NETWORKING ISSUES | Linus Tech Tips | Page 1

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 12:09 AM

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hey can someone help me out with some weird networking issues im having. basically I can't stream anything on discord without my voice lagging super bad, and for some reason whenever im playing valorant, on a discord call my voice is lagging so hard my friends can't understand what im saying, whenever im in the lobby before and after a game. but during agent select or the game itself no problems

im also not facing any lag aside from weird packet loss issues during matches despite my internet being really good, Im using ethernet and have about 300mb/s upload and download so i have no clue whats up

Im also running on windows 11

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 12:23 AM

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thick ferry hey can someone help me out with some weird networking issues im having. basical...

Do you have hardware acceleration turned on in discord?

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 12:26 AM

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I turned it off, as i saw that it was a potential cause for why my voice and stream was lagging whenever i streamed for my friends

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 12:27 AM

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If turning it off didn't fix it, might as well turn it back on. Streams do run better with it

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Have you reinstalled discord? That often fixes weird streaming issues

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If it persists, it's either your GPU driver spazzing out, or Vanguard sperging out

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GPU driver would be the cause only if your audio devices are USB. If they're plugged into a 3.5mm port, then your GPU isn't handling audio

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 12:33 AM

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I use an audio interface but the GPU drivers are updated as far as I'm aware

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I just want to update my damn laptop 😭

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It's now gonna cycle trying to update and redoing it because it failed for like 30 minutes ffs

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 12:34 AM

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thorny kindle Have you reinstalled discord? That often fixes weird streaming issues

I have tried reinstalling it, but it makes no difference, it didn't use to have any issues about a year ago but more recently it's been weird

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 12:34 AM

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thick ferry I just want to update my damn laptop 😭

That's not a good sign

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 12:35 AM

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Yeah you're telling me

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It's been like this for 3 months

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 12:35 AM

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Run through

sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

In that order

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Also, reset windows update components, I'll grab a powershell script for it in a sec because for the life of me I don't remember all the steps

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 12:36 AM

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Will do, gotta wait for it to give up trying to update

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 12:38 AM

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In admin powershell, run this

Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -RequiredVersion 2.2.0.3

It might give you a warning about validating the source or whatever, I don't remember (it has been over 6 months since I last set this up)

Once it's installed, run Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate

Then run Reset-WUComponents

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Restart your PC once that's finished, then try updating again

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All of this should be done in the same powershell window

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:19 AM

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@thorny kindle didn't work because of this

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or at least this popped up when i hit the run import module

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everything else up to that point worked

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any ideas?

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@thorny kindle managed to get it to go through but now this happens whenever I run reset-wucomponents

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:35 AM

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Never seen it do that before

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One sec

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@thick ferry run it again with -Verbose at the end

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Reset-WUComponents -Verbose

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Show me the output of that when it finishes

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:37 AM

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sorry for the previous pings btw 😅

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:37 AM

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Oh I think I know what's happening

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wuauserv isn't actually stopping

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Which is odd because I remember that module waiting forever for it to stop rather than timing out

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What happens if you run NET STOP wuauserv

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:39 AM

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hmmm

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:40 AM

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Make sure bits and msiexec are also stopped

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Wait msiexec isn't the name uhhh

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:40 AM

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msiserver?

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:40 AM

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Ignore the msi part

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Yeah that

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:40 AM

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thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:41 AM

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man

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I hate WU

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so much

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:41 AM

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XD

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:41 AM

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When I was a junior sysadmin I was given access to all computers, PDQ Deploy, and told "WSUS sucks, make WU work"

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I did eventually figure it out but ughhhhhhhhhhh

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:42 AM

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thats so funny

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:42 AM

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Okay give me a little bit to brainstorm

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This is my white whale I swear to god

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:42 AM

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hahah thank you for sticking it out with me 🙏

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:54 AM

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open resource monitor, go to associated handles in the cpu tab, and search for SoftwareDistribution

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It might take a minute or two

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Show me the processes it lists. It should only be servicehost

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@thick ferry

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:54 AM

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still here dw

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xd

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if i've looked in the right place, its empty

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:56 AM

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You typed it wrong

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:56 AM

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LMAO

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:56 AM

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It needs to be exactly SoftwareDistribution

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Type it again and click the refresh button

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:56 AM

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will do mb xd

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same thing happened

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:57 AM

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hmm

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:57 AM

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thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:57 AM

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Okay let's try manually deleting the folder then

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Let me find where it is real quick

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It's a folder in the Windows folder

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If you can't just delete it, try taking ownership of it in advanced security settings from properties. That usually works

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:59 AM

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whats the folder called

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:59 AM

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(take ownership with inheritance)

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:59 AM

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thick ferry whats the folder called

Take a wild guess

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 1:59 AM

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😔

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 1:59 AM

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SoftwareDistribution

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fyi in case you're wondering what we're deleting. that's the staging folder for updates

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 2:03 AM

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just waiting for it to delete

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 2:03 AM

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When running those WU scripts

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It was as admin right?

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 2:04 AM

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yeah

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 2:04 AM

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Interesting

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 2:09 AM

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gets stuck at 49 percent deleting the folder wth

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or rather it says preparing to recycle

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ok it finally deleted

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what now @thorny kindle

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 2:15 AM

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delete catroot2 which is in system32

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its another folder

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 2:16 AM

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wont let me do it, it thinks its open in another program

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 2:16 AM

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check it in resource monitor

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Kill whatever processes are holding it (in admin command line, kill #### (the PID))

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After its deleted, try running that script again. If it no worky, just restart your pc, then go to WU and try to check for updates

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With some luck your WU will be fixed

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I gotta go, cya

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 2:18 AM

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thanks for the help man

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 9:57 AM

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@thorny kindle

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😭😭

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Gonna throw this

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 10:03 AM

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Might just be time to reinstall windows

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 10:08 AM

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thats so annoying, so many of my programs and plugins are going to brick

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 10:26 AM

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What do you mean plugins

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And no they won't brick, they'll be gone

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Reinstall means from a flash drive which means a wipe

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 10:44 AM

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I do a lot of music production work, and reinstalling everything to how I want it genuinely takes half a day

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 10:44 AM

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thorny kindle Reinstall means from a flash drive which means a wipe

Just from the c drive or both drives?

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 10:55 AM

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thick ferry I do a lot of music production work, and reinstalling everything to how I want i...

Why not take screenshots and/or write down how everything is configured

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It'd save a lot of time

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 10:55 AM

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thick ferry Just from the c drive or both drives?

C drive

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 10:56 AM

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you'd think so but it honestly doesn't, like some of the plugins i got for free during a promotion required an activation code, and then I can't re activate it, since it's been so long and the promotion is no longer running

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the whole thing is a pain

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 10:57 AM

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There's no advice I can offer on that

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You can try an online reset with preserving data, though I'm not sure if it keeps programs too

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Usually doesn't fix it tho

thick ferry Oct 21, 2025, 5:57 PM

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managed to fix it without needing to reinstall windows,

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downloaded the iso version of the new windows update and just "updated" my laptop that way and its worked

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without losing any data or files etc

thorny kindle Oct 21, 2025, 6:12 PM

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I'm surprised that worked

#NETWORKING ISSUES