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Thread: SSD question

  1. #1

    Default SSD question

    Got a new ssd and overall I'm pretty happy with it. I have Windows 7 and AoC installed on the ssd and I have a copy of AoC on the second hard drive as well so I can run AoC from either drive. The issue is that there is an odd hitching/stutter during disk accesses when playing AoC, or any other game, from the ssd.

    It's not *that* bad and maybe I'm expecting too much but I had thought an ssd would eliminate any kind of stutter from disk accesses completely.

    On the other hand, and this is what makes me think something is not right... if I run AoC from the old hard drive the odd stutters do not happen at all. I'm defining odd stutters as when I'm just moving through a zone and everything hitches for no apparent reason. I know AoC has to build a cache after a new install and that anything new coming into range will cause some disk access which can cause stuttering but this seems to be happening for no reason and it's only when running from the ssd.

    On the other other hand... When running into a raid or a new area for the first time the ssd is hands down the winner for fast, smooth loading of all the players/npcs and armors. Zone times are much faster as well. 3 to 5 seconds for most zones. Windows boots in about 8 seconds as well.

    At this point I'm thinking the odd stutters are caused by some program, likely Windows itself as I have nothing else going that I'm aware of, including no anti-virus atm, writing something to the ssd which apparently only causes in-game stutter if the game is also running from the ssd. About the only thing I haven't done is install Windows to the hard drive and AoC to the ssd and see how that works.

    Basically my question would be is this normal for ssds?

    If not I'm thinking this ssd is either crappy or going bad or the sata controller on the motherboard is not up to snuff. Perhaps a combination of some/all of that and a slightly weak cpu as well.

    Happy to hear any advice or suggestions. What I've done so far is:

    Updated the motherboard bios to the latest version.
    Updated the ssd firmware to the latest version.
    Made sure the motherboard bios was set to Sata and ACHI mode.
    Did a full wipe and a clean install of Windows 7 from a disk with SP1.
    Turned off Indexing, Prefetch, SuperFetch, Scheduled Defrag and Hibernation.
    Ensured TRIM was turned on via the fsutil command.
    Installed DX9 from the June 2010 full distribution package.
    Installed the latest AMD video drivers.
    Experimented with Pagefile on and off. Made no difference. Ditto for Prefetch/SuperFetch and Write Cache Buffering and flushing.
    Tried the latest version of both the Windows native ACHI driver and the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers. No difference.

    Using Driver Booster from IObit to update all the drivers btw. Seems like a decent program.

    SSD is plugged into a Sata 3 port. Tried two different cables with it. Also tried plugging it into a Sata 2 port for testing and tried disconnecting every other drive, including the dvd, in the computer to see if there were possible conflicts or resource hogging. No difference.

    Disabled Recycle Bin and System Restore.
    Set Power option to High performance making sure all cpu cores were set to 100% min and max and that the drive will never go into Sleep mode.
    Ran AoC, and other games, with sound off and with the motherboard audio disabled in bios. No difference.

    This is a benchmark of the computer from UserBenchmark.

    http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/47685

    I've noticed over time the write performance on the ssd has gone down slightly, which from what I read is to be expected.

  2. #2

    Default

    So Round 2...

    Tried a few other things, running AoC as Admin, running it in various compatibility modes, setting the Windows temp variable to a directory on the hard drive instead of the ssd.... None of which helped at all.

    Then I noticed the AgeofConan.log file was getting rather large. I opened it in Notepad to four megs of:

    [2014-08-15 07:00:43Z #0] [ID:0] ERROR: ResourceManager - Resource 1000621:143328 does not exist in any available RDB sources.
    [2014-08-15 07:00:43Z #0] [ID:0] ERROR: ResourceManager - Resource 1000621:143329 does not exist in any available RDB sources.
    [2014-08-15 07:00:43Z #0] [ID:0] ERROR: ResourceManager - Resource 1000621:143331 does not exist in any available RDB sources.

    The entries in this file are the writes to the ssd that are causing hitching/stutters.

    So I have at least two problems. An ssd with really poor write performance and some missing resources in the AoC files.

    I've done a full file scan/repair data but it didn't help. Also checked the ssd and hard drive for errors with no results.

    Checking TSW I see it has a similar file named Clientlog.txt with many similar errors in it so it's the same problem there. I've also done a full file scan/repair data for it with no joy.

  3. #3

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    Why do you bother having a second AoC install on another drive (unless it's Testlive)? I run 2x AoC or more from one single install (and that's even on a HDD ) you just need do that little trick (I don't remember exactly, some file you need to delete or something?)

    And don't worry about AoC's log, it's always a mess (you can disable the logging to get a little extra performance)

    What SSD model is it though?

    And FYI, SSDs do behave differently compared to HDDs when they start struggling with write (or read, but that's unlikely to ever happen) performance, they freeze rather than slow down to a crawl (and make noise) like HDDs do. It feels completely different and is very noticeable on old or cheap/crap SSDs.
    Last edited by kalston; 15th August 2014 at 10:17.
    Expert Shield of the Risen opener.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by kalston View Post
    Why do you bother having a second AoC install on another drive (unless it's Testlive)? I run 2x AoC or more from one single install (and that's even on a HDD ) you just need do that little trick (I don't remember exactly, some file you need to delete or something?)

    And don't worry about AoC's log, it's always a mess (you can disable the logging to get a little extra performance)

    What SSD model is it though?

    And FYI, SSDs do behave differently compared to HDDs when they start struggling with write (or read, but that's unlikely to ever happen) performance, they freeze rather than slow down to a crawl (and make noise) like HDDs do. It feels completely different and is very noticeable on old or cheap/crap SSDs.
    Oh. How do I disable that aoc logger? So tired of having it crash almost everytime I exit the game. And tired of it filling my drive with log files.
    Barb: Thomaran
    Hox1: Mweru
    Dt: Haikuju
    Hox2: Shugorann
    Tos: Nephertites
    Sin: Leogetz
    Necro: Viggomortis
    and others...

    "The sky is green. It is because I say it is. And because I said it on the internet."

  5. #5

    Default

    Open dbDebug.conf with notepad and change DebugLevel to a high number like 6 or 9
    Expert Shield of the Risen opener.

  6. #6

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kalston View Post
    Open dbDebug.conf with notepad and change DebugLevel to a high number like 6 or 9
    Thx a lot

    Edit: Well, it doesn't really work here. If I change the number and start the launcher, the game still writes log files and sets the number in dbdebug.conf back to 3, even when the file is set as read only
    Last edited by AngryBarb; 15th August 2014 at 14:02.
    Barb: Thomaran
    Hox1: Mweru
    Dt: Haikuju
    Hox2: Shugorann
    Tos: Nephertites
    Sin: Leogetz
    Necro: Viggomortis
    and others...

    "The sky is green. It is because I say it is. And because I said it on the internet."

  7. #7

    Default

    Aaah yes I forgot that you need AoCQuickStart or similar to skip the patcher because it resets it. Maybe you can try setting dbDebug.conf to read only as well.
    Expert Shield of the Risen opener.

  8. #8

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kalston View Post
    Aaah yes I forgot that you need AoCQuickStart or similar to skip the patcher because it resets it. Maybe you can try setting dbDebug.conf to read only as well.
    Ah, forgot about that quickstart thingy. Well I already tried setting dbdebug.conf to read only, but the launcher replaces the file. will try with quick launch.
    Barb: Thomaran
    Hox1: Mweru
    Dt: Haikuju
    Hox2: Shugorann
    Tos: Nephertites
    Sin: Leogetz
    Necro: Viggomortis
    and others...

    "The sky is green. It is because I say it is. And because I said it on the internet."

  9. #9

    Default

    The hard drive has backups of everything so I don't have to download the entire game from scratch after a re-install of Windows. On 1.5meg dsl so that would take a while. I wasn't intending to actually play AoC from the hard drive but when the ssd started acting funny I tried it just to see what would happen.

    So the log files... I used the info from this thread:

    http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=64500

    to deny all permissions to the AgeofConan.log and ClientLog.txt files and prevent the games from writing to/modifying said files. ClientLog is the TSW log file btw. This smoothed the games out and as a bonus prevents a ton of writes to the ssd. But obviously it's just a workaround and not a fix. This may also bork any addons that read data from the log file.

    I found that running the repair data option results in an almost 400 meg download *every* time. Even if I've just ran it and not even started the game(s) at all. I had considered doing a re-install and full download but I see people posting that it didn't help them.

    Guess that's the best I can do for now.

    The ssd is a PNY XLR8 240gig Pro.
    Last edited by Raeil; 15th August 2014 at 19:19.

  10. #10

    Default

    Filling a SSD to 75% and above >>CAN<< (that's a maybe, possibility) give some serious performance issues. 90% makes it worse. Read speeds can still be quick, but write's can be quite crepe. Sometimes to the point you need to low-level format of your drive will only recover the file system.

    Also, what model drive do you have? Some time some of them have issues with certain chipsets and Windows combo's. << Nevermind, You have a PNY.

    You could also have some mobo driver issues with the SSD, and even with latest drivers (that's a **** philosophy of most gamers to live by, by the way. That doesn't fix unreported issues magically. Not your fault anyway), you might still have IO issues anyway.

    Or maybe just have a crazy SSd with a crazy controller =P << Not a crazy controller. Sandforce.

    Edit above <<

    What is your CPU, VGA, RAM and FSB settings at, curiously? I usually only get staggeing and frame dropping from certain situations. I find that certain things, despite my video settings, will still warrant file loads, heance a sort of staggering with my gameplay.
    Last edited by stiiixy; 17th August 2014 at 08:25.

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