Device Manager constantly refreshes on my computer, and the refresh appears to cause brief stutters in War Dogs. I only noticed the connection because the stuttering stops during the rare moments when Device Manager stops refreshing. I've tried the usual troubleshooting steps from search results and several video guides, but I haven't completely reformatted Windows yet. Disconnecting my external USB devices didn't fix it, although I'm still investigating software that interacts with cloud services. I also disabled Windows Error Reporting.
3 Answers
Even if nothing is connected externally, an internal USB device could be repeatedly re-enumerating. Possible sources include a Bluetooth adapter, front-panel card reader, liquid-cooling controller, or another device connected to a motherboard header. A USB device-viewing utility that records the last plug and unplug time may help identify which device keeps changing state.
I’m dealing with the same problem, and the game is nearly unplayable when the refresh happens. If you find the cause, it would be useful to know whether it turned out to be a physical device, an internal USB header, or background software.
A device may be repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting, which makes Windows refresh the hardware list and can interrupt some games. Try unplugging peripherals one at a time, including USB hubs, keyboards, mice, external drives, and other accessories. If that doesn’t help, check software that creates virtual drives or monitors cloud storage, since those can also trigger hardware polling. A sleeping mouse or similar device can occasionally cause the same kind of pause.
I tested the external USB devices already, but I’ll look more closely at cloud-storage and other background applications.