BF4 PC - Game is so slow it is barely able to load [ Edited ]

[Machiavelli_811]

Hello,

I'm trying to get BF4 to run on my laptop (Asus G751JT). However, the game is absurdly, unusably slow.

BF4 opens in a window, and I can see the little white loading bar moving at about once every two seconds. I attempted to load the campaign to rule out network issues, and I left it alone for about 15 minutes and it did indeed show the loading video (slower than a slideshow) and eventually got to the difficulty selection screen. I couldn't access the menu to inspect graphics options or game settings since the controls were unresponsive. 

Frankly it It looks like what happens when you try to run a game on a system that is at below the minimum recommended specs, but this laptop shouldn't fall into this category...Also I can run Far Cry 4 on it without any issues so the graphics card at least seems to be functional.

The specs are as follows:

CPU: i7 4710HQ 2.5GHz

RAM: 16GB

GPU: GTX 970M  3GB (347.52 driver)

OS: Win 8.1 64-bit

BF4 is installed to a Samsung 850 Evo SSD. 

So far I have tried:

• Uninstalling/reinstalling BF4
• Repairing BF4 install
• Deleting the 'settings' folder under Documents
• Reinstalling Punkbuster, DirectX, and VC redistributables 
• Moving BF4 from the SSD to the main HDD to rule out issues with the SSD
• Running Origin and BF4 as Administrator
• Disabling Origin In Game
• Uninstalling GeForce Experience
• Reinstalling Nvidia drivers
• Under Nvidia Control Panel, set BF4 to use performance mode instead of balanced or energy saving etc
• Made sure my laptop is plugged in and using the 'high performance' power setting

This has got me stumped. I'm not sure what else to try. I really don't know if it's a problem with my game setup or with the laptop, but the fact that Far Cry 4 doesn't have problems leads me to believe it's a game-specific issue.

EDIT - It's not Windows firewall or my router's firewall; turned them both off and no change.

Has anyone else experienced this problem, and know of a workaround or have any more suggestions?

Thanks!! 

[Machiavelli_811 · Accepted solution]

After a lot of troubleshooting, I got frustrated and started killing random processes in Task Manager. Killing the ROG Game First software apparently did the trick. 

I had tried killing processes before, but never touched Game First since I considered it an important app and use it on my desktop as well, with absolutely no negative impact on BF4.  But then again, my desktop has Win 7 and my laptop is Win 8.1  -_-

So to anyone else on a ROG laptop running Win 8.1....if BF4 crawls, try disabling Game First:

• Launch Services.msc
• Right-click on "AsusGameFirstService" and select "Properties"
• Go to "Startup Type"  > select "Manual" or "Disabled"
• Click OK

[Machiavelli_811 · Accepted solution]

After a lot of troubleshooting, I got frustrated and started killing random processes in Task Manager. Killing the ROG Game First software apparently did the trick. 

I had tried killing processes before, but never touched Game First since I considered it an important app and use it on my desktop as well, with absolutely no negative impact on BF4.  But then again, my desktop has Win 7 and my laptop is Win 8.1  -_-

So to anyone else on a ROG laptop running Win 8.1....if BF4 crawls, try disabling Game First:

• Launch Services.msc
• Right-click on "AsusGameFirstService" and select "Properties"
• Go to "Startup Type"  > select "Manual" or "Disabled"
• Click OK

[Xenophren]

You are rawrsome, i've been tearing my hair out trying to figure this one out, ending the ROG game first task did the trick immediately. Thank you so much for narrowing down that very annoying bug ^_^

[zoshuatree]

THANK YOU!

[Rampant_Rabbid]

Ah ROG's Piece of * app. When I first got my board I install everything. This I installed. On Win7. And it, instead of making my internet faster, just killed my internet completely. Pages would not load.

But when I decided to test Win10 and install all updated drivers including a new GameFirst III , I was like wow it works, Win 10 must be good ( which I now know, Win10 is evil as, and I will be getting rid ). Anyways, THIS, crappy gamefirst app was the problem and I did what I never ever do, installed some driver updater software, which found 10 things out of date but were clearly not the problem

Asus. You suck. Gigabyte boards for me from now on. But thank you for this. I thought my problems with this app were over, I didn't even have it in my mind. Excellent. Thank you. Maybe I can play the game as the two hours I have are just from it loading so slow that it is completely unplayable.