

Have been working on this issue for a few days, but I cant seem to get anywhere. Im on a fresh install of windows 10 pro. Occasionally, I will experience an intense but temporary slow down. Every 20-40 minutes roughly. The system runs smooth as butter besides this. Ive noticed it while using chrome and also while playing arma3. I have not had much time to test it in other programs, but it seems to involve cpu intense processes. In chrome this happens when I open the program or load a new page. When I check the .exe process under my cpu tab in Perfmon it show the .exe as not responding. The program does recover after about 20-30 seconds without completely crashing. Disk usage is high during this hang and also the CPU light on my case is going warp speed. I monitor the performance monitor disk/cpu/memory tabs during this hang. Nothing seems out of the ordinary except that the .exe temporarily shows "not responding" under the cpu tab.

Thing I have tried:
Full defrag
limiting page filing
freeing up physical memory
system file checker
removing any overclocks
Malware scan
turning off any and all non essential features and apps via the setting menu
updating all my drivers: windows updates, motherboard, video card etc.

System specs are in my profile.

Please help me get my buttery smooth system back. This has only began to occur since installing windows 10. THanks a bunch. Lemme know if I can help you, help me.

dalchina · 14 Aug 2016

Hi, if you could somehow post a screenshot or even a photo of your task manager when this happens, appropriate columns organised to show highest using processes at the top, someone may be able to help. Thanks.

Pyrotonic · 15 Aug 2016

Hey you go. Looks the same every time. Disk usage is 99% or 100%. Processor usage stay lows the entire time. Windows, chrome and Arma3 slow down and stutter. Everything eventually recovers. The "not responding" status occurs for chrome aswell. Also im running a clean boot. Windows services only.

The last picture is of the disk usage with filtered to show just the system process as it appears to spike in disk usage alongside Arma3.

THanks Dood!:)

dalchina · 16 Aug 2016

Hi, doesn't look likely to be anything fundamental about your system at first glance in terms of the OS misbehaving.

Your last screenshot does show a paging issue... swap file use. But Arma 3 is a huge game as commented in one of the links below.

** It also shows a remarkable amount of what appears to be event logging.
So:
Have a look at
a. Your reliability history
(Just type relia into the search box on the taskbar - should find it)
b. Your event log
Look for the most serious/frequent reports.
Please post this from event viewer:

Sudden and temporary slowdowns. .exe processes "not responding"-snap-2016-08-16-07.38.49.jpg

I find Event Log Explorer (freeware) gives an easy view:

Sudden and temporary slowdowns. .exe processes "not responding"-snap-2016-08-16-07.37.04.jpg

Does your PC meet the hardware specs for the game? (SSD is much faster).
Do you need Chrome running at the same time?

You've probably read this about ARMA 3 which I understand to be a game:
Heavy disk usage (could lower my SSD life?) - ARMA 3 - BETA DISCUSSION - Bohemia Interactive Forums

Comment here that it worked better installed on a different disk:
ARMA 3 System Disk Usage, please help!! : arma

This tweak guide is mostly about frame rate, rather than disk related issues as far as I can see, so may not help with this:
ARMA 3 Tweak Guide

I suspect you may be better asking about this on a forum dedicated to gaming.. or you may be lucky and someone here familiar with it may comment further

(Not sure what a 'Dood' is..!)

Pyrotonic · 16 Aug 2016

Hey,

Is the swap file an issue? I though that was normal behavior. I considered it being an Arma3 issue, butI have slow downs while doing stuff while Arma is closed. The disk shows the same pattern. Ive noticed this with chrome and with arma3 seperately. Its not a system requirement problem. The game runs smooth until the slow down begins and runs smooth afterwards. A system spec problem would be consistent. Besides I ran with the same exact settings on Win7 with the same computer. Never had issue. THanks for taking a look. Let me know if I can be helpful

dalchina · 17 Aug 2016

Well, we're looking for reasons why your disk is being hammered- sure, the swap file is used for paging in and out of RAM. From what you've shown, RAM isn't the issue. Which begs the question as to why the swap file is being used so heavily..

Have you customised your swap file parameters?

In passing.. if you believe there is disk contention and you have more than one disk, you might try moving the paging file (swap file) to a different disk, if that is indeed the issue.. unless it's a symptom of sthg else.