Severe lag/stuttering/hanging - game is unplayable

[MickV]

Mid-game on the ECW server this evening I got a lag spike so severe I had to ctrl-alt-delete out of DCS as it had frozen up completely. Had been working perfectly up to that point. Back in the main menu, tried to load a single-player game - stuttered and then froze completely and again had to ctrl-alt-delete out of the game. Closed DCS and rebooted, only now I couldn't even get anywhere in the menu, 5-10 seconds just for a click to process to get to a menu screen, with severe stuttering in any menu screen or the mission editor. No more than 40% RAM usage the whole time, and all other applications working perfectly. Rebooted my computer - no change. Ran DCS repair - also no change. All other games and programs work flawlessly.

I had been playing DCS without issue throughout the day until about 1130hrs EST. No changes to drivers or settings or hardware.

Currently not even the menu works correctly - it takes between 2-10 seconds for a click on any button to process, if at all. Mission editor is stuttering with hiccups every 4-6 seconds lasting 1-2 seconds. Currently the game is completely unplayable due to stuttering and freezing.

I tried Juice's method as shown in some of the other stuttering threads to no avail. Track from the last attempt to fly attached.

Thanks in advance

 

Specs are

Intel I7 8700

NVIDIA GTX 1070

32 GB RAM

1TB SSD

 

Severe stuttering.trk

[Flappie]

This sounds like an external software is bothering DCS. Try killing as much programs as you can before launching DCS. Dynamic wallpaper app, GPU tweaking tools, FPS overlays, Discord OBS... kill as many non-Windows apps as possible, then try DCS. Does the issue keep going?

Also add your main DCS game files folder as an exception to your antivirus/antibloatware software.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Flappie

[MickV]

I had attempted all that the previous evening:

• Shut down every conceivable program and app other than DCS
• Turned off all peripherals other than mouse to test if it was a device conflict
• Confirmed firewall settings were as previous with DCS as an exception (it was, but I also tried turning it off completely, as well as antivirus off)
• Reduced graphics to potato-tier settings
• Rebooted modem (directly linked to the modem)
• Turned off Wifi and Bluetooth
• Rolled back GPU drivers to an update a week or so ago

The only things I didn't try (that I could think of - I barely know a thing about PC's) were uninstalling and re-installing DCS, and doing a full Windows re-install.

All of it failed, or actually seemed to make things worse, as I couldn't even click on menu buttons without it freezing and needing to be closed from the Task Manager - whereupon I started this thread. I reset everything to where I'd started and went to bed.

And then, lo and behold, when I got on tonight to set a baseline as a control and then start trying other solutions, the game worked FLAWLESSLY on the first go. Tried simple single-player, complex single-player with a ton of AI assets, and then multiplayer on a busy server. Ran buttah-smooth at all times. Better than it has in since an update or two ago, actually. Absolutely perfect with zero stutters or lag whatsoever after the  MP server loaded everything in.

Bizarre, because I had changed absolutely nothing from where it was set last PM when I started having problems, and the game was completely unplayable.

No bloody idea what caused it, or solved it. Appeared and disappeared out of the blue. Dunno if you guys tweaked something last PM, but it works superbly now.

Appreciate the help, though.

Edited January 10, 2023 by MickV

[Flappie]

Thanks for your feedback. If you changed nothing on your PC, I'd say your issue may return soon. Let's hope it doesn't.

If it does, post back here.

[corn322]

Perhaps Windows decided it was time to install an update?

[Coxy_99]

There is another solution if the game hangs, Try not to alt ctrl del let dcs run and 9/10 it will come back, Also windows updates will also cause such issues.