Download Speed Drops to Zero

[teeman11]

Happens every time. Speed starts out great 100+mb network and 100+mb disk, times are under 10 minutes remaining. Then after about 30 seconds it drops to practically zero. It will occasionally bump back but for a second and drop again. I think it has to do with the 100% disk usage issue but I can't seem to fix it. Also, I can exit steam and come back it and it will repeat the process.

[Bee🐝]

You can’t fix it because it’s basically working as intended basically.

In short? The client isn’t just downloading, its decrypting, decompressing and installing, which is the drops in speed. This all depends on your CPU and drives and how well they handle intensive tasks.

[teeman11]

It's not working the way it's supposed too. It's been downloading for over 6 hours and is not complete. When it's installing and I can hear it running, fans kick in, it's doing it's thing. then the disk usage in the steam client drops and there then the network follows and nothing happens. fans stop and no progress is happening. The disk is 100% in the task manager but zero in steam.

No I don't play at the same time.

[Bee🐝]

Originally posted by teeman11:

It's not working the way it's supposed too. It's been downloading for over 6 hours and is not complete. When it's installing and I can hear it running, fans kick in, it's doing it's thing. then the disk usage in the steam client drops and there then the network follows and nothing happens. fans stop and no progress is happening. The disk is 100% in the task manager but zero in steam.

No I don't play at the same time.

The Client’s doing what it has to - it’s not a download problem - somewhere there’s an issue with the PC. My guess would be that something is “blocking” the install if it’s taking six hours.

Kill all background processes except for the Client and try again.

A full restart of the PC before you try again is a good idea.

Also, Iceria has a point as well.

[teeman11]

I've tried everything above and I still can't figure this out. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the 100% disk usage, but I've tried everything to try and fix that as well.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Originally posted by teeman11:

I've tried everything above and I still can't figure this out. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the 100% disk usage, but I've tried everything to try and fix that as well.

Your processor speed and whether youre using a digital drive will make a giant difference.

[Markaner]

I have the solution for your problem. You have to disable write cache on your storage. Just google how it is done and your problem will be solved. I had the same issue. Unfortunately this has to be done every time you restart the computer. No idea why. I go from like 0 MB/s to 110 MB/s instantly when disabling the feature. Haven't noticed any drawbacks from doing it either.

[traetona]

Originally posted by Markaner:

I have the solution for your problem. You have to disable write cache on your storage. Just google how it is done and your problem will be solved. I had the same issue. Unfortunately this has to be done every time you restart the computer. No idea why. I go from like 0 MB/s to 110 MB/s instantly when disabling the feature. Haven't noticed any drawbacks from doing it either.

Thanx a lot. Your solution 100% work for me!

[Markaner]

Originally posted by traetona:

Originally posted by Markaner:

I have the solution for your problem. You have to disable write cache on your storage. Just google how it is done and your problem will be solved. I had the same issue. Unfortunately this has to be done every time you restart the computer. No idea why. I go from like 0 MB/s to 110 MB/s instantly when disabling the feature. Haven't noticed any drawbacks from doing it either.

Thanx a lot. Your solution 100% work for me!

Great to hear! Is it resetting after each restart for you as well A bit annoying and I can't seem to find a way to make it stick after restart.

[Elucidator]

Bad solution.

Windows has the ability to interface with the hardware's caches. Read the option:

Enable write caching on the device

See what it says?
Its not a feature of Windows, but rather a feature windows can access on the device.

By disabling it, you bypass the cache and slow down your SSD/HDD, giving it a new Max Speed.
The cache is a spot where files can be written to temporarily so that the SSD can write from there directly. It is a space where files can appear much more quickly than in the actual memory cells.

By disabling this feature, you're slowing down your hardware. It doesn't resolve the issue at all; rather you're being fooled by graphs.

[Markaner]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Bad solution.

Windows has the ability to interface with the hardware's caches. Read the option:

Enable write caching on the device

See what it says?
Its not a feature of Windows, but rather a feature windows can access on the device.

By disabling it, you bypass the cache and slow down your SSD/HDD, giving it a new Max Speed.
The cache is a spot where files can be written to temporarily so that the SSD can write from there directly. It is a space where files can appear much more quickly than in the actual memory cells.

By disabling this feature, you're slowing down your hardware. It doesn't resolve the issue at all; rather you're being fooled by graphs.

What are you talking about. It solves the issue 100%. Something that used to take me hours to download now takes five minutes. That has nothing to do with graphs. Does it cause other issues? Can't be sure but I have not noticed anything after almost a year.

[Elucidator]

Originally posted by Markaner:

What are you talking about?

I apologize for the tone in that previous post.
I was talking about this:
https://www.game-debate.com/news/25719/why-your-ssd-is-slowing-down-and-how-windows-write-caching-could-save-the-day

and also this:
https://www.seagate.com/nl/nl/support/kb/how-to-improve-performance-of-an-external-drive-in-windows/

The first link shows someone actually testing the differences.
the second link is just what site seems to advise for the same reasons stated there and they're a hardware manufacturer, so you can assume its correct.

The point being, disabling it is diffidently not supposed to improve the time it takes to download stuff, but instead would overal ensure it would take more time. Disabling it will alsol affect the graph due to stability. If it fixed it in your case, that is extremely odd basically.

[Markaner]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Originally posted by Markaner:

What are you talking about?

I apologize for the tone in that previous post.
I was talking about this:
https://www.game-debate.com/news/25719/why-your-ssd-is-slowing-down-and-how-windows-write-caching-could-save-the-day

and also this:
https://www.seagate.com/nl/nl/support/kb/how-to-improve-performance-of-an-external-drive-in-windows/

The first link shows someone actually testing the differences.
the second link is just what site seems to advise for the same reasons stated there and they're a hardware manufacturer, so you can assume its correct.

The point being, disabling it is diffidently not supposed to improve the time it takes to download stuff, but instead would overal ensure it would take more time. Disabling it will alsol affect the graph due to stability. If it fixed it in your case, that is extremely odd basically.

No worries. The second link is for external drives whilst this is an internal one. There is no discussion about it, the download is more than 100 times faster, not only looking at the graph but also the time it takes. Trust me I've watched it download updates at 1 MB/s for hours and then disabling in only too get it done within 5 minutes. Something with steam and write cache on some drives is broken.

And this is only on some drives. My sata drive and other NVME drive has no issues whatsoever with the write cache enabled.

I have personally not seen any downsides to disabling it. Does it decrease the speeds by 1-3%? Maybe. But I do not notice it. What I do notice is my Steam updates and downloads taking 20 hours to complete instead of 5 minutes.

[AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 8-Core Process]

Originally posted by Markaner:

I have the solution for your problem. You have to disable write cache on your storage. Just google how it is done and your problem will be solved. I had the same issue. Unfortunately this has to be done every time you restart the computer. No idea why. I go from like 0 MB/s to 110 MB/s instantly when disabling the feature. Haven't noticed any drawbacks from doing it either.

Honestly if you don't know what you're talking about, or DO know but don't warn others users about the damage it could do, you're a huge scumbag.
This could damage your Disk really bad (for some users), to a point where you need to Factory Reset your PC.
I wouldn't recommend this method to ANY user. Avoid by any means.

[ihbindo]

Switch your download region setting to the US. 15mb -> 650+

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.