Got a new gaming laptop, now steam games take much longer to launch

[MrMcGinger]

I recently bought an Asus ROG Strix gaming laptop
Specs from the box (not sure what's important)
VRAM:6gb
CPU:Intel i7-6700hq/BGA
HDD:1tb 72R + 128G SATA3 SSD
ODD: WO ODD
RAM:DDR4 4G + 8G

MUCH better than the old asus laptop I had.

The issue is though, games from steam take much longer to launch now. I get a black screen for anywhere between 30 seconds and 2ish minutes before it finally starts whatever intro videos the game has. This is with all of my games on steam, the bigger the game, the longer I get to sit in a black screen. It only seems to happen with steam games though, I have Minecraft windows 10, and Halo 5 Forge and both of those take less than 10 seconds to load up.

Now I literally bought this thing just a couple of days ago, so I wouldn't assume there'd be any build up of unnecessary or junk files and I certainly don't have enough random apps to be bogging it down with background apps, I've literally only installed steam and GeForce Experience and the games from steam and the windows store.

The OS was by default installed in the much smalled SSD (and I installed Steam to this default before I realized and quickly ran out of room installing some bigger games)
So I left steam on the SSD and made a seperate folder on the other hard drive to install all the games on.

And I've done every suggestion I could find
Defrag
Windows + R then ran "steam://flushconfig"
Uninstalling and reinstalling steam
Uninstalling a game on the hard drive and installing it on the SSD to see if it'd run faster there
Uninstalling steam from the SSD and reinstalling it on the Hard Drive with the games
And a few other similar things that just seem to have had no effect whatsoever

Now the games, once they've loaded up they seem to play fine for the most part
Maybe a hiccup here or there, running a little slower than expected sometimes
Except Medieval Engineers which is forcing me to use a lower resolution that doesn't match the ratio of my laptop (something like 1024x768 in the game and 1920x1080 on my laptop) and just goes black screen until the "would you like to keep these settings" timer runs out and switches it back.

Is there anyone else who has run into a similar situation or may know of a fix that I haven't found? it's rather annoying to have to sit here and stare at a black screen for several minutes wondering if my laptop has frozen before I finally get to play a game

[Bumbefly (we/All)]

RAM:DDR4 4G + 8G
It's not advisable to have different size memory cards installed. To add 8G the shop where you bought the laptop should've known 2x4G should be added and not 1x8G. However that is not the cause, would affect everything on the comp and not Steam games only.

I wild guess would be extra time to load HD sound & video and respective settings & features. But that would not affect low-end games. With a 125 games i think you would have a few of them. Could you maybe try some low-end games if you didn't already?

Another guess would be different FW and/or AV (or versions there-of) that do not cope well with Steam.

Did you realy "only installed steam and GeForce Experience"? If not, check out this list :
"Programs Which May Interfere with Steam"
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

Also, there are these articles to review :
"Troubleshooting Game Performance Issues - Software"
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9257-TUJL-7421

"Troubleshooting Game Performance Issues - Hardware"
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2715-YIPD-6873

[MrMcGinger]

I bought the laptop from bestbuy. I can't imagine bestbuy or Asus would install hardware that would end up clashing and slowing the computer.

The only things I have installed so far are steam, GeForce experience, Halo 5 Forge, Minecraft Windows 10, and roughly 10 games from Steam.

The lowest end game I've tried so far is Surgeon Simulator and even that took roughly 30-45 seconds to launch.

Performance generally isn't the issue, once the game loads up I have hardly any issues unless I really push the game. I played a bit of fallout 4 on the highest settings to see how it'd handle it and there were no performance issues at all. I even used console commands to create a large number of different enemies to fight each other (there were 150-250 on screen before I quit out)

Medieval engineers is the only game I have issues with but that seems to be an issue with the game not necessarily my computer.

For the most part the only real issue I have is the ridiculous amount of time I sit waiting in a black screen.

After I press play from my steam library the small "launching game" menu comes and goes pretty quick. Then it takes a few seconds and the screen goes black. After it makes me wait the intro videos and everything after has little to no troubles.

My laptop is not with me at the moment but as soon as I get home I will try a couple older and lower end games to see if I have the same issue. So far though it seems like every game has the problem, just the bigger the game the longer it takes.

I will also try several games multiple times and time how long it takes for them to load.

[Spambot71 (main character)]

Not being able to imagine it just shows you lack imagination :P

There is no way to get 4+8 GB of memory "without" unbalancing the installed memory. You either have 2 cards that are unbalanced or two channels unbalanced.

First piece of advice, uninstal all the CRAP that comes installed by default.

[MrMcGinger]

I say I can't imagine because to me it seems ridiculous that a large computer company would be dumb enough to ship their products with conflicting hardware that ends up making the computer much less than what it should be/is advertised

As well as, as far as I can see, by both product reviews and numerous searches on the internet I can't seem to find anybody who has a similar problem as I do

[Bumbefly (we/All)]

You mention the screen being black several times. So that's how long it takes the laptop to process the initiation of the games loading screens. Reading the last posts i don't think lower end games will show much difference.

I sure would take a look at AV/AM realtime scan as well as the memory incompatibility. Furthermore, NVIDIA GeForce Experience and Steam are known to sometimes cause negative interferance (i forgot qabout that before). Be advised that NVIDIA GeForce Experience has their instructions to keep tabs on & dictate settings to the popular games, many of which are sold & played through Steam.

[MancSoulja]

MrMcGinger just post your laptop model number.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by MrMcGinger:

I bought the laptop from bestbuy

My guess is it has lots of bloatware installed on it still, and some of that even may be conflicting with Steam and games.

After checking for device driver updates for it, I would suggest you post screenshots of all the programs you have installed on it. Some of that stuff can probably be uninstalled.

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

MrMcGinger just post your laptop model number.

THIS...do this, please.

[MrMcGinger]

When I get home I will check bloatware, screenshot apps and so on and so forth.

I believe the model number is
GL702VM-BHI7N09
(According to bestbuy's website where I bought the laptop)

Here's the link to the laptop if that'd help
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-17-3-laptop-intel-core-i7-12gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hard-drive-128gb-solid-state-drive-black-anodized-aluminum/5580042.p?skuId=5580042

[The Giving One]

You need to confirm this is the exact model/submodel here on ASUS.

https://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ROG-GL702VM/HelpDesk_Download/

If not, search ASUS and find the correct computer, using the features of that official website.

Select your OS in the drop menu (for that one there is only Windows 10 64 bit)

Download and install any and all device drivers that need updating. Except for the GPU depending on if you have AMD or Nvidia. I did not look that far into the hardware that came in it so that is for you to check out, please.

Go to AMD's or Nvidia's official website and get the latest GPU device drivers. The computer could have sat at BestBuy for a long time while new drivers were being released.

Never let Windows update your device drivers unless you have no other choice.

Also, to clarify.......

Originally posted by MrMcGinger:

When I get home I will check bloatware, screenshot apps and so on and so forth.

I was not talking about screenshot apps that may be installed on that computer. I meant for you to take screenshots of all of the programs that are installed on it and upload them to a file hosting site such as imgur.com and post the links here so we could see if some of that software may be causing conflicts with Steam and/or games.

Prebuilt PC's/laptops you buy can come with a bunch of junk that you don't need and surely don't want running in the background, especially when you game on it. That is just wasted resources, and as said, sometimes there are conflicts.

You should only use the official ASUS website to update your device drivers and only when needed, the BIOS as well.

Usually, but not always necessary, it is good to have the latest BIOS if the OS is Windows 10. But only update BIOS if necessaary, as that has risks often, depending on the features of the computer.

[MrMcGinger]

Where would be a good place to view all installed programs? Would the uninstall or change a program screen work? Or somewhere else?

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by MrMcGinger:

Where would be a good place to view all installed programs? Would the uninstall or change a program screen work? Or somewhere else?

Yes, should be the screen where you uninstall programs. I don't have Windows 10 so control panel and programs/programs and features is what it is in Windows 7 instead.

That sounds right, though. Make sure you expand all the lists fully where applicable so we can see each and every program, and take as many shots as needed, scrolling down.

[MrMcGinger]

On the link you provided to the asus website, how do I know which drivers need to be updated? After I selected my operating system it shows 77 files to choose from

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by MrMcGinger:

On the link you provided to the asus website, how do I know which drivers need to be updated?

First of all, you don't seem to mention that you have confirmed that is your exact computer. I sugggested above that you verify it is your exact computer and if not, search for yours and find it and then get the latest device drivers.

Just download the latest ones except for any Nvidia or AMD GPU devices, and install them.

You don't want utility and other manager programs, software registration junk or all that crap. You want device drivers.

[The Giving One]

EDIT...

You want..

Chipset, ATK, AUDIO, LAN, Card Reader, TouchPad, Wireless, BlueTooth (probably), And you have to check the "others" category.

The VGA driver is for your on board video so that one is not so important right now IF you have a dedicated GPU by Nvidia or AMD , for example.

[MrMcGinger]

That is the same computer.
So that would be anything that literally says "driver" in it's name?
I apologize and I appreciate your patience, I don't know much about computers and I'm using this whole experience to learn as much as I can.

And as far installed programs
http://i.imgur.com/AAUWwpT.png?1
http://i.imgur.com/nTZzJdD.png?1