[Solved] Windows 10 input lags when downloading in Steam or using microsoft edge/When Downloading from Steam (Game updates and installs) my computer hangs/has very bad performance issues

[Co0k]

So loads better with the below fix, but I have actually ended up setting my page filing to 18 GBs in total to remove all in put lag during downloads. Seems fine now :)

------------Previous Edit------------

So I found another fix that is more Windows 10 related than anything to do with Steam and it seems to have worked well. All I had to do was turn off automatic system managed page filing on my Windows 10 computer and set it to a size that is equal to or above the recommended amount, so I naturally ignored the recommended amount and set it to over double that (10 Gigabytes).

(I have no issue since tested with a smaller game I have not had installed no input lags at all)

The link to the original source of the information is below: (It has a screenshot guide too)

https://fossbytes.com/how-to-fix-slow-performance-issue-in-windows-10-and-increase-overall-system-speed/

The issue with the below is the setting turns itself back on again so you have to keep doing it.

------------Original Fix Below (Not recommended)------------

I am posting this here because I could not find any posts for this already on Steam and I actually found the solution, so I thought I might help out anyone else who has this issue.

The issue is every time Steam starts to download something, game updates or installing a new game, my Windows 10 computer starts running very badly (Mouse stutter etc.) and is basically unusable until the download finishes.

The solution is to open command prompt as administrator and type (or copy past) the command:
bcdedit /set useplatformclock false

I do not really know what this does or why it works but I never just do what a website says without at least trying to find out what I am doing so I searched for the command and found the Microsoft site detailing all the options for this command and it states that this option should only be used for debugging. So while I am still non the wiser of what is does I do not mind turning it off since it should only be used for debugging.

The original source of the solution I found is located here:
https://appuals.com/computer-hangslags-when-downloading-from-steam/

The Microsoft page detailing the command options is found here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/bcdedit--set

All the Best

ADC

[mazw]

Thank you

[KillaP.Gaming]

This worked for me, second fix. page file was unnecessary.

[CACHO]

pene

[Embrao]

The cmd prompt (2nd solution) worked for me. Weird, though. I tried it yesterday and it didn't seem to work. Tried it again today and it's flawless.

EDIT: Nevermind, it only temporarily helped. Now it's back to making my entire system hitch, and making videos unwatchable with audio/visual hitches. Tried it a third time with no success

[Embrao]

UPDATE: I have an automatic data backup program that was causing the issue. Given this, anything that would read/index/scan files as they download into your computer can be a potential cause of this issue.

Check background processes in the task manager as well, as my backup program wasn't running in the foreground but had multiple processes indexing in the background.

[:::... FulVal85 [LMHT] ...:::]

Post this problem in official feedback app of windows and in steam beta forums

i'm sure that this is a problem of SATA controllers drivers, and i'm using default SATA drivers (without any problems...)

no input lags here with or without downloads...

also i don't use hardware acceleration in steam client and in all browsers and in all other apps/clients

for all stuttering i have just disabled APM of my hard-disk (all hdd/ssd that support this feature are affected by this problem)

check also control panel / power options (set high performance mode, but remember that you CAN'T disable APM here...)

[Co0k]

So the issue returned recently and I have just tried changing the driver to the default and it does seem better I do notice brief jitters here and there (like super brief) at the moment but nothing like what it was, to be honest I think it might be my board that is the issue since its quite old and that would explain why using the default Windows 10 driver makes a difference (more compatible with the new ways of doing things than the last really old driver for the board). Anyway I'll not be able to test properly till I upgrade the board, which has been due for a while but I'll not be able to test until next year at the earliest due to other more pressing expenses just now.

Thanks for the suggestion ':::... FulVal ...::: [LMHT]' since It is lots better so far

[DieserCoookie]

Quick question.
Is your Windows on the same drive you are installing the games or did you also set it for the drives on which the games are installed?

[RiO]

For the record, what useplatformclock actually does:

Windows has a few different sources to keep track of time.
Two of them are relevant for high-performance, i.e. sub-millisecond, counters.

One of them is the TSC register on your CPU, aka the Time Stamp Counter register.
This register counts CPU cycles; automatically incrementing with each instruction executed.

The other source is the HPET on the main board; the High-Precision Event Timer.


Windows itself should be able to determine if the TSC register is accurate enough, with low enough drift, to reliably use as the source for its high-performance counters. If it thinks it's not, it'll fall back to HPET.

bcdedit /set useplatformclock off

(or 'false') is an override on Windows' ability to self-judge and tells it: no; never use the HPET, only use TSC.

The downside is that you will get inaccurate high-performance counter values if the TSC is unreliable / unstable. And this can cause other problems in turn, like micro-stutter if games use high-performance counters to measure delta time between rendered frames.


Generally, Windows will do the right thing and you should not force any override, whether that be an on/true or off/false value. If doing so changes anything; you have a different problem which is preventing Windows from doing the right thing for your system.

[Hazelnurf]

АГА

[Co0k]

Originally posted by DieserCoookie:

Quick question.
Is your Windows on the same drive you are installing the games or did you also set it for the drives on which the games are installed?

Depends on the game but most of them no as the SSD is on 500GB in size with the OS installed upon it.

[Green Domo]

Originally posted by Embrao:

UPDATE: I have an automatic data backup program that was causing the issue. Given this, anything that would read/index/scan files as they download into your computer can be a potential cause of this issue.

Check background processes in the task manager as well, as my backup program wasn't running in the foreground but had multiple processes indexing in the background.

I know this is old but this helped, killed one of my HP Omen background process and my PC went back to normal. I've had this laptop for months, haven't had this issue until 2 days ago and I've never used the omen software for anything except my keyboards lighting. It was an overlay process Omen was running. Wierd

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by Green Domo:

Originally posted by Embrao:

UPDATE: I have an automatic data backup program that was causing the issue. Given this, anything that would read/index/scan files as they download into your computer can be a potential cause of this issue.

Check background processes in the task manager as well, as my backup program wasn't running in the foreground but had multiple processes indexing in the background.

I know this is old but this helped, killed one of my HP Omen background process and my PC went back to normal. I've had this laptop for months, haven't had this issue until 2 days ago and I've never used the omen software for anything except my keyboards lighting. It was an overlay process Omen was running. Wierd

Had the same issue for months on my old MSI laptop and you just helped me fix it, turned off my keyboard's Steelseries software and everything's normal.

[Midevil Chaos]

Originally posted by Green Domo:

Originally posted by Embrao:

UPDATE: I have an automatic data backup program that was causing the issue. Given this, anything that would read/index/scan files as they download into your computer can be a potential cause of this issue.

Check background processes in the task manager as well, as my backup program wasn't running in the foreground but had multiple processes indexing in the background.

I know this is old but this helped, killed one of my HP Omen background process and my PC went back to normal. I've had this laptop for months, haven't had this issue until 2 days ago and I've never used the omen software for anything except my keyboards lighting. It was an overlay process Omen was running. Wierd

Ah. For me, it was iTunes' Bonjour service, even though iTunes isn't even on. It took me a minute to terminate services to see which one it was for me, then wait, and then once I closed Bonjour? The download speed shot up until it finished the download.