Even after closing the game and restarting, GameGuard appears to still be tampering with Windows and is causing insane stuttering. PC/Windows visually lags for a split second every .2-.3 seconds. This is only a graphical lag. There is 0 processing lag. Audio works 100% fine. The only 100% fix I have found is 100% uninstalling the game and reinstalling. This removes the stuttering in Windows itself. Sometimes after not being in the game for 10-15 minutes the problem goes away. But it comes back the second micro-stuttering starts again in game.

For curiosity sake I have uninstalled my NVIDIA drivers to see if it was graphics card failing due to the visual lag. After removing the drivers, my PC goes back to normal until I reinstall them back. I followed guides online to make sure certain software on my PC isn't conflicting with GameGuard. I have NZXT Cam and EVGA NU audio, which are on the list of bad perpetrators. Before running the game I ensure both those things are completely stopped. However after closing the game, NZXT Cam will not open for about 5 minutes. It starts loading then crashes. On the troubleshooting it says because Cam accesses the Kernal for hardware monitoring and such, that is why GameGuard hates it. So I definitely think GameGuard is still running after the game closes even though nothing appears in task manager.

TLDR: I think GameGuard is attaching itself to some service/driver in Windows and not cleaning itself up properly at game close. It is causing microstuttering inside Windows. If I drag a window, it stutters/lags every .2-3s almost exactly.

Have you been using PSO2 Tweaker for NA or applied the lobby lag fix. If so, someone said there is a memory leak if you do that, which is probably GameGuard not getting optimized. Also, GameGuard is more a service, rather than a process, for when the game isn't running. You should check to see if GameGuard is still running as a service when it lags. The service is called npggsvc.

This issue has occurred with and without the PSO2 Tweaker for NA. Next time it happens I will check for that service. Thanks for the info regarding that. But based off other games that use GameGuard, I read its essentially a rootkit when its running. That is why it can cause so many issues. Most games that use it run into compatibility problems apparently.

A little bump/update.

There is no service entry in services for npggnt64.des, only the 32 bit entry. The 64bit entry continues to run in a hidden process even after the game closes. Using PSO2 Tweaker to "fix gameguard" troubleshoot, it fails every now and then because npggnt64.des is still running. I try and run the fix every startup due to it is the highest chance of not getting the stuttering.

The reason I say its hidden is because the service.msc entry that does exist never goes to a "running" state when the game is running. But gameguard starts for sure, it just never is visible anywhere.