Slow Loading Problem & Deleting Game Data [SOLVED]

[LeGeNd-1]

Hi fellow GTPers, I'm in need of some help and advice.

My GT6 has been acting up lately. Loading races has become impossibly long. It would get stuck at the track logo screen, then again on the pre-race screen. If you notice the background image is static when the track is loading, then if it's ready it will show the AI cars driving around. My game always gets stuck at the static image for 5-10 minutes. It's driving me insane

The problem only occurs in races with AI. Since I mostly spend my time TTing, I never notice it except for when I do seasonals once a week. At first I thought it's a network issue, but I've tried offline career races (disconnected from internet) and it's still S.L.O.W.

I've tried clearing the network cache and rebuilding my PS3 database, but still no luck. I'm concerned that my PS3 HDD might be failing, but other games are fine and most of GT6 is fine. It's just loading races that seems to be an isolated problem

So my last resort is deleting the installed game data. I checked from the options menu and I have 5.7 GB installed. From PS3 XMB Game Data Utility my GT6 file is 24 GB. Now, I'm planning to use the in-game option of deleting installed data, and if that don't work then delete the whole thing from XMB (but I want to avoid that if possible because downloading all the updates again is a massive undertaking ).

The GT website manual says:

In Gran Turismo 6, replay data, ghost data, photo data etc. are stored in your game data, not in your save data. If you do not have enough space on your Hard Disk Drive (HDD), you may not be able to record, save, or access this data.

If you delete your Gran Turismo 6 game data using the PlayStation®3 system's XMB™'s Game Data Utility option, your replay data, course data, photo data etc. will be erased, so please be careful.

So it looks like if I use the in-game option (not from XMB) I should be fine. But I just want to confirm. If anyone here has tried deleting their data please let me know what got erased and what remains. Stockyard? Photos? Replays? Also if anyone has slow loading issues and solved it any other way I'm all ears.

Many thanks in advance 👍

 

[eran0004]

Where do you see that in-game option? I can't find it.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Where do you see that in-game option? I can't find it.

Options > Game Data > Install Game Data, There should be an option to delete here.

 

[Thomas2012]

Is it only GT6 that does this? if not your PS3 may be beginning to fail like mine. I've tried many things such as rebuilding the database, deleting data etc. Yet despite my attempts I have still pretty much never completed a smooth lap of Silverstone due to loading issues. I would take a look on other games to see if there is any performance differences 👍 hopefully your PS3 isn't failing like mine is.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Is it only GT6 that does this? if not your PS3 may be beginning to fail like mine. I've tried many things such as rebuilding the database, deleting data etc. Yet despite my attempts I have still pretty much never completed a smooth lap of Silverstone due to loading issues. I would take a look on other games to see if there is any performance differences 👍 hopefully your PS3 isn't failing like mine is.

Yes it's only GT6. Other games are buttery smooth at all times. Even in GT6 once I get on the track is smooth. Only the initial track and AI loading, and post-race when loading the instant replay is very slow.

 

[eran0004]

Options > Game Data > Install Game Data, There should be an option to delete here.

I see. Must be a disc-only option. I have the digital download version.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I see. Must be a disc-only option. I have the digital download version.

Well that makes sense I suppose. Since in digital download version everything would be preinstalled on HDD so you can't really delete anything.

I tried a couple different races last night and the Red Bull and Sierra Time Rally events seemed to load faster than arcade mode and career mode races. Though they are still not loading as fast as I remembered them to be (I grinded the Red Bull events a lot back in the early days of the game so I'm familiar with how long loading times are). This gives more support to my theory that the installed game data just gets more and more fragmented over time and causes slow loading. The RB and Sierra events come with an update so they are installed in one big block that doesn't get fragmented. The recent addition of user created courses probably messed up my HDD even more and exacerbates the problem.

I might try deleting game data and then rebuild PS3 database later today. Fingers crossed it will solve the problem.

 

[eran0004]

I might try deleting game data and then rebuild PS3 database later today. Fingers crossed it will solve the problem.

Good luck! 👍

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Ok, I deleted the installed data (using in-game option) and then rebuild my PS3 database again. Freed up about 10 GB on my system

The result is a bit of a mixed bag. Seasonal and arcade events now load faster. Career races are hit and miss (some faster, some no difference aka still slow). Red Bull events are a tad slower. Sierra events same as before. Time trials (where I have no problems previously) are now slightly slower because the game has to read from the disc. Oh, and no data got deleted (replays, photos, stockyard, everything is still there).

I don't know what to make of this really. Evidently the blu ray drive isn't an issue. The HDD isn't an issue. Some races are just slow and others normal. Is the faster loading times for seasonals worth losing the slight delay everywhere else? Probably not. I might try installing data again bit by bit to see if it improves or make things worse again.

Alternatively, I might have to accept that my PS3 is failing again My first fat PS3 got really slow loading GT5, while other games are still fine, and it got YLOD a few months later. I blame Sony for making unreliable products, health & safety for banning lead solders and PD for making such a data intensive game

 

[con360]

Quick question, but how many cars do you have, both in your garage and stockyard?
As that has a lot of effect on loading times, as when you first load up when logged in, exit a race or paint a car it tries to save and the saving on mine can take up to 4 mins. The saving also halts the loading of any on track data, b-spec or a-spec.

 

[Ridox2JZGTE]

Did you make sure the disc is 100% condition readable ? @ALB123 had issues as well in the past, with graphic corruption, slow loading, crash/freeze and it turns out the disc was the culprit.

I always make sure all my game disc are in pristine condition, no dust, no scratches at all, never had issue so far ( PS3 slim from 2013 ) with thousands of hours game and movie time. Most are from disc based games.

If you have games with installation which shows progress bar, you can use that to gauge how the bluray lens performing. For example, Red Dead Redemption, Beyond 2 Soul, Heavy Rain, MGS4, Aliens Colonial Marines, Gundam Crossfire, Gundam Battlefield Record, Mass Effect Trilogy etc have in game install progress bar. If the install bar crawling and stops often, the lens might be failing.

 

[H1s6n]

I'll delete the install data wish to me the luck when i download it again (I'll delete it cuz i want to play another game then i'll go back for GT6)

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Quick question, but how many cars do you have, both in your garage and stockyard?
As that has a lot of effect on loading times, as when you first load up when logged in, exit a race or paint a car it tries to save and the saving on mine can take up to 4 mins. The saving also halts the loading of any on track data, b-spec or a-spec.

I have around 480 cars in main garage and around 400 in stockyard. Saving is slow, I have noticed (not quite 4 mins mind you). I have to wait for saving to finish before loading a track otherwise it freezes. However in the past once saving finishes the loading is still quick. Now the loading is just very very slow even if the game isn't saving.

Did you make sure the disc is 100% condition readable ? @ALB123 had issues as well in the past, with graphic corruption, slow loading, crash/freeze and it turns out the disc was the culprit.

I always make sure all my game disc are in pristine condition, no dust, no scratches at all, never had issue so far ( PS3 slim from 2013 ) with thousands of hours game and movie time. Most are from disc based games.

If you have games with installation which shows progress bar, you can use that to gauge how the bluray lens performing. For example, Red Dead Redemption, Beyond 2 Soul, Heavy Rain, MGS4, Aliens Colonial Marines, Gundam Crossfire, Gundam Battlefield Record, Mass Effect Trilogy etc have in game install progress bar. If the install bar crawling and stops often, the lens might be failing.

Yes, I'm very OCD when it comes to preserving discs. So I'm certain it's not the issue.

I don't have any of those games (only play racing games) so I can't test. But all of my other games loads perfectly without issues at all. Even those without HDD installs which means the PS3 has to read from disc all the time.

 

[Ridox2JZGTE]

I have around 480 cars in main garage and around 400 in stockyard. Saving is slow, I have noticed (not quite 4 mins mind you). I have to wait for saving to finish before loading a track otherwise it freezes. However in the past once saving finishes the loading is still quick. Now the loading is just very very slow even if the game isn't saving.



Yes, I'm very OCD when it comes to preserving discs. So I'm certain it's not the issue.

I don't have any of those games (only play racing games) so I can't test. But all of my other games loads perfectly without issues at all. Even those without HDD installs which means the PS3 has to read from disc all the time.

I guess it might be heat issue or HDD, but strange that other games are fine. Try this, create a new account and new game, see what happens.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I guess it might be heat issue or HDD, but strange that other games are fine. Try this, create a new account and new game, see what happens.

I don't think it's the heat particularly. The loading is still slow even if it's the first race you do after booting up the game, when the PS3 is still cool.

Good idea, I'll try on my alternate account and see what happens 👍

 

[TheAnimeDude]

I don't think it's the heat particularly. The loading is still slow even if it's the first race you do after booting up the game, when the PS3 is still cool.

Good idea, I'll try on my alternate account and see what happens 👍

Weird for me. I deleted my game file for GT6 and nothing freezes and load times are fine by me now. Back when I had my old file. It was so buggy and slow..

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Ok, I tried it on my alternate account yesterday. Unfortunately since the only races available are the Sunday Cup the loading times don't vary much. It's probably a few seconds faster. I'll try to rank up and see if the Seasonals are any different.

On the other hand, I tried again on my main account the Supercar Challenge career race in IB (this is one of the slowest loading race in career, along with Le Mans 24M). So it got stuck for 5 mins and I'm tired of waiting, so I quit the race. And upon exiting I got a black screen and a message "Failed to save". Then it prompts me to try save again "Would you like to try again?" And then it manages to save ok. I never had this problem before, and I have never heard it occurring to anyone else. I'm thinking if it's possible to have a RAM failure?

I'm going to try today to delete cars from my Stockyard to see if that helps.

 

[Codemastersk]

I recommend uninstalling every GT6 game data from XMB and redownloading/reinstalling BUT at every file update, you click Circle button and let The game decompress The data, quit The game and download The Next update file, without installing all updates at once.

I don't think it's a hardware issue because every game loads fine...

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Tried deleting cars in stockyard yesterday. Didn't work.

Also deleted all my photos, replays and music playlists (I backed them up to a thumb drive before so it's ok). Didn't work.

Tried rebuilding database and restore file system again today. Still didn't work.

I recommend uninstalling every GT6 game data from XMB and redownloading/reinstalling BUT at every file update, you click Circle button and let The game decompress The data, quit The game and download The Next update file, without installing all updates at once.

I don't think it's a hardware issue because every game loads fine...

I've run out of ideas at this point, and I think we can rule out hardware issues like you said. So this might be time for the last resort option Problem is I've got exams coming up so I'm gonna delay deleting and reinstalling the updates for a few weeks. In the meantime I'm just going to avoid doing races and seasonals

If this is any help, for races that loads quickly (e.g. Sunday Cup), I can hear the blu ray drive reading the disc immediately. It does for around 10 seconds, then the race loads fine. For very slow loading races (e.g. Supercar Cup), the blu ray drive is silent, but I can see the HDD access light on the PS3 blinking rapidly. It does this for around 5-10 minutes, and then I can hear the blu ray drive starting, and 10 seconds later the race loads. So something about those races must have been updated in one of the updates, and my PS3 is struggling to find the required files amongst all the other updates.

 

[rclark83]

Im having the exact same issue, i even bought a digital copy and re-installed all updates but still on some days it is very slow i.e entering comunity, entering seasonals just does that little circle loading thing for about 10 minutes. Its driving me nuts. I was told to try rebuilding database but no joy

 

[Codemastersk]

Im having the exact same issue, i even bought a digital copy and re-installed all updates but still on some days it is very slow i.e entering comunity, entering seasonals just does that little circle loading thing for about 10 minutes. Its driving me nuts. I was told to try rebuilding database but no joy

On this case, I think it's a PSN issue (as always). Here, I always quit randomly on lobbies. I don't have many patience for online so I don't care much.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Im having the exact same issue, i even bought a digital copy and re-installed all updates but still on some days it is very slow i.e entering comunity, entering seasonals just does that little circle loading thing for about 10 minutes. Its driving me nuts. I was told to try rebuilding database but no joy

Have you tried signing out and see if offline career races are slow? If it's just isolated to online it should be easy to fix.

 

[rclark83]

Have you tried signing out and see if offline career races are slow? If it's just isolated to online it should be easy to fix.

Yes i have tried and the a spec and b spec both seem to work. I have a very fast connection using fibre optics of usually around 165mbps and between 7 - 12 ping so i just cant work it out..
Enen when first turning the ps3 on it can stay loading the game for ages before even reaching the menu this was the reason i bought a digital copy but every now and then my copy will still do the same.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Yes i have tried and the a spec and b spec both seem to work. I have a very fast connection using fibre optics of usually around 165mbps and between 7 - 12 ping so i just cant work it out..
Enen when first turning the ps3 on it can stay loading the game for ages before even reaching the menu this was the reason i bought a digital copy but every now and then my copy will still do the same.

It sounds like a network issue for you then. Unfortunately I'm not really tech savvy in that department, so I can't help much. It could be your modem/router/firewall configuration, your ISP, or just the distance between UK and Japan where PD's servers are located.

I have a fast internet connection also and sometimes online will slow to a crawl. It's more common back in GT5 though. Usually I just wait a few days and it resolves itself.

My current problem that happens online and offline, even without internet connection, is a bit harder to diagnose and solve.

 

[eran0004]

Try making a new PS3 user account and start a new game, see if the loading time is still slow.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Try making a new PS3 user account and start a new game, see if the loading time is still slow.

Did that in post #17. It was a brand new save. Still slow.

I'm pretty sure it's a data fragmentation issue. The last 10 or so updates are smooth for me but I remember 1.01-1.03 I had a few attempts. Probably the partially downoaded files just messed up the HDD and didn't show its effects until now as more and more updates gets layered on top.

I'll delete everything and redownload all updates after my exams are done and report back.

 

[GTracer125]

The PS3's are sadly reaching the end of it's Life Cycle sadly, I haven't had any problems with GT6 except for the server disconnecting when I enter a 14-16 person room and the loading seems fine to me I guess, except for replays, My PS3 is working out really bad lately, Probably because games like BO2 and MW3 always makes my PS3 lag sometimes and I get screen-tear, also I notice that the updates Sony brings to the PS3 makes it worse since I remember it being a lot faster in 2013, and now I can't even enter the PS Store without being signed out every damn time and the apps load so slow,

Probably since GT6 also wears out my console due to the graphics and such, Death Valley gives me lighting issues but that's it. Either Sony is making the PS3 worser to make people get the PS4 or the console is just too tired to handle it anymore.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

The PS3's are sadly reaching the end of it's Life Cycle sadly, I haven't had any problems with GT6 except for the server disconnecting when I enter a 14-16 person room and the loading seems fine to me I guess, except for replays, My PS3 is working out really bad lately, Probably because games like BO2 and MW3 always makes my PS3 lag sometimes and I get screen-tear, also I notice that the updates Sony brings to the PS3 makes it worse since I remember it being a lot faster in 2013, and now I can't even enter the PS Store without being signed out every damn time and the apps load so slow,

Probably since GT6 also wears out my console due to the graphics and such, Death Valley gives me lighting issues but that's it. Either Sony is making the PS3 worser to make people get the PS4 or the console is just too tired to handle it anymore.

It's all due to the lead free solders unfortunately. Those things just don't last. I don't know if PS4 still uses them, and it's one of the reasons I'm still hesitant to buy a new console. Health & Safety rules can be quite ridiculous at times. It's not like small toddlers are going to open up these consoles and eat the lead are they?

Part of it is also games and consoles getting more and more demanding, and all that tech and heat is getting crammed into smaller and smaller boxes. I mean there's a reason PC gaming is superior to laptop gaming.

I wish new consoles would last forever like my good ol' grey PS1, but it's not looking likely in the future.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

So since exams have finished, I deleted and redownloaded all of the updates yesterday. Took me 8 hours with the installing Definitely not recommended except as a last resort.

I deleted the game data from XMB, rebuild my PS3 database, then redownloaded the updates. I did not cancel after every update to install, but the downloads froze twice (after updates 1.07 and 1.15 IIRC) so I had to cancel and let the in-game install unpack the files. After all 21 updates were finished and installed, I just reactivated my 15th Anniversary content, re-imported my replays back and everything is fine. Then I had to update all 800 cars thumbnails (took 2 hours on top of the whole ordeal ).

Everything seems fine now. All time trial laps are gone, but I don't care about those. Also the car thumbnails in Status screen (max distance, max wins, max speed) are gone even after updating garage thumbnails. Annoying, but I'll live.

Most importantly, loading races are now back to normal!!!!! I did not choose to install game data from the disc this time, so it takes a bit longer, but it doesn't freeze for 10 mins like before. Arcade, seasonals and career events are all fine and loads quickly.

Unless PD says they are not going to update GT6 anymore I'm going to hold off installing game data. I think that's what causes the data fragmentation previously. It's gonna be a strain on my bluray drive, but hopefully it will hold out *fingers crossed*

For the next game, I hope PD gives the option to install all game data at once at the start (like in GT5). And have an option to not download movie files with each VGT. Or better still have the game complete since launch so we don't need a million gigs of updates

That's it from me. Hope this helps other people with the same problems 👍