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    Hardrive reads during gameplay

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by RedBaronK, Jul 23, 2008.

  1. RedBaronK

    RedBaronK Notebook Consultant

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    Does anyone here have a program or a way I can keep a log of what is the most frequently accessed program/file during game play so i can see what is causing my games to skip?

    I play TF2 and sometimes during game play hardrive access makes the game skip a frame and its annoying. I can see the blue hardrive read light comming on for a split second so that is how i know its being read. Is there a program that keeps logs on what is being read so I can try to trouble shoot or disable it? its really annoying to have frame skips like that in the middle of game play.

    Funny thing is this only happens in TF2, so i did consider maybe the game itself has an issue......
     
    RedBaronK, Jul 23, 2008
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  2. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    If it only comes on for a split second then thats normal. Check your drivers first

    If the light is going nuts for minutes, then something is thrashing your disk bandwidth.
     
    flipfire, Jul 23, 2008
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  3. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    Your windows task manager lists all the stuff using your HDD so you can use that and see if something you didnt know about is using your HDD.

    Also if the game skips when its happening that probably means your having a page file happen, the computer is having to save/load data (usually textures) off the HDD instead of the ram, to fix this get more ram :p

    If its not a page file the game should not skip even if your HDD is in use as the game wont be using the HDD.
     
    ViciousXUSMC, Jul 23, 2008
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  4. Jedi007

    Jedi007 Notebook Evangelist

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    its probably loading something

    how much ram do you have?
     
    Jedi007, Jul 23, 2008
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  5. WILLY S

    WILLY S I was saying boo-urns

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    This happens to me all the time in TF2 aswell. I have 2GB ram and a 250GB 4200rpm HDD so you can imagine how annoying it is :(

    Getting 4GB of ram then disabling the page file might alleviate this?
     
    WILLY S, Jul 23, 2008
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  6. RedBaronK

    RedBaronK Notebook Consultant

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    actually thats the funny part... i have 2 gigs of ram just like willy above and my hardrive is 5400rpm..... and when i check on ram use, the game only takes up at its peak 66% of ram so i dont think the memory is an issue. maybe like vicious mentioned the pagefile system is ineffiecient in swapping files?
     
    RedBaronK, Jul 23, 2008
    #6