PS4 - Lag Spikes with Good Internet?

[Dan94 913]

Morning all

 

Hoping you can help please.

 

Just recently my PS4 has been acting a little strange. During fornite I will get 'lag spikes' every 20-30 seconds, where the game freezes for maybe 0.5-1 second, I thought this was just a game issue so I tried pro clubs too and it happens on here too, sometimes even worse. The game will freeze for a couple seconds then speed up to catch up with play. Party chat has the same issue where it'll cut out for a second, which can be annoying when speaking with friends and missing some of what they say.

 

Now, I know its not my internet speed because I have 100mb download and around 10-20mb upload I believe. If I run a SpeedTest on my phone (5G), I get these results so all is fine, not being capped or anything by the provider. My PS4 is an old one (not a Pro one), so only has 2G capabilities. Has 100% signal strength etc and gets speeds of about 30-40mb download and 2-6mb upload, which should still be more than enough to play without issues.

 

I thought maybe it was a firewall issue or something similar so I created a static IP for my PS4 and put that into a DMZ to avoid any issues. It was still the same and even made more issues with signing me in but not loading friends list as timing out and not being able to sign into Fornite or EA Servers, so had to refer back to normal automatic IP config.

 

I have also done a "rebuild" on the PS4 through Safe Mode, which has sped things up on the menu screen and loading of games etc but nothing to help this issue. Its very strange and annoying indeed.

 

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions please? I have (and still am) doing my own research but theres so many different problems out there on forums and help websites that its hard to find lots of suggestions with this one.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Cheers

Dan

[J4MES OX4D 10,041]

Reset the router and see if that works. I had the same on PC a while back and simply turning off the router and back on again seemed to fix the issue. 

[Dan94 913]

34 minutes ago, J4MES OX4D said:

Reset the router and see if that works. I had the same on PC a while back and simply turning off the router and back on again seemed to fix the issue. 

Have tried this numerous times mate. The router is turned off everytime I leave the house so isn't running all day

[J4MES OX4D 10,041]

1 hour ago, Dan94 said:

Have tried this numerous times mate. The router is turned off everytime I leave the house so isn't running all day

Does this happen only with online games or is it on single player games too? The fact the game freezes and then speeds to catch up could possibly be a hard drive read issue coming to think of it. Usually connection-related problems where games lag or freeze doesn't see this behaviour.  My PS4 has been buggered for years because of a laser issue which causes the system to restart randomly and overheat so it could be something hardware related which is harder to diagnose and fix.

[Plumbers Crack 4,062]

Also, you gave up and download rates but not ping, which I believe is the important one for gaming.

[Dan94 913]

1 minute ago, Plumbers Crack said:

Also, you gave up and download rates but not ping, which I believe is the important one for gaming.

How would I find out the ping for PS4?

[Dan94 913]

26 minutes ago, J4MES OX4D said:

Does this happen only with online games or is it on single player games too? The fact the game freezes and then speeds to catch up could possibly be a hard drive read issue coming to think of it. Usually connection-related problems where games lag or freeze doesn't see this behaviour.  My PS4 has been buggered for years because of a laser issue which causes the system to restart randomly and overheat so it could be something hardware related which is harder to diagnose and fix.

Just online mate.

 

Its ridiculous now so im tempted to trade it in + cash for a PS4 Pro

[J4MES OX4D 10,041]

39 minutes ago, Dan94 said:

Just online mate.

 

Its ridiculous now so im tempted to trade it in + cash for a PS4 Pro

That's strange.  Well at least it's not hardware related it seems. Could still be a problem with the router sticking. If you have a cable, you can see if the problem still occurs with a wired connection. If you also have any other devices that play online games it may be worth testing with those also. 

 

PS4 Pro certainly ain't a bad way to go though - I wish I traded in my old first gen PS4 and got a Pro at Christmas but I missed out some good trade-in and retail deals which sucked. 

[Dan94 913]

8 minutes ago, J4MES OX4D said:

That's strange.  Well at least it's not hardware related it seems. Could still be a problem with the router sticking. If you have a cable, you can see if the problem still occurs with a wired connection. If you also have any other devices that play online games it may be worth testing with those also. 

 

PS4 Pro certainly ain't a bad way to go though - I wish I traded in my old first gen PS4 and got a Pro at Christmas but I missed out some good trade-in and retail deals which sucked. 

I may also try the port forwarding thing but I would've thought the DMZ thing would've solved any issues that port forwarding would have

[GazzaGarratt 11,061]

I have no idea unfortunately Dan. I have still have the original PS4 and rarely have problems so there must be something that can be done.

[Plumbers Crack 4,062]

15 hours ago, Dan94 said:

How would I find out the ping for PS4?

If you do a speed test you usually are given 3 results; up, down and ping. I think I’m right in saying ping is the amount of time it takes to get a packet of data to the test site and recieve a response measured in milliseconds...the lower the number the better. (Correct me if I’m wrong fellas)

 

I’ve just checked mine and I have a 22ms ping on a wired connection. I have a basic Virgin Media package and I’m happy with the gaming experience I get. Hope this helps 

[Dan94 913]

4 hours ago, Plumbers Crack said:

If you do a speed test you usually are given 3 results; up, down and ping. I think I’m right in saying ping is the amount of time it takes to get a packet of data to the test site and recieve a response measured in milliseconds...the lower the number the better. (Correct me if I’m wrong fellas)

 

I’ve just checked mine and I have a 22ms ping on a wired connection. I have a basic Virgin Media package and I’m happy with the gaming experience I get. Hope this helps 

Is it possible to do a speed test on the PS4 itself? I can do it on my phone but that uses 5G connection on the wifi so would be different to the 2G connection on the PS4 I think?

 

Another option could be homeplugs, does anyone have any experience with those? My only concern is they apparently have to plug straight into the wall rather than into a 3 or 4 way adapter which is what's around my router sockets

[phil bottle 9,780]

Is it possible to do a speed test on the PS4 itself? I can do it on my phone but that uses 5G connection on the wifi so would be different to the 2G connection on the PS4 I think?
 
Another option could be homeplugs, does anyone have any experience with those? My only concern is they apparently have to plug straight into the wall rather than into a 3 or 4 way adapter which is what's around my router sockets

PS4 allows you to test the network and shows you the results. Check in network settings, it's pretty straightforward from what I remember. I used to use it if I ever switched between Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I'm always conncted to Ethernet these days as Wi-Fi is a joke when playing games like Rocket League for example.

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[Dan94 913]

3 hours ago, phil bottle said:

PS4 allows you to test the network and shows you the results. Check in network settings, it's pretty straightforward from what I remember. I used to use it if I ever switched between Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I'm always conncted to Ethernet these days as Wi-Fi is a joke when playing games like Rocket League for example.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 

I know you can do a test in the PS4 settings but that's only download and upload speed, not the ping?

[phil bottle 9,780]

27 minutes ago, Dan94 said:

I know you can do a test in the PS4 settings but that's only download and upload speed, not the ping?

I'll check later for sure!

 

I suppose if I'm wrong on that, you could always access the web browser and do a speed check from there?

[tronic44 3,642]

@Plumbers Crack may be right, if your ping is bouncing around then that is probably the issue. If you can hook your phone or a computer up to that WiFi and do a few speed tests and see if your ping changes much. You should also be able to see it bouncing when it’s calculating the speeds. Steady ping is a must!

[Plumbers Crack 4,062]

7 hours ago, Dan94 said:

Is it possible to do a speed test on the PS4 itself? I can do it on my phone but that uses 5G connection on the wifi so would be different to the 2G connection on the PS4 I think?

 

Another option could be homeplugs, does anyone have any experience with those? My only concern is they apparently have to plug straight into the wall rather than into a 3 or 4 way adapter which is what's around my router sockets

Sorry Dan, I meant to put that in the post but I was trying to do it before I left this morning....you do it from the PS4 web browser. I used www.speedtest.net

[phil bottle 9,780]

Sorry Dan, I meant to put that in the post but I was trying to do it before I left this morning....you do it from the PS4 web browser. I used www.speedtest.net

Nice one Dave, I wasn't sure if those sites would work on a PS4!

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[Sennex 1,903]

could also be overheating issues, if its an older system and filled with dust.

 

take it apart and dust it out

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/UGxHR

[Rumelylady 188]

@SensaiNemesis, you probably need to do this to yours.

[TigerBurge 2,375]

Are you hard wired I or run off WiFi. Sorry I didn’t see it in the OP. I was having a similar issue before and it was my Ethernet cable. Bought a new one and fixed the problem. 

[Dan94 913]

3 hours ago, TigerBurge said:

Are you hard wired I or run off WiFi. Sorry I didn’t see it in the OP. I was having a similar issue before and it was my Ethernet cable. Bought a new one and fixed the problem. 

Wifi mate but signal strength is 100% and internet is very fast, but may try wired through home plugs soon to try stabilise connection

[Dan94 913]

17 hours ago, phil bottle said:

I'll check later for sure!

 

I suppose if I'm wrong on that, you could always access the web browser and do a speed check from there?

 

15 hours ago, Plumbers Crack said:

Sorry Dan, I meant to put that in the post but I was trying to do it before I left this morning....you do it from the PS4 web browser. I used www.speedtest.net

Ahh yes of course, silly me! Cheers lads, ill give it a try and see what it comes back as

 

If not, homeplugs may be the best option to have a stabilised ping/connection. Just a pain in the arse!

[phil bottle 9,780]

Ahh yes of course, silly me! Cheers lads, ill give it a try and see what it comes back as [emoji4]
 
If not, homeplugs may be the best option to have a stabilised ping/connection. Just a pain in the arse!

No, that'll be butt plugs in that case🤣

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[Dan94 913]

1 minute ago, phil bottle said:

No, that'll be butt plugs in that case🤣

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