Download speed keeps dropping to 0Mbps frequently

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Raxy 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:18am

Download speed keeps dropping to 0Mbps frequently

To preface, yes I did search the forums but all the threads are from years ago or they do not work

Whenever I download anything, whether it be a large game or small update the download speed frequently drops to 0 for a short period then goes back up, and repeats this until the download is finished.

This problem has been happening for well over a year, even back when I had gigabit internet. I thought it was just my computer/hard drive. Well now I know that's not the case since I have bought a new computer with an SSD and this issue still happens. It also cannot be my internet since I've travelled across the country and used a new ISP and this problem persists.

Anyone know why or how I can fix this?

Edit: Weirdly enough none of my friends have this issue even with the same games

Last edited by Raxy; 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:19am

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Showing 1-9 of 9 comments

Jack 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:44am

I've had this problem for ages too, would love a fix as I've tried almost all the suggestions from websites and videos.

Snapjak 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:46am

Let me guess, ARK Payday 2 or PoE?

Karien 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:47am

Just Steam servers being Steam servers. It happens at random to any game being downloaded.

Satoru 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:49am

Why do people “say” they searched the forum yet then prattle on because it’s pretty obvious they didn’t search for anything

So for the OP and the literal millionth time I’ve written this which your “search”

Steam downloads are compressed and require both CPU and disk IO. You’re disk IO starved because steam is patching files. It’s not downloading data because you have no IO to spare and it would just make everything slower

Last edited by Satoru; 20 Mar, 2020 @ 5:50am

F 20 Mar, 2020 @ 7:08am

It doesnt happen in every game that you download. But if that happens, you can easily open your task manager and see the disk percentage being used while the download is 0mbps. You will see that it reaches above 90% because steam is decompressing the files and sometimes the files are so heavily compressed that steam just needs a little breather.

Raxy 22 Mar, 2020 @ 8:46am

Originally posted by Satoru:
Why do people “say” they searched the forum yet then prattle on because it’s pretty obvious they didn’t search for anything

So for the OP and the literal millionth time I’ve written this which your “search”

Steam downloads are compressed and require both CPU and disk IO. You’re disk IO starved because steam is patching files. It’s not downloading data because you have no IO to spare and it would just make everything slower

I have literally bought a brand new SSD and I still get this issue, its not my hardware. That's what I mean when I say I "searched" the forum, as I stated in my original post, the posts I saw are outdated or dont work

Snapjak 22 Mar, 2020 @ 8:48am

The SSD isn't the problem, it's CPU and disk I/O. Ie: your CPU is working as much as it can.

Note we're not saying you have bad hardware, just that it's being fully used.

Also, Steam will download to it's default location then move so if you have Steam on a mechanical, that slows downloads even if the game installs to an SSD. It's dumb like that.

Last edited by Snapjak; 22 Mar, 2020 @ 8:49am

AlphaOmegaX3 12 hours ago

I found this post and it worked for me! Try it yourself .

"OK so I just started having this problem after upgrading my internet package last month and couldn't find a fix.

Before I go on to the brief fix which has already been described, I want to point out that I've downloaded games on Epic with no problem, but with Steam I was getting these dips so often that it seemed like my internet upgrade was more like a downgrade. My disk seemingly couldn't keep up with the higher throttle I set on download rates.

Anyway, I have two internal SSD's and both had Write Cache enabled, so I DISABLED them instead and now my download and disk usage is continuously stable.
(device manager > disk drives > [ssd] > right click > properties > policies)

TLDR - Try disabling or enabling Write Cache on the disk drive that you are downloading games on."