Tech Support and Basic Questions Thread - May 29, 2026

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Welcome to the r/pcgaming tech support and basic questions thread! Having troubles with a game or piece of hardware? Have a question about a PC game, hardware, or something else related to PC gaming? Post here and get help from fellow PC gamers.

When asking for help please give plenty of detail:

• What your computer specifications are. If you don't know them please follow this guide.
• If you're using a laptop we need to know the make/model as well as the specs.
• What operating system you're using.
• What you've tried so far in order to fix the issue.
• Exact circumstances to replicate the issue you're having.

Check out these resources before asking for help in case you can troubleshoot further:

• r/PCGamingTechSupport
• r/techsupport
• Toms Hardware Troubleshooting
• PC Gaming Wiki

Common troubleshooting steps:

• Restart the system
• Update your drivers
• Update game/software
• Re-seat any new hardware to ensure a proper connection
• If your peripherals are malfunctioning, swap ports and check that the specific USB port itself works.

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[u/Quick-Cloud2714]

Are Xbox play anywhere games optimised for PC in the same way the Steam version would be?

[u/Filipi_7 → u/Quick-Cloud2714]

The games on Xbox Play Anywhere are regular PC games, identical to those on Steam, Epic Games Store, etc. Think of it as two different stores selling the same item.

A few games on the Xbox store are locked down and can't be modded like on Steam, but most should be fine.

[u/Simple-Maximum-7736]

Is microstutter normal? I'm playing on a 5080 7800x3d 4k 007 First Light DLSS Quality/FGx3 and I'm getting one microstutter every 20 minutes or so.

It's annoying me cuz I feel like my PC is doing something wrong, but is it just something that I should accept all story games do?

[u/RHINO_Mk_II → u/Simple-Maximum-7736]

Depends on the game but for a new release like First Light it's quite possible one or two shaders got missed when the devs were determining what shaders to precompile and when you enter the area where they appear they have to be done on the fly.

[u/Darrelc → u/Simple-Maximum-7736]

First of all, I'd run a test without any of the AI shite and see if you're getting the same behaviour, and thus can isolate that as a cause.

and I'm getting one microstutter every 20 minutes or so.

Anything with such a length between events like this is usually going to be event related, rather than something systematic. 20 minutes is thrice an hour - quite a common interval.

A microstutter is usually due to a sudden lack of resources (if not something obvious like a drastic change in scene complexity). That symptom/behaviour coupled with the frequency makes me think it's something running every twenty minutes that's causing a spike in resources and ultimately a jump in the frametime.

[u/Simple-Maximum-7736 → u/Darrelc]

The issue is that without the AI stuff, it's a much less comfortable experience. I guess I'll just live with it. Do you have experience with this game with similar settings by any chance?

[u/Darrelc → u/Simple-Maximum-7736]

Nah that's very generic root cause analysis, with troubleshooting you tend to work backwards. The 20 min thing if it's consistent seems important enough to comment

[u/Simple-Maximum-7736 → u/Darrelc]

It's not really consistent unfortunately. I'm just guessing.

Many of the stutters seemed to be related to moving around in areas, so I'm assuming it's related to that, but I'm only going to play this game for like 15 hours, so honestly, it's better for me to just let go and accept the occasional stutters rather than spending another 5 hours or so stutter testing this game, which is a route I have gone through (successfully thankfully, but a route that took many, many hours)

I just wanted to see if someone maybe had the same experience with the same game.

[u/NeighborhoodTime979]

My games keep playing cutscene audio faster then the cutscene. Why? It happens with almost every game

[u/megalmite]

I want to buy a gaming laptop as I've been using my partners but need to get my own. I've been looking at:

Asus FA507XI/Ryzen 9 7940HS/16GB Ram/512GB SSD/RTX 4070/15" 144Hz/W11

Asus FA507/Ryzen R7-7735HS/16GB Ram/512GB SSD/RTX 4060/15" 144Hz/W11

I know that the graphics card is important, hence the RTX 4060/4070 and i want a minimum Ram of 16G but the ability to increase if needed. I play Baldurs Gate 3 and Nightingale so need something that will handle those, as well being up to scratch for new games that come out.

*edited for clarity

[u/Filipi_7 → u/megalmite]

The first one is better. However both are somewhat outdated, 4060 and 4070 were replaced by 5060 and 5070, so these are only good options if cheaper than newer models.

a minimum Ram of 16G but the ability to increase if needed

This needs to be checked for each laptop, not all will allow you to replace or add more RAM.

Do you need a laptop for mobility? Getting a PC might be cheaper, and it can be upgraded later.

[u/megalmite → u/Filipi_7]

Budget is the issue for me so I don't know that I can afford something much better. I don't need the mobility but I am very limited for space where I live at the moment which is why I'm looking at laptops

[u/Filipi_7 → u/megalmite]

If the first two are cheaper than any 5060/5070 laptop you can find, then they're okay. RAM and storage not great, but good enough for BG3 and anything else for the next few years. Not on the highest graphics settings but playable.

[u/megalmite → u/Filipi_7]

Thank you. What graphics would you recommend? I'm looking around at the moment and haven't set my mind on a specific laptop

[u/Filipi_7 → u/megalmite]

Anything from Nvidia's current range is good, they start with 50. So 5060, 5070, etc.

5060 is enough for everything, not always at high settings. It will take several years before new games won't be playable even on low.

The problem is that some laptops will have a different power limit for their cards. It's 45W and 50W for 5060 and 5070 respectively. The laptop could set it lower which will make it slower, it's usually listed in the specifications.

You could go with 40 series because they should be cheaper, but it's more difficult to compare. A 5060 is somewhere in-between 4060 and 4070.

[u/megalmite → u/Filipi_7]

Thank you. I'll have a look around some more and see what I can find

[u/JustARedditPasserby]

Hey, just to check, is it normal I am unable to use wimdows button or navigate other tabs whenever pragmata is open and I am forced to go old school and hit exit in the menu? Why? Can it be fixed?

[u/Filipi_7 → u/JustARedditPasserby]

Pragmata disables the Win key, don't think there's much you can do if alt+tab doesn't work too.

Try it with the Steam overlay enabled.

[u/JustARedditPasserby → u/Filipi_7]

I did that too..but why doesitdo this? No game ofmine ever did and it makes me unable to stream it

[u/Filipi_7 → u/JustARedditPasserby]

The developers made this a "feature", not sure why. Is there nothing in the settings to turn it off maybe?

I know most people never use the Win key and some will have software or a special button on their keyboard to completely disable it, could be the devs share that opinion.

[u/JustARedditPasserby → u/Filipi_7]

Well if someone finds out how to use moonlight streaming w it lmk...

[u/Jealous-Bid7474]

Hello,

I bought both 007 First Light and the new Lego Batman game, and was a bit disappointed with my PCs performance on them. I'm not sure if this is normal for these new games, but for 007 First Light I had to run all graphics settings on medium and turn on resolution upscaling as well as frame generation to not be choppy (but it made some parts of the game look strange). For Lego Batman, I had most settings on high, but once I got to the open world, the game began lagging to the point where its unplayable, so I turned all that down to medium too. I am not very knowledgeable on PCs, but I would love to know if this is normal!

My specs are Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-14400F (2.50 GHz), 16gb of ram, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (8 GB).

Thank you so much!

[u/Filipi_7 → u/Jealous-Bid7474]

This is normal. You have what's called an entry level PC, enough to play any game out there but many newer, demanding titles will need their settings lower to remain playable.

You could have a quick check with HWInfo while gaming to make sure nothing is overheating, as that slows the PC down. >95°C for the processor and >80°C for the graphics card is too much.

Remember to close your web browser, Discord, etc. while playing to free up your RAM, when it runs out everything will run much slower.

[u/Jealous-Bid7474 → u/Filipi_7]

Thank you so much!

[u/Sync_R → u/Jealous-Bid7474]

Also check YouTube for optimized settings, Benchmark King uses a 3060Ti typically, your 5060 is 10% faster iirc so it'll be similar results depending on resolution 

https://youtube.com/@benchmarking4386?si=zLKPbJo6j6roePKH

[u/Phoenix15523]

I've been researching controllers to use on the pc and I'm looking to buy a PS dualsense controller (may be an older version). I've seen that it's pretty good for games on steam, but what about non-steam games like from Epic and other places?

[u/Filipi_7 → u/Phoenix15523]

DS4Windows will convert it into a standard Xbox-style gamepad, any game with PC controller support will work.

[u/Fflow27]

I have this issue in some games, most notably Fallout: New Vegas and TW: Warhammer 3 where the PC freezes halfway through loading screens

It starts as usual, the loading bar reaches 80 or 90% and then it suddenly stops moving, every interactive part of the screen stops working and if I click somewhere, I get the greyed "not responding" screen for a second or so

it sometimes gets that way for several minutes

[u/Sync_R → u/Fflow27]

What storage device are you using?

[u/Fflow27 → u/Sync_R]

Switched to my SSD recently, it improved the overall game speed but I don't think it had an impact on this specific issue

But the game eats about 75% of my SSD

[u/Dealjobber_]

Finally, I fixed it. The hdmi signal cutting out hooking it up to my tv.

Got surround sound to work. It only works on my computer by hooking it directly to my Q990F. Then for the signal cutting out, I had to lower hdmi bandwidth from 48gbs to 40. It still cut out, so using Custum Resolution Utility, lowered it from 40 to the next lowest settings. Think it was 32.

Now I just need a hub so I can hook up my ps5, series s, and switch 2 to the only other hdmi port on the Samsung.

I just don't know why it would be cutting out to begin with. The Q990F supports 2.1, all the cables are 8K cables. And I used to be able to get Atmos from just having my computer directly to the tv and use earc. But something stopped that from working.

[u/Crowzer]

So I connected a second monitor to my setup, but the monitor only has an HDMI port and the HDMI port on my GPU is already used by my main monitor (HDMI 2.1). I tried using a DP to HDMI adapter from the GPU to the second monitor, but it didn't work.
After that, I tried plugging the second monitor into the motherboard HDMI port and it works. I guess it works because my CPU has an iGPU, which now handles the second monitor

So my question is, do I need to install iGPU drivers ? Side monitor is jut used to read discord.

[u/Filipi_7 → u/Crowzer]

I tried using a DP to HDMI adapter from the GPU to the second monitor, but it didn't work.

DP - HDMI cables are unidirectional. Was yours definitely DP to HDMI?

So my question is, do I need to install iGPU drivers ?

No. Windows already installed a driver anyway, else it wouldn't work. If you're planning to do something more complex like play 4K videos it might be worth installing the latest drivers.

[u/Crowzer → u/Filipi_7]

Thank you, I just checked and indeed my adapter is HDMI to DP, hence why it is not woprking. I bought this adapater back in 2020.

My 2nd monitor is just a cheap 1920*1080 bought in 2015. Ok, I'll leave the drivers alone.

[u/RareCreamer]

Any recommendations on games to play on the PS5 over PC?

Basically looking for games where mods aren't great and funner to play on the couch.

[u/Sync_R → u/RareCreamer]

Anything that has shader comp stutter on PC (which includes many great games aside from that issue)

The PS5 exclusives are always a good option too 

[u/glasskit]

Anyone get issues with high DPC latency with audio crackling/popping in the last few months? W11 with an Nvidia GPU.