[INVESTIGATING]Spike lag caused by internet network, now what?

[mariner3302]

I'm in VR and finally found the cause of the jerk/lag/stutter that happens so regularly I can predict it. So Task Manager showed me that my internet was causing the spike/lag. I turned the internet connection off and smooth as butter. Same flight, internet on - Spike, same flight - internet off - smooth and no lags jerks or any of it. The network on/off in game didn't matter with the stutter. My GPU was around 68-70 but when the internet spike hit it would go to 25.

 

So big step forward!! But now what in regards to multiplayer??

 

 

[mariner3302]

https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-get-rid-of-lag-guide#1

https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-get-rid-of-lag-guide#2

https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-get-rid-of-lag-guide#3

https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-get-rid-of-lag-guide#4

https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-get-rid-of-lag-guide#5

[DflippinK]

nice find!!

[3ra_Luke]

Same here. Turning off internet is the solution. I thought all this time that was only my problem!!

 

This is a real problem, and disabling the internet connection works to solve it (I couldnt believe it until I tried, and everything was smooth, on 2D and VR), but IMHO should be number 1 (well, or 2) priority for dev team to identify and solve this bug.

 

Tnx!

[mariner3302]

The main thing is to figure out what is causing the network spike. I'm not sure whether it is a DCS, Oculus, nVidia, or something else. It certainly appears that whatevers spiking the network is causing the GPU to almost drop offline for a millisecond.

[ryak84]

Hi there, i am suffering the exact same problem!

 

For me its the process called "dasHost.exe"

 

In Windows task manager its called "Device Association Framework Provider Host"

 

There is no pattern involved, it happens at random times..... but when it happens symthoms are ; spike network usage from "dashost.exe" and in this exact moment my gpu usage drops from 70-80% to 5%.... accompanied with an fps drop ingame from 80 fps to 10 fps for a split second. It doesnt matter how big the mission is, it can also happen freeflight with only my plane on the map.

 

This happens only exclusively with DCS World, no other sim or game is suffering from this.

 

After disabling it prior to running DCS, the stutters are gone.

 

I found multiple posts of people suffering the same issue like here

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=208120&highlight=dashost

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=211082&page=4

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=201436&page=3

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3392773

 

I am very certain there are many more suffering from a simillar issue that they arent aware off, because they dont know how to troubleshoot properly.

 

It would be nice if anyone from ED could take a look into this? Maybe it has something to do with the recent major Windows 10 update? (dashost.exe beeing a windows process) :noexpression:

 

 

Hope we can rule some things out in comparing drivers and running software?

 

My hardware .:

 

i7 3770k @ 5 ghz (watercooled)

ASUS Maximus V Extreme Z77

16gb RAM @2400 mhz

EVGA 980 ti Classified @1500 mhz (watercooled)

Soundblaster Z

Wired Internet over intel 82579v Gigabit LAN

 

DCS World installed @ Samsung 850 PRO SSD

 

Windows 10 "1803" (Build 17134.81) <- CLEAN Install 1 Week old

GPU Driver : 397.93

 

Running Software while DCS is active :

 

AIDA64 (for Hardware Monitoring)

MSI Afterburner (GPU Clocks)

Bitdefender 2018

Corsair CUE (Keyboard&Mouse Software)

Target Software (Hotas Warthog keybinds)

 

PS.: To be clear my performance is rock solid otherwise usually @60+ fps all maxed on 3440x1440 res , so this stutters are indeed odd......

Edited June 10, 2018 by ryak84

[BitMaster]

dashost manages devices, you could try with minimum devices and attach one after the other and see which device causes dashost to freak out.

 

 

It also restarts itself if you terminate it in TaskManager, at least it should. It's a crucial process for Win8/10 to function.

Edited June 11, 2018 by BitMaster

[ryak84]

I will try that, thank you!

 

(If i disable it multiple times in taskmanager it stays off until next reboot)

Edited June 11, 2018 by ryak84

[ryak84]

UPDATE

 

After hours of dismanteling my system and testing every component piece by piece i can finally say i found the cause of my stutters, regarding "dasHost.exe".

 

After detailed tracking of what this process was doing (by the time i got a stutter) i came up with this .:

 

 

CAUSE

 

The address dashost.exe was trying to "talk/negotiate" to (see picture above) was my 3 month ago newly aquired Sony KD-65XE9005 (Android TV) standing in my living room. (I have a fairly large Network at home with close to 30+ devices all beeing connected and therefor interconected with each other)

 

The solution was simple, i disabled a service on this TV called "remote start" (enabling it gives other devices the authority to turn this TV on remotely).

 

This immediatelly stopped all dashost.exe occurrences while playing DCS.exe and in return no more stutters/framedrops/gpu usage drops.:thumbup:

 

 

Well i am happy but concerned.... why that only happened in conjunction with DCS.exe? Is this a windows 10 bug in managing interupts? ..does this only apply to nvidia users (Forceware bug)?

 

...and ive read the forums.. there are for sure many other people around that get this ocasional stutters and dont know the cause .... i bet some of them will have similar devices hammering their PCs with "network requests" while having DCS.exe running.

 

It would be nice if ED could look into this....... or at least comment on that.

[mariner3302]

Damn.....

 

Thats fricking awesome! I reset my system with a system image from last November. It fixed the problem for now but it will return. It always does.

 

This could be a LOT of folks problem, especially considering the proliferation of devices in folks homes. I see you are on ethernet, as am I. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it. Just a wonderment...

 

Good job!!!

[maxTRX]

Now you got me paranoid! I always suspected those Oculus sensors scanning my mug... :D

 

I'm glad there are knowledgeable folks here that are willing to share their findings with rest.

I did find 2 ports that this process was trying to use well, actually there were 2 instances of dasHost listed there but both were "not allowed, not restricted" by the firewall... whatever the heck that means.

 

The minor stuttering that I used to have on my rig disappeared when I uninstalled Intel's turbo boost or it might have been just a coincidence.

[DflippinK]

[quote=Gripes323;3531364

 

The minor stuttering that I used to have on my rig disappeared when I uninstalled Intel's turbo boost or it might have been just a coincidence.

 

 

wonder if it had anything to do with HPET high precision event timer..

[will-]

I work in A/V and setup sony tv's. I've seen this issue before, sony android tv crashing the network. Was told a fix for this is to connect over Wifi and remove the LAN connection from TV. I've seen it stop flooding the network, but i believe the issue still remains.

[BitMaster]

What a BS !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Good find...and totally unrelated to DCS, It should have happened with every game tbh.

 

 

What a nightmare !

[ryak84]

I work in A/V and setup sony tv's. I've seen this issue before, sony android tv crashing the network. Was told a fix for this is to connect over Wifi and remove the LAN connection from TV. I've seen it stop flooding the network, but i believe the issue still remains.

 

WoW thank you for sharing that! :)

 

Wifi is sadly no valid option for my tv cause it halfes the available downstream for streaming services like netflix/prime. (I just disabled all remote functions on the tv and it stopped flooding my PC.)

 

What is buggin me still, why DCS.exe is so sensitive to this? :mad:

 

I have simulators/games that are far more demanding than DCS and are not affected by that...

[M1Combat]

"I have simulators/games that are far more demanding than DCS and are not affected by that..."

 

 

Which ones?

[Capt. Caveman]

Thanks everyone for all the hard work and figuring this out. Since I bought an new pc back in October 2018 i experienced the same “regular” stutters. Only last week I stumbled upon this thread and guess what, I’ve got two Sony Android TVs and indeed dashost spiking the network.

 

Switching off the remote access on both TVs solved my issues within DCS, thanks again. I would have never figured this out on my own.

[Tippis]

...and not to forget all those arcade Games (Witcher 3/Crysis 3 etc.)

If you want to play arcade games on a PC, you should probably install MAME or something similar rather than try to use fancy proof-of-concept game-in-a-game mods.

[BitMaster]

Smart TV's, LAN-Printers and some other devices have been tracked down to cause this.

 

Still, why does such a small process have such an effect, strange....

 

 

 

 

*BigNewy, you might want to make this one sticky as well !?

[BIGNEWY]

I will show this to the team.

 

Thanks

[BitMaster]

:thumbup:

[c0ff]

Hi!

 

Thank you for an excellent investigation! Highly appreciated!

 

There's a high probability that dashost issue is related to the input hotplug functionality of DCS.

I've added a config option to the next OpenBeta.

autoexec.cfg:

no_device_hotplug = true

 

If applied, dcs.log should say "Device hotplug disabled!".

This will disable rescanning of input devices in case of hotplug events.

We'll see if this helps.

[c0ff]

Please, report if the setting helps in 2.5.5.36986. Thanks!

[mariner3302]

I have moved to the Reverb since posting this and havent had the spikes. I will do the mod as suggested, c0ff, and report back! Might take a day or so. Nice enough outside to maybe get something done but thanks for working on this, everyone!

[Repsol2k]

Please, report if the setting helps in 2.5.5.36986. Thanks!

 

 

Ich dont have the issue but i noticed that with the last OpenBeta Update 2.5.5.36986 no "autoexec.cfg" can be found.

 

When i remember right this one goes to the C:\Users\USERNAME\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config folder? Nothing inside there.