G751JY 2TB Seagate HDD causing lagspikes

Hi there. I have the G751JY with a 512GB SSD and a 2TB Seagate ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD HDD. Using the HDD disk for example for gaming, is causing frequent lag spikes (1-3 seconds of freezing). I am sure the HDD is the cause as the spikes happens at the same time I see disk usage for the HDD spiking in Task Manager. The computer is fairly new, so old drive failing should not be the problem. I've tried most disk scans and tests, nothing seems to be faulty. I'm not experiencing any spikes when I move the game to the SSD.

Anyone have any similar experiences to share, or suggestions to what could be the problem or solution?

Well yes I believe that 2TB drive is a 5400 RPM so it will be slower than your SSD, Since you have a 512 SSD I would just move my games to the SSD and just use the 2 TB Hard drive for Data storage.

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Originally Posted by Clintlgm

Well yes I believe that 2TB drive is a 5400 RPM so it will be slower than your SSD, Since you have a 512 SSD I would just move my games to the SSD and just use the 2 TB Hard drive for Data storage.

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Indeed I was wondering if the speed could be the problem, but why would lower speed make it spike and cause lag, in even really old games that doesn't require much? Usage can be stable at 0-10%, and suddenly spike to 40-100% like once every 20-100 seconds.

Yes it will, 5400 RPM is like 80MB/s where a SATA SSD is 500MB/s and M2 AHCI can run over 2000MB/s Then take into account that ASUS played a cruel joke. If you have that spinner in the second bay (not the one with the M2) its only SATAII.

I got so disgusted with spinners The only place Im using them now is in my NAS.

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Originally Posted by JustinThyme

Yes it will, 5400 RPM is like 80MB/s where a SATA SSD is 500MB/s and M2 AHCI can run over 2000MB/s Then take into account that ASUS played a cruel joke. If you have that spinner in the second bay (not the one with the M2) its only SATAII.

I got so disgusted with spinners The only place Im using them now is in my NAS.

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Interesting! Well I still can't believe 80MB/s isn't enough for old games ;p

Well then look for what ever else is running in the back ground causing the bottle neck?

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Originally Posted by Clintlgm

Well then look for what ever else is running in the back ground causing the bottle neck?

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Applications running from the same disk? Nothing else...

look for and disable superfetch services. Try also to disable your anti virus and test

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Originally Posted by Hitchy

look for and disable superfetch services. Try also to disable your anti virus and test

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Thanks for the suggestion, but already tried that.

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Originally Posted by HoTo

Thanks for the suggestion, but already tried that.

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You should use HD Tune and watch carefully the benchmark chart for read and write (the free version gives only the read chart I think but thats what we want right?).

Show us the chart once done.

A healthy HD should look like this
Attachment 61275

Good idea Hitchy, and thanks for the reference image!

3 tests gave me this:

Seems fine
Attachment 61279


Started with a spike
Attachment 61278


This is what happens when I simply navigate through folders while the test runs...
Attachment 61280

Hummmm the 3rd shart is suspicious... when u say navigating through folders is it just OPEN / CLOSE the folder windows or what do you do exactely? Tell me so I can do the same and see the difference...

But for me you mustn't have those brutal drops like the ones shown...


Tell me do you have frequent BSOD or never so far? Have u tried installing or decompressing huge file archives (above 2 Gb) did u have any errors or missing files after install / decompression?

I advise you do some benchmark tests for the RAM and the Processor also we never know...

Yes all I did in the third one was pressing D, then down to a folder under that, then down again, then up 2 steps, then back down to another folder, etc... Whenever these spikes appears in-game I also hear a sound coming from the computer, doesn't sound unusual. The disk have also had troubles with squeeky noises, but I haven't paid much attention to it. Again I'm pretty sure the HDD is the only problem, as everything running on my SSD is as smooth as it can get. No BSOD's or file writing errors. Only things I can think of myself is bad installation of the disk, maybe dismounting it and putting it back in could help, but I have no experience with removing and adding parts to a laptop. I could try removing all the content, formating it and putting things back again, but I have a feeling it wont make any difference.

Now something I've forgot to mention is that (I think) the disk came partioned in 2x 1tb partitions, and I merged them into 1x 2tb. I've done that to other disks in the past without trouble though, and Disk Management window seems fine.

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Originally Posted by HoTo

Yes all I did in the third one was pressing D, then down to a folder under that, then down again, then up 2 steps, then back down to another folder, etc... Whenever these spikes appears in-game I also hear a sound coming from the computer, doesn't sound unusual. The disk have also had troubles with squeeky noises, but I haven't paid much attention to it. Again I'm pretty sure the HDD is the only problem, as everything running on my SSD is as smooth as it can get. No BSOD's or file writing errors. Only things I can think of myself is bad installation of the disk, maybe dismounting it and putting it back in could help, but I have no experience with removing and adding parts to a laptop. I could try removing all the content, formating it and putting things back again, but I have a feeling it wont make any difference.

Now something I've forgot to mention is that (I think) the disk came partioned in 2x 1tb partitions, and I merged them into 1x 2tb. I've done that to other disks in the past without trouble though, and Disk Management window seems fine.

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You should be able to easily open the maintenance hatch that gives u access to RAM and HD slots and unscrew your HDD, remove it, then putting it back. Watch videos about mounting Hard drives for ASUS G751 its basic and unharmful provided you pay attention to what you do.

Question : make sure your disk is formatted GPT (check Disk management) and is in AHCI mode (check UEFI BIOS under SATA)

I've opened up the back before, but yes I will try to learn how to remove a disk and put it back in again. Yes AHCI mode is enabled, and the disk is in GPT format.