I've solved an issue I've been having with my laptop since I got it years ago. It sometimes did a weird random 1-3 second freeze during gameplay, and even sometimes when using it for simple web browsing and file management.
Turns out it's a power saving feature built into the hard drive called APM (Advanced Power Management). The stuttering is because the hard drive actually stopped spinning and had to quickly resume, despite the fact I was actively running a game off of it. This also explains an issue I've been having with the laptop hard drives I'm using in my desktop.
There are no settings in Windows that I can find which control a hard drive's APM settings, other than the unrelated OS power settings, but I did find a lightweight and portable piece of software called Crystal Disk Info that can control it without needing installation.
To fix the issue, simply download and run the Crystal Disk Info software, find the APM controls in the menu, slide the APM slider all the way to the right, and click enable. This changes the APM to performance (FEh) mode.
APM is supposed to help conserve power. But honestly, given my research, I'll take hard drive longevity and performance with less battery life over random freezing any day.
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