Unplayable right now, full second pauses every minute or so

[Gman]

I have made no changes in months, software or hardware, but today I kept getting pauses, at all alts/situations, where the game would freeze for 1.5 seconds or so, then resume.  On the netgraph page, the top window would show a corresponding spike to halfway up the graph with each pause.  Glasswire doesn't show anything really though that would be trying to use the network so much that it'd freeze out Aces High, although I don't know much about that.

Anyhow, any ideas or similar problems been had?  I tried reinstalling the game on 2 diff drives, tried using stock settings and then my regular ones, same results.  Pause almost within a min or two of joining the arena, and they keep coming every min or two, and freeze for a 1.5 second period or so, then resumes.  A few crashes happened two.

They don't seem to correspond with sound/mic usage, I tried with stock sounds and my reg ones, same result, and happens when no sound changes are happening. 

It's doing it offline as well, tried that, same spike on the net graph, same pause..

edit - Tried the beta, it's doing it offline and online too. 

Any ideas what I should start looking for causing this?

[Chalenge]

You might check your firewall setting, or allow Aces High 2 (and 3) again.

[Gman]

Thanks, just tried that, turned firewall right off, still happens in both games.

Could this be a cpu issue? I noticed core 1 was at 99 percent when I alt tabbed out of the game.  Not sure what to use to try and track CPU/etc usage while in game to see if its hardware related, as in something like the CPU going.  Again, NO changes since I put win10 on here in order to fix a trackIR problem even they couldn't fix when it was win7.  No new games, drivers, nothing, other than nVidia updates, but not for a couple weeks have any happened, and just last week both games played fine with out pausing constantly.

[Chalenge]

Okay, I admit the firewall was a shot in the dark. My first thought was that you have a conflict between the SouthBridge controller and one of your PCIe devices, but you said you have not changed anything. You may have an audio conflict. So, you can check your device manager for extra audio drivers associated with your (I assume) GeForce cards, or maybe onboard audio? or look for an IRQ conflict which should stick out like a sore thumb.

I would like to see a fresh DXDiag.

I just hope it isn't a major pork by Windows 10.

EDIT: Check for overheat condition too.

[Gman]

Not really sure how to check the IRQ stuff in win10, just went to the old place/way but it's all different in the control panel. Clicked on the devices and sound stuff, now big indicators of anything but again, it doesn't show things the same.  No drivers tabs or anything under sound/ sound devices/etc.  HWmonitor doesn't show any strange heat either.

Tried disabling the xsplit (wtf that is) and the nVidia sound and just left the realtek enabled, still get the pauses in the same predictable place offline, about 1 min into flight, and they repeat, online and in beta.

Every effing odd to come out of the blue and just start doing it in both beta and AH2, yet no pauses in other couple games I'm trying.


Dxdiag 

[Chalenge]

Are you using the noise suppression routine with the Realtek mic input? If so you might try it with the suppression off, or check the motherboard's site for an updated driver. Also, I would be greatly tempted to uninstall XSplit to see if that fixes the problem. I don't use it, so I don't know if there is anything to backup or save beforehand.

I hate to say it, but this is how I got into sound cards.

[Gman]

But why all of a sudden out of the blue?

I can take off in offline mode, and set my watch by the the time the first pause hits, from takeoff, right when I get in gun range and shoot at the b24 - zap, 1.5 second pause.  Every single time.  And it happens with no action taken at all, no sound changes, nothing.  No idea on the mic input, I don't even know where that would be, I'll check that. 

[Gman]

I don't use DCS on this PC but loaded it, no pauses at all in various modules.

It's odd, like I can set my watch by the first pause in either AH or Beta, and they keep happening at regular intervals, sounds, shooting/not or otherwise. Very hard to fight with 1.5 seconds pauses all the time.

Tried updated sound and MB drivers, still persists.  But only in these 2 games so far, as a few FPS I tried aren't pausing either.

[Chalenge]

Have you tried pingplotter to the host?

Well, I'm not sure what that will prove either, because I get constant packet loss but no game freezes.

[Gman]

Ya, first thing I tried, 60 ping avg and it's pretty good.

I flipped off my internet, disabled the network setting in control panel - so not online, and the problem goes away.  No pauses in game offline.  So, closing in on something, just no idea what, or how to do anything about it.

[Chalenge]

I would do a serious virus and malware check then. Not sure what else to do.

[Gman]

Ya, ran those as well.  Still slugging away.  If you think of anything else let me know, I"m trying anything and everything.  Thanks for the help too btw.  This is the system that's getting upgraded next anyhow, I can always move my AH stuff over to one of our Skylake boxes, it's just inconvenient and means 16 hours of driving.

Here is a screen shot of offline, still connected to the net, and the little pauses reflected in the net graph.  You can set your watch by them both in beta and AH2, online or offline.

[Chalenge]

Well, seems like you have it narrowed down to network and that's Skuzzy's territory. The only thing I would do at this point is check Windows Updates to see if anything came down that you didn't ask for. And then maybe remove the network driver (after downloading the latest one) and reinstall it. It's going to require rebooting and otherwise be irritating . . . but I got nothing else.

[Gman]

Heh, already tried all that too.  Reinstalled and updated the network drivers, tried disabling the network, which did allow AH2/beta to work without pausing in offline mode, but once network is enabled again, the pauses, which seem to come at a pretty regular time and interval, come back.  Tried removing all sound drivers, unplugging headset/mic, no dice, reinstalled all that stuff too.

Since it's the only 2 games this is happening with, I wonder if both are searching for something within a min or two of running, then consistently searching for it every min or so, causing the pauses and the latency bumps on the netgraph.  I tried reinstalling many times with both games, and tried running stock fresh settings to see if maybe something in my saved profiles/sticks/settings folders had something, but the problem persists then.

I JUST reinstalled win10 on this system and finally got everything working, and I don't look forward to having to do yet another reinstall if I have to, I want to find wth is causing this.

[Chalenge]

You don't have to reinstall everything. Windows 10 has a reset function. Still, it would be nice to know what it is. Probably Skuzzy will say we missed something obvious.