Constant frame freezing while playing TF2. Any solutions?

[Phil Guardian]

I have this issue for more than two months, and it is now getting annoying.

Essentially, when I play TF2, I always have this "frame lock". No, it is not frame drops that only last half a second. While it is annoying, it is not preventing you to play the game normally. When my issue happens, my game will suddenly go from the constant 60fps I always get to this unplayable 0 to 4 fps for up to 30 seconds. This happens from spawning to being in the middle of a choke point. You know the game freezing when you edit the graphic settings? It is essentially this, but with only a frame updated every 2 to 5 seconds with all current sound played being looped until the next frame being updated.

Any solution would be really appreciated. I wonder if I am the only one having the issue.

As for every issue post, here is my specs:

- CPU: i5-8250U

- GPU: MX150 w/ 2GB of graphical memory

- RAM: 8GB DDR4

- OS: Win10 19H2 18362.10022 (Wonder if it is the cause of my particular issue)

And those who wants my specific device, search for Aspire A515-51G.



Thanks in advance for anyone trying to solve my problem!

[Rando the Crit Clown]

Sounds like a background program issue. Windows 10 might be doing something. Do you have two monitors? That'd make diagnosing way easier.

[Phil Guardian]

Originally posted by Rando the Crit Clown:

Sounds like a background program issue. Windows 10 might be doing something. Do you have two monitors? That'd make diagnosing way easier.

I do indeed have a dual display setup, but I unplug the display when playing TF2 to limit my graphic consumption. I only have Spotify alongside Steam (mandatory to run to play TF2 of course) on the background.

[Rando the Crit Clown]

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

Originally posted by Rando the Crit Clown:

Sounds like a background program issue. Windows 10 might be doing something. Do you have two monitors? That'd make diagnosing way easier.

I do indeed have a dual display setup, but I unplug the display when playing TF2 to limit my graphic consumption. I only have Spotify alongside Steam (mandatory to run to play TF2 of course) on the background.

Try keeping the other monitor on while you're playing so you can have task manager open. Have it set to sort by CPU use descending so the highest using programs will show up at the top. When the game starts acting bad see if there's a program there, or if one of the other categories (disk, gpu, etc) is acting up and swap to that view if it is.

It might be a background process of W10 like some updater, or Steam downloading something.

[tbenajj]

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

Originally posted by Rando the Crit Clown:

Sounds like a background program issue. Windows 10 might be doing something. Do you have two monitors? That'd make diagnosing way easier.

I do indeed have a dual display setup, but I unplug the display when playing TF2 to limit my graphic consumption. I only have Spotify alongside Steam (mandatory to run to play TF2 of course) on the background.

Maybe it's Spotify? TF2 is 12 years old I believe (or getting to that) and it could have trouble running when anything else is on (except Steam because it's mandatory)

[Rando the Crit Clown]

Originally posted by tbenajj:

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

I do indeed have a dual display setup, but I unplug the display when playing TF2 to limit my graphic consumption. I only have Spotify alongside Steam (mandatory to run to play TF2 of course) on the background.

Maybe it's Spotify? TF2 is 12 years old I believe (or getting to that) and it could have trouble running when anything else is on (except Steam because it's mandatory)

No, I run the game fine with Discord, Discord, OBS, 20 Chrome tabs, Audacity, Winamps, Media Player, and Notepad++. I'm thinking one of his programs acts up in the background.

[tbenajj]

Originally posted by Rando the Crit Clown:

Originally posted by tbenajj:

Maybe it's Spotify? TF2 is 12 years old I believe (or getting to that) and it could have trouble running when anything else is on (except Steam because it's mandatory)

No, I run the game fine with Discord, Discord, OBS, 20 Chrome tabs, Audacity, Winamps, Media Player, and Notepad++. I'm thinking one of his programs acts up in the background.

Hey, different computers run differently.

[Phil Guardian]

Originally posted by Rando the Crit Clown:

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

I do indeed have a dual display setup, but I unplug the display when playing TF2 to limit my graphic consumption. I only have Spotify alongside Steam (mandatory to run to play TF2 of course) on the background.

Try keeping the other monitor on while you're playing so you can have task manager open. Have it set to sort by CPU use descending so the highest using programs will show up at the top. When the game starts acting bad see if there's a program there, or if one of the other categories (disk, gpu, etc) is acting up and swap to that view if it is.

It might be a background process of W10 like some updater, or Steam downloading something.

Here is a screenshot of the task manager window. https://i.imgur.com/hRAjyoD.png Doesn't say much other than saying that TF2 is taking a quarter of my space.

[Phil Guardian]

Originally posted by tbenajj:

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

I do indeed have a dual display setup, but I unplug the display when playing TF2 to limit my graphic consumption. I only have Spotify alongside Steam (mandatory to run to play TF2 of course) on the background.

Maybe it's Spotify? TF2 is 12 years old I believe (or getting to that) and it could have trouble running when anything else is on (except Steam because it's mandatory)

Though Spotify is an Electron app, it does't use much resources while playing audio. https://i.imgur.com/hRAjyoD.png. Maybe Spotify isn't the problem?

[enxo]

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

Originally posted by Rando the Crit Clown:

Try keeping the other monitor on while you're playing so you can have task manager open. Have it set to sort by CPU use descending so the highest using programs will show up at the top. When the game starts acting bad see if there's a program there, or if one of the other categories (disk, gpu, etc) is acting up and swap to that view if it is.

It might be a background process of W10 like some updater, or Steam downloading something.

Here is a screenshot of the task manager window. https://i.imgur.com/hRAjyoD.png Doesn't say much other than saying that TF2 is taking a quarter of my space.

in that photo the tasks are ordered by greater use? It's weird, did it start happening in this update?

[Phil Guardian]

Originally posted by spooky trippy:

Originally posted by PhilLB1239:

Here is a screenshot of the task manager window. https://i.imgur.com/hRAjyoD.png Doesn't say much other than saying that TF2 is taking a quarter of my space.

in that photo the tasks are ordered by greater use? It's weird, did it start happening in this update?

Just ordered from greater use of CPU to the lowest. You can reorder it on top when selecting the categories.

[Scientist]

hey you should probably set all steam folders to ignore on windows defender, just like set it to ignore on the steam folder, that might solve it, this has a slight problem that if any game that happens to be a virus (there have been a few, but very very rare cases) then it wont detect it there, so be careful with this method.

[Scientist]

Originally posted by Mentally Scarred Sully:

hey you should probably set all steam folders to ignore on windows defender, just like set it to ignore on the steam folder, that might solve it, this has a slight problem that if any game that happens to be a virus (there have been a few, but very very rare cases) then it wont detect it there, so be careful with this method.

actually no i realize now your pc is probably strong enough to withstand windows defender or whatever antivirus you have so its probably tf2 making your cpu too hot and overheat protection kicks in

[Phil Guardian]

Originally posted by Mentally Scarred Sully:

hey you should probably set all steam folders to ignore on windows defender, just like set it to ignore on the steam folder, that might solve it, this has a slight problem that if any game that happens to be a virus (there have been a few, but very very rare cases) then it wont detect it there, so be careful with this method.

I've set TF2's folder as an exclusion, no difference at all.