Disk and Memory Usage spikes after playing a certain game.

[Jack625]

I am using an HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop, and have been for about 4 years. I have had very few issues with it both hardware and software-wise, however an issue that I have been encountering in the past year has been with one particular piece of software: Fornite. I want to preface this by saying I have contacted Epic Games support and have found that it is not a game-based issue, and instead Fortnite somehow is a catalyst for my specific issue. 

After opening Fortnite and getting into a game, I experience multi-second long freezes to my entire PC. This is not performance lag, as I do not overclock or enforce anything beyond what I am aware my GPU is capable of. Another thing to note, I have used task manager to pinpoint the issues, seeing spikes to above 50%, to even 100% disk usage with memory usage spikes as well during and after closing Fortnite. This does not occur in any other software, and the weirdest part is that the issue continues after closing the game. Every ten seconds or so after closing Fortnite I get the same spikes and freezes until I shut down my PC and turn it back on. Is there anything I can do? I have reset my virtual memory, cleaned and reset my graphics drivers using a DDU, verified files tens of times, set shader cache dumps to unlimited, and all i have found to change is graphical fidelity, nothing stops the freezing. 

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Jack625 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

This is unusual to see high disk usage and memory spikes in one game. The PC works fine in all other scenarios.

I would not think your PC has a hardware problem or a system file problem since the issue only occurs when running Fortnite.

Have you tried isolating what Task Manager processes are causing the spikes?

Maybe you can do a search to see what each offending process is and if each process is related to Fortnite or some other system function.

Have you removed and reinstalled Fortnite?

Have you run HP Diagnostics and checked Windows system files?

Maybe check Windows Event Viewer>Administrative Events after restarting the PC to check for any critical errors happening prior to doing a shutdown.

I'm guessing you can't shutdown the PC within Windows. Thus you have to use the power button or disconnect AC power. Is this correct?

W11 has a fairly easy in-place upgrade option that can non-destructively reinstall Windows which can sometimes fix many OS problems.

Let me know if you want to try a W11 in-place upgrade.

Regards

[Jack625]

I have tried using Task manager, but unfortunately I have found nothing conclusive as to what causes the spikes. 

Removing and reinstalling Fortnite is the *only* fix, but only once after redownloading. That is the most vexing part of the entire issue, that Fortnite runs perfectly only after removing and reinstalling it. After closing the game and reopening it does it start to cause this issue.

I can shut down my PC via windows, and in any way I decide to shut down, this fixes the spiking issue after it starts to occur. The spiking is not so bad that it removes my ability to use the PC, but it bad enough to force me to restart my PC each time it occurs, making troubleshooting this particular issue incredibly time consuming and intensive on my PC. 

A W-11 in place upgrade would be nice, as this is what was recommended by the support I got from Epic as well. The only issue being that I don't have time to do a fresh install like that for a good bit, like a good week or two. 

I will try to do the rest of the things you recommend to single out an issue, but this issue affects my *Entire PC* after it begins and does not stop until I restart my PC, so trouble shooting will take time. 

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Jack625 

Try the following if you can't isolate the problem.

First check your PC's hardware using HP Diagnostics as follows:

Start the PC. Repeatedly tap the "ESC" key.

Select "F2". Run extensive system and component tests to confirm: a drive problem, a memory problem, or other component problem.

Then try a W11 in- place upgrade if your PC's hardware is okay.  Don't do an in-place upgrade if your PC has a hardware problem.

A W11 in-place upgrade is not a clean installation. I've done quite a few in-place upgrades. I've never had to reconfigure Windows or reinstall software after a successful in-place upgrade.

Windows settings and program installations should not be affected (per Microsoft) when doing the upgrade.

But, to be safe, you should back up system drive data if you store stuff on the system drive before doing an in-place upgrade.

Regards

[Jack625]

Thank you for your help. I finally isolated an issue using the event viewer, and found that a "Realtek Gaming Gbe Family Controller" was trying to reset each time I played Fortnite. During this reset, it would interrupt networking and lag my entire PC. I fixed it by disabling ethernet. Why this occurred I have no idea as I do not use Ethernet, but it is fixed after months. I appreciate your help.

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Jack625 

My pleasure.

I would have never expected an Ethernet adapter problem.

Event Viewer is a handy troubleshooting tool.

Good to see you fixed the issue.

Regards