# Games are freezing, sound is looping...



## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

I've had this issue for about 3 weeks now. I noticed it first in Diablo 3, later in World of Warcraft. It started out as music stuttering. I could hear it loop for a bit, and then it would stop. It wouldn't affect the gameplay itself, it was just annoying, like a scratched cd. 
It started doing it in WoW as well, and then came the mini-freezes. They only last for a second or two, but as any WoW player knows, those few seconds can be the difference between life and death in the game.
Initially, I thought "Maybe it's something wrong with Blizzard's games?" I tried uninstalling, re-installing (both games), the issue still persisted. Just to be sure I recently downloaded another game, Elsword to see if it would happen again *Spoiler* It did. Not the music looping per-say, but the mini-freezes do happen.

As for now, it's not a gigantic issue. A couple of seconds here and there, usually after it happens, it doesn't do it again until I re-boot the game, but I'm afraid it will grow into a larger issue over time, like the game fully freezing and then it has to be forced to shut down.
I believe this is a software issue. I think it may concern an update in the computer's software that has happened within the past few weeks, or it is otherwise something that I've downloaded/updated in the past that is running in the background, that is causing these issues.

So I'm wondering how I may go about troubleshooting these issues, but I don't know where to begin. The only thing that comes to mind is the painstaking task of running the msconfig/task manager and going through each and every program that is running, and turning them all on/off 1 by 1, and starting the games up to see if it effects it at all, but I don't know if that would work.
To be honest, I'm not really versed in the art of "troubleshooting" or otherwise fixing irritating issues such as these on computers.

I'll list a few things I have tried already, and hopefully that will save a bit of time, I also have my pc specs listed on my profile if that would help anyone:
run a full scan with Malwarebytes, and AVG Antivirus
used every option in AVG tuneup - http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-pctuneup
Followed every step on this website: http://help.ea.com/en/article/how-to-troubleshoot-crashing-and-freezing-issues/

Otherwise, sorry for the wall of text, and a big thank you to anyone in advance who is willing to take the time to try to help. I'm just trying to do what I can before I resort to a Factory Settings reset


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Howdy,

Does it start the freeze thing as soon as you start playing the game or after you have been playing it awhile?

Are these games and freezes linked to online games or does it do it on offline games too?

Have you checked for any driver updates for your video card?

How old is the Power Supply and this is a desktop correct?

Try this free program Speccy. Download to your desktop and run it make a note of the temperatures of CPU and GPU then run a game your having problems with for awhile. Then take another reading with Speccy and see the temperature difference. Post the before and after results in your next post...a screen shot would be good.

Here's a link to Speccy top right of page latest Version: http://www.filehippo.com/download_speccy


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Hey Megabite,

To answer your questions in order:

-It doesn't freeze immediately. From what I've gathered it's at intervals when the game is trying to load something i.e., When I summon a pet, or fly to a different area in WoW, and since I don't have view distance maxed it loads some of the smaller details of an area when I get closer to it.

-I have the Nvidia Geforce experience which automatically checks and notifies me if there are any new drivers for my gfx card.

-The power supply came with the pc, so it's about 3 years old. However, I dust out my pc on a monthly basis.

I'll try what you recommended with "Speccy" and get back to you. If there's anything else in the meantime, let me know, I check back frequently.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

OK....the temps will help eliminate that...awaiting results


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Alright.

Now, I played Elsword for a bit and it actually didn't freeze at all. I was getting hopeful, however...
I switched over to WoW and ran a dungeon with my tank and towards the end of the dungeon, it had 3 freezing segments in quick succession, all lasting about 2 seconds each. I'll go ahead and upload the saved files from the before and after from Speccy, but the temperature didn't change much...


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Yea those temps are nothing to worry about....was WoW played Online?


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Yeah, WoW, Diablo 3, Elsword, all of those are games that have to be played online. I have yet to test an offline game, (I don't have a ton of them on this computer that I'd play daily) but Origin did just offer a free download of Dead Space, so I'll have a go at that and see if the same issues occur.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Yea good idea. We need to see if the same thing happens with an Offline game....if it doesn't then it could be your internet problem...say low bandwidth at times. You can test your bandwidth using an online tester like speedtest.com


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Ok, I played Dead Space for a while in offline mode without any issues. That being said, I'm 95% sure this isn't an issues with low bandwidth or otherwise. 
Generally, I run at 20-30 Mbps, and any time that drops and I'm playing a game online, there are indicators in such games that alert me to a drop in connection speed. Even if such a thing happens, in-game symptoms are usually delays - not the entire game client freezing. 
Another thing that was happening for a while, is the games were actually "alt+tabbing" on their own. It stopped doing it, but there has to be a connection. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if it was the same software that changed symptoms/tactics.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Have you defragged lately......do you have plenty of room on your hard drive......could it be some program updating from the web or backing up program running.

Just trying to narrow things down


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

I just checked the defrag, at first glance everything was 0% fragmented. I ran a quick scan anyway on my C drive and it came back as 4% fragmented.
I don't think that's anything to be concerned with, but I'm cleaning it up as I type this out anyway.

A quick edit/note: I have 223 GB free on my C drive, equally as much on my D drive.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Ok...and all the games are all installed on the C drive?

And have you checked for anything running in the background that might take up memory or CPU usage


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Megabite said:


> Ok...and all the games are all installed on the C drive?
> 
> And have you checked for anything running in the background that might take up memory or CPU usage


That's one of those things that I'm not super experienced with. Generally in the past when I've run task manager and checked process/services, I have no clue what's safe to shut down, and what will force me to restart because I've shut down something vital.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Just take a look at the startup and list them in your next post only the ones that have a tick beside them.

Click Windows button bottom left then on *Run* in the new window type *msconfig* and click *OK*

Then in the new window click on *startup* tab...you will see all the startup programs only the ones with a ticked will run on startup.

If Run is not there:

*Right *click on an empty place on the bottom *task bar *and choose *Properties *then *Start Menu *tab.....then *Customize* button
.look down the list for *Run Command* and put a check beside it
Click *OK*

Now when you click the Start button you should have *run *in the menu


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Alright, here's the list of what I have in my Startup tab:
Logitech gaming framework
Creative SB AVStream Monitoring
Akamai netsession client
creative volume panel
virtual clonedrive
mywinlocker suite
IAStorIcon
Hotkey Utility
EgisTec In-product service
Egistec in-product service (2 instances..?)
AVG Internet security
Curse Client Startup


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

*Logitech gaming framework*.....I assume that is the gaming keyboard......some versions have been known to cause freezes.

*Akamai netsession client* do you need this. It helps for faster downloads for Akamai products

*virtual clonedrive* Unless you use this a lot you can go into the program and set it to not startup when windows starts.

*EgisTec In-product service*. checks for updates so could be running anytime...you could stop this and check periodically manually.


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Megabite said:


> *Logitech gaming framework*.....I assume that is the gaming keyboard......some versions have been known to cause freezes.
> 
> *Akamai netsession client* do you need this. It helps for faster downloads for Akamai products
> 
> ...


Yeah the Logitech is for a gaming keyboard. I thought the software that was installed to properly use the keyboard might be the source, but I disabled and re-started my comp, launched WoW, and it froze after I tried for a few secs after I opened up my inventory.

I disabled everything else as well, but obviously they weren't the cause either. Is there anything else you'd like me to post? Maybe something running in my task manager? Or maybe there's another idea you had?

Just wanted to throw this out there, maybe you're use to these sort of issues being rather convoluted, but I appreciate you sticking with me all the same.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

you could try a different video card driver as the newest ones it not always the best

You would have to go to NVidia download site and manually input your card and download an older driver.

Also try a different screen resolution as a test


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Little bit of an update. Maybe I'm onto something, maybe it's nothing but there is something strange going on. I've noticed it on the separate profile on this computer. Whenever I log off of that profile, there is a "window" that closes. It's the last thing that closes, but it's blank and it flashes too quickly for me to see what it is exactly.

I've tried using fraps to record the desktop and tried having it record the log off process to see if it would capture it, but when I was recording and logged off my profile, the screen went black - completely black. The video was corrupt, it didn't save anything at all from the video, and afterwards, my keyboard stopped responding. I couldn't log back on to my profile and had to restart the computer just to get my keyboard working again. I tried the same thing again with capturing screenshots - same thing again. It logged off, went black for a moment and the keyboard stopped working again.

Like I said, don't know if this mysterious white window could actually be the underlying issue, but I'd like to be sure. Do you know of any other way I might be able to capture/get a better look at what it is?


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

How many profiles do you have?

If you want you can go to the Security section of this site and have your hijack log checked


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Megabite said:


> How many profiles do you have?
> 
> If you want you can go to the Security section of this site and have your hijack log checked


I'm looking through what I think is the right forum, but I'm rather new to this site. Just to be sure could you elaborate on what I'm supposed to do/where I'm supposed to go?


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Try posting here if you think you have some security issues

http://forums.techguy.org/78-general-security/


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## Tanis (May 30, 2006)

Vakarian said:


> -The power supply came with the pc, so it's about 3 years old. However, I dust out my pc on a monthly basis.


Is the rest of the PC exactly the same or have you upgraded / changed anything?


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Tanis said:


> Is the rest of the PC exactly the same or have you upgraded / changed anything?


Everything is as it was the day I purchased the pc.

A little bit of an update on the situation:

I posted earlier that I was seeing a blank square screen on my log off - I managed to get sight of what it was. The way I did that was I had fraps taking screen-shots of the desktop. I set the rate to 0, so I had it taking a SS every moment, and it slowed the computer down long enough to see that it was just Malwarebytes premium version - I downgraded back to Pro. (just in case)

More importantly, I believe the source of my problem might actually be my internet. I know I posted earlier that I didn't think my internet couldn't be responsible but there's a small factor that I didn't take into account, because it is more noticeably effecting my cable, which is provided by the same company which I get my internet through. The audio on the cable has rather frequent moments of cutting out for a second or two, and sometimes freezing. Sounds familiar right? As it also happens, the issue i've been having with my pc is not only effecting my games, but it is also effecting my browser when I play flash games.

I don't mean to say that this issue is "resolved", I intent to do a little bit more testing with games that require no internet connection and seeing if it happens. At this time, I feel that may be the only "test" that may or may not yield any conclusive results.


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## Tanis (May 30, 2006)

If you are getting similar 'stuttering' on your cable tv then your internet is more likely the problem. Might be worth contacting your provider to check on overall service status in yoru area and to check that you aren't having a problem with some of the associated hardware / router.


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Unfortunately I no longer believe that this is an internet issue, as I have played 2 offline games recently (I even disconnected the internet before playing them) and it still happened.

At this point, I'm not sure what else I can do. All I've been able to do otherwise, is run the task manager and check the "Processes" tab, and I've googled every one of them that I'm unsure about to see if it could have potential problems.
Otherwise, I've also done a memory test, and I'd like to test my graphics card but it seems like the only way people test them is to overclock them, but I've heard of people burning up their graphics card by doing so?


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Try FurMark it is a free utility that will test your Video card...you can stop the test any time......keep an eye on the video card temps...

Get it here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/furmark.html


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## Tanis (May 30, 2006)

Might be worth having a Hijackthis log checked by the Malware guys, just to check / see if there is anything strange going on in the background.

Post a new thread in this section: http://forums.techguy.org/54-virus-other-malware-removal/

Have a read here first: http://forums.techguy.org/virus-other-malware-removal/943214-everyone-must-read-before-posting.html

And follow the info in that post before posting int he Malware thread, this helps get the best and most efficient response. Post the logs it requests with an explanation of whats been going on, would also suggest a link to this thread so they can look back at that info too.

Only do things that are requested by the approved malware removal guys on the forum. You can see who they are by the small yellow shield next to their name on the posts and it will say Malware Removal Specialist under that 

Good luck and lets hope we can get this one sorted out.


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## Shadeslayerz (May 1, 2014)

Hi,
I am actually having the exact same issues especially with WoW and diablo 3 just like you! My specs: Radeon HD 7850 2Gb, amd fx-6300, 8gb RAM, 1Tb HDD, 550W PSU on a PC I built around xmas. 

I've ran Memtest without error, bought a heatsink with double high performance fans for my cpu, ran HDD scan for errors, monitored temps of cpu and gpu, monitored the usage of cpu and ram in task manager, made a clean reinstall of windows but still have the same problem.

I also bought myself a 250gb SSD since my HDD was actually bottlenecking my PC, I'll try migrating my files to the SSD when it arrives and see if that fixes the problem... 

In the meanwhile, I'll monitor this discussion and post any updates on my end but I'm starting to wonder if its not my gpu that has a defect (will run Furmark to see if it is...). The only other possibility I can think of is the Power supply being defective and not constantly supplying enough power which causes these freezes.

If nothing works I'll head over to a friends house who has a similar build to swap out each hardware piece individually to find the source of the problem.

EDIT: Just ran FurMark with the 1080p preset benchmark and got a score of 1269 with max temp of 75 celcius and avg 22fps are these scores ok for my radeon hd 7850 2gb?


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Those results on test seem alright.....


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Vakarian said:


> I've had this issue for about 3 weeks now. I noticed it first in Diablo 3, later in World of Warcraft. It started out as music stuttering. I could hear it loop for a bit, and then it would stop. It wouldn't affect the gameplay itself, it was just annoying, like a scratched cd.
> It started doing it in WoW as well, and then came the mini-freezes. They only last for a second or two, but as any WoW player knows, those few seconds can be the difference between life and death in the game.
> Initially, I thought "Maybe it's something wrong with Blizzard's games?" I tried uninstalling, re-installing (both games), the issue still persisted. Just to be sure I recently downloaded another game, Elsword to see if it would happen again *Spoiler* It did. Not the music looping per-say, but the mini-freezes do happen.
> 
> ...


Good to hear (sort of) that i'm not the only one having this issue. Please be sure that, if you do end up hardware swapping, let us know if you happen upon any conclusive results, that would be fantastic, thanks.

In the meantime, I'm follow the prior instructions and posting on the malware forum, just in case.


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## Shadeslayerz (May 1, 2014)

Ok so I got my SSD but now I can't even test to see if my problem is solved due to the fact that everything runs EXTREMELY fast but as soon as I install my catalyst video card driver everything becomes very slow, programs become irresponsive and I get some black screens. This is after a fresh install of windows 7 on my ssd... I've tried multiple driver versions yet still nothing... Can I get any help on this? Can it be my video card or is it most likely the driver interaction with my ssd?


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Just a little update - The tech from our internet and cable provider came out and did a bit of maintenance, but the issue persists. As I said earlier, I had tried games offline, even completely unplugged the internet and I still had the issue.

I also did post on the malware forum as recommended, but I have yet to receive a reply from anyone, but I am aware that it may take a while.


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## Shadeslayerz (May 1, 2014)

I FOUND MY PROBLEM!! Ok, so like I previously said I was having the exact same issue as you but was finally able to fix it.

What fixed my problem is this: I lowered the Graphics Card Overdrive that happens automatically in catalyst when installing video card driver. Basically, the memory and gpu clock settings were too high which were causing the sound loop + crash!

Basically, the video card runs at much lower speeds when using it for general purposes but when starting games or video intensive applications it overdrives to max settings and here was my problem, the default max settings were set too high. Catalyst, allows me to adjust the clock speed of gpu and memory during overdrive so I lowered them by ~150-200 MHz each and its been working great since.

You have NVIDIA card so you wont have Catalyst but you had nvidia geforce experience which might be similar(???)


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Shadeslayerz said:


> I FOUND MY PROBLEM!! Ok, so like I previously said I was having the exact same issue as you but was finally able to fix it.
> 
> What fixed my problem is this: I lowered the Graphics Card Overdrive that happens automatically in catalyst when installing video card driver. Basically, the memory and gpu clock settings were too high which were causing the sound loop + crash!
> 
> ...


I'll see what I can find. The Geforce experience doesn't seem to have anything that allows me to adjust anything like that, it only allows to optimization for games based on my pc rig. 
If anyone knows any programs that works for nvidia, please let me know. Thanks for the update though, Shadeslayerz. If I can find a program, hopefully this fixes my problem too.


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## Shadeslayerz (May 1, 2014)

Found this http://www.evga.com/precision/ , I think it should work for your nvidia card


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## Shadeslayerz (May 1, 2014)

Another quick update, lowering the frequencies helped for a bit but freezing came back so I decided to go to a friends house. I swapped out the power supply and RAM + the SSD I bought previously to check if HDD was a problem and the cpu radiator/fans but nothing changed, the problem was still there. I then swapped my Radeon 7850 graphics card for my friends 7870 and everything worked flawlessly which means it is my graphics card that is faulty. When running furmark on preset 1080p my 7850 was giving me 1230 score and when using the 7870 I was getting 2350 score... I know the 7870 is better but almost double the performance for an extra 20$ seems a bit absurd. I got an RMA for my card and will be sending it back to XFX since it is still under the 2 year warranty


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## Vakarian (Apr 27, 2014)

Shadeslayerz said:


> Another quick update, lowering the frequencies helped for a bit but freezing came back so I decided to go to a friends house. I swapped out the power supply and RAM + the SSD I bought previously to check if HDD was a problem and the cpu radiator/fans but nothing changed, the problem was still there. I then swapped my Radeon 7850 graphics card for my friends 7870 and everything worked flawlessly which means it is my graphics card that is faulty. When running furmark on preset 1080p my 7850 was giving me 1230 score and when using the 7870 I was getting 2350 score... I know the 7870 is better but almost double the performance for an extra 20$ seems a bit absurd. I got an RMA for my card and will be sending it back to XFX since it is still under the 2 year warranty


I wouldn't condemn your GFX card just yet. I've recently replaced my graphics card as well, it was a major upgrade all things considered, but that's besides the point. A part of me was hoping it was the graphics card that was causing the problem... but of course, it couldn't have been that easy. I'm still having the problem, but something has happened recently that might shed a tiny bit of light on what might actually be causing this.

I don't know how much you know about "kernel drivers", but I've had one on my pc crash 2x withing the past 2 week. The first time, it crashed while I was on Facebook. The color on the screen went to varying shades of greens, pinks, blues... it was a mess. You could still see the vague outline of what I was looking at... then the screen went black, and came back up. Then I got a notification saying a kernel driver crashed.

Second time it happened, I was playing a game. The crash itself looked exactly the same, but it never restored itself, and I couldn't alt tab, or bring up the task managed - I had to force the computer to shut down.  (I hate doing that)

The only reason I feel like this is a mildly important development is because when it froze the 2nd time, the sound was looping like it always does, except like I said... it never recovered.

If it happens again, I'll see if it's possible to write down word-for-word what the notification says, but hopefully, this gives you some idea, or if any of the volunteer techs are still checking this thread out, maybe it'll give them an idea as well.


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