So, I am on a computer, fresh Win10 install, no antivirus, no unwanted applications. Just a computer with the battle.net launcher and it cannot for the life of it launch WoW.
Well, it can launch WoW, but it takes 20-40 minutes and from there it is another 40-60 minutes loading screen to get into the game.
No addons at all, I don’t use them.
Followed by a world of lagging for no reason while showing it runs on 100 fps smoothly on 26 MS both world and home.
All drivers were properly updated before WoW was installed, I’m not throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, I know how to keep a computer up to date.
Have a look at the performance tab of the windows task manager. Open it before starting wow, look at it for a minute while the pc is still mostly idle (so you have an idea what and how much things jump up and down), and then keep looking at it while booting into wow.
The memory tab and the disk tab (whichever disk wow is installed on) are the main interest.
The first thing i’d think of, based on your description, is either that wow is loading into virtual swap / pagefile memory (instead of real memory).
Or alternatively, that the disk is acting like a bottleneck (could be a slow harddisk/SSD, or a dieing one, or a bad cable or w/e).
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These aren’t the only options of course (not by a long shot), but they may be a decent starting point. And of course, the less other programs and/or addons and such that you’re using the better (even if its just for diagnosing).
Some other things to have a quick peek at if the other recommendation doesnt pan out:
Check the windows event viewer, see if it’s reporting problems regularly.
Check the device manager, make sure all devices are properly installed, update drivers where appropriate or (even better) unplug anything you can do without while testing wow.
Hmm, possibly. Wow is already quite tasking for a mechanical HDD even if it’s brand spanking new and in perfect condition and all.
There are 2 little no-nonsense opensource/free programs you could consider running perhaps.
CrystalDiskInfo lets you view the internal error reporting and state of your harddisk (the SMART data).
And it’s little cousin program CrystalDiskMark lets you easily run a little benchmark against your disk with just 1 or 2 button clicks, to see how it stands up to either reading or writing a big file or reading/writing lots of tiny ones or anything like that.
Both can be downloaded from : https://crystalmark.info/en/download/#CrystalDiskInfo (the standard version there should suffice)