Predator Helios 500 - Lag spikes in games and sometimes desktop applications

Korboal

Hi!

I have gotten Predator 500 about a month ago. It has been working perfectly well, until several days ago. After that I have started getting some occasional 2-3 seconds long lag spikes (about every 10-15 min) in some games (such as StarCraft 2, Tomb Raider 2015). Before those games were running perfectly well on ultra settings without any problem with stable 60+ or 120+ FPS depending on the very demanding graphics settings. Both games are installed on HDD, however, there was no problem with them prior to this time (for a month!!!). Other game Rainbow 6 Siege is installed on SSD and does not seem to have any problems (strangely enough). Sometimes when I use my usual applications (e.g. Discord or browser), they also lag out for 2-3 seconds. It is worth noting that a day before issues started I updated my Windows and graphics drivers.

Attempted solutions: reinstall graphics driver, turn off Shadowplay overlay, try fullscreen AND windowed settings of games, repair game, restart computer, check for new Windows updates, turn off unnecessary startup services, scan for viruses. Neither of the following things has helped.

I did check both temperature and whether any other processes were taking up CPU/GPU/disk. It does not appear to be the case and for example StarCraft 2 does not eat a lot of CPU, GPU or memory and leaves plenty of space. There are no other processes that eat any significant amount of CPU/GPU (not more than 5% combined). Temperatures are good and don't come close to critical values. Is there any other possible solution beside reinstalling Windows (which takes about a day, including reinstalling of all updates + files, so I try to leave it for the last if possible)?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Red-Sand

Unfortunately it could be many things.

Sometimes it's as simple as shutting down your laptop if it's been left on for an extended period of time.

Other options could be to
.Disable superfetch and indexing on your HDD
.Make sure your internet/servers are not causing the lag spike
.Try an earlier Nvidia driver such as 388.31 (I've had great success with this driver on all games)
.Check for and disable programs that might have a "check for updates automatically" option enabled and disable it. You can check in task schedule or in services for these items as well as in the program's options menus.

Mpegleris

Because your laptop is new I don't think this is a hardware issue. I think the latest Windows update was making this issue. (Just personal opinion) But w8 for further replies 

Red-Sand

Unfortunately it could be many things.

Sometimes it's as simple as shutting down your laptop if it's been left on for an extended period of time.

Other options could be to
.Disable superfetch and indexing on your HDD
.Make sure your internet/servers are not causing the lag spike
.Try an earlier Nvidia driver such as 388.31 (I've had great success with this driver on all games)
.Check for and disable programs that might have a "check for updates automatically" option enabled and disable it. You can check in task schedule or in services for these items as well as in the program's options menus.

M4rdock

Rollback to windows version 1709 and disable windows updates.
If this doesnt help do a clean install of windows 10 1709.

Only do windows updates when want to reduce performance or at least make backup copy before updating.

Korboal

Red-Sand said:

Unfortunately it could be many things.

Sometimes it's as simple as shutting down your laptop if it's been left on for an extended period of time.

Other options could be to
.Disable superfetch and indexing on your HDD
.Make sure your internet/servers are not causing the lag spike
.Try an earlier Nvidia driver such as 388.31 (I've had great success with this driver on all games)
.Check for and disable programs that might have a "check for updates automatically" option enabled and disable it. You can check in task schedule or in services for these items as well as in the program's options menus.

Sorry for late reply, I was just trying different things and was making sure that the problem went away. Thanks a lot for the list. I turned off the indexing (did not help) and turned off superfetch. Seems like the issue is gone now (have not met it for several days now yay). Don't know if it just randomly went away or if superfetch really did make it worse. But either way, thanks a lot! Problem solved, at least for now.

Red-Sand

I'm glad to hear it's gotten better! Superfetch can definately cause the issue you were having and I make it one of my first steps to disable it when I purchase a new PC with the OS on an SSD.

Here's a video that goes over basic optimization for the Helios 300. I know it's not your exact model but the steps are the same as well as the benefits.

https://youtu.be/XTPMwQKlfPE