(Solved) PC Micro-Stuttering Graphically Only

[lulizarti]

Every now and then my computer will start micro-stuttering. It stutters almost every 300-500ms exact. Mouse movements, key strokes, windows dragging, all that stuff freezes for a brief moment then jumps to where it should be. Audio never lags out. It occurs most frequently when I launch NZXT Cam or when playing PSO2. When it occurs in PSO2 it ALWAYS begins right after a load screen, never during game play itself. I have never had this occur in any other game or software. I have troubleshot a lot over the past few days and what I have discovered is below.

 

My original post was in OS section but I guess that wasn't the correct one now that I have looked around more. 

 

My specs are:

• Windows 10 Pro x64
• Aorus Master z390
• i7 9900k @5.0GHz
• 4x8GB Gskill Trident @ 3600MHz
• EVGA 980ti

When my stuttering occurs there are a few threads that get pinned higher than others under System. This lasts for about 30minutes. Rebooting does not solve the issue, only time does. The stuttering is graphical by nature only. No audio lags. I have tried to get the problem to show up running onboard video only, and it has never appeared. 

 

 

I have done an xperf and looked into that and discovered 2 stacks that are prevalent during the spikes: nvlddmkm.sys and ntoskrnl.exe. here is a zoomed in look at one of the stutters.

 

I really don't know what I am looking at. This occurs of a fresh windows install. Is my gcard subtly failing? I have done DDU, tried previous versions of nvidia drivers, tried windows 10 1904 and 2004. I will happily provide the ETL which was recorded over 15 seconds.

 

[StDragon]

nvlddmkm.sys is Nvidia. So it's possible a GPU issue hanging up the CPU with IRQ polling.

 

LatencyMon might help shed some light on the issue.

 

Also, be sure to check GPU temps to ensure it's not throttling due to overheating.

[lulizarti]

Thanks for that, last time the problem occurred nothing seemed out of the ordinary for LatencyMon. Once I force the problem again I will run it. 

[lulizarti]

GPU temps are completely fine, never breaking past 75C and CPU never passes 68C. 

Here are a few screenshots of the latencymon after running for 15min during the stuttering. This time it occurred by just AFKing in a game for about 5 minutes and coming back to lag. I closed the game and ran latencymon. I attached a 15s ETL from yesterday as well.

 

 

latencymon-text.txt nvidia-upload.zip

[lulizarti]

Solution (Hopefully):

TLDR of Problem & Solution:

1. Sometimes - 3x "ntoskrnle.exe!KeRaiseIrqltoDPCLevel" threads pinned to System higher than anything else.
   1. . Found with Process Explorer
2. Only if #1 - nvlddmkm.sys had a .3s window where it would use some or lot a core. This happened at a consistent interval.
   1. . Found with 'xperf -on PROC_THREAD+LOADER+PROFILE+DPC+INTERRUPT+DRIVERS -stackwalk profile'
3. If 1 and 2 existed at same time, 980TI would stutter every time #2 showed up.
4.  If 1 and 2 existed at same time, 650TI would not stutter.
5. Problem existed in Windows 1909 and 2004 with NVIDIA Driver 446.14, 442.74, and  418.91.
6. Upgrading to Beta Driver 27.21.14.5099 caused #1 and #2 to go away.

Personal uninformed rationale of what was happening:

 

At some point the Windows kernel is trying to do an interrupt involving the NVIDIA driver. It doesn't receive a response it likes, so it sends another interrupt, and another. This is why there are 3x pinned ntoskrnle.exe!KeRaiseIrqltoDPCLevel. What it is trying to do involes the nvidia driver, nvlddmkm.sys. The driver will keep repeating itself, over and over, and eventually fix itself. This can be seen by the .3s long spike, flatline, then finish via the xperf zoomed in picture (ASCII ART start /------\ finish). 

 

While testing, the problem exists in Windows 10 1909 and 2004. However, in Windows 10 2004, they claimed they fixed a problem with NVIDIA Multi Monitor refresh rate. Okay cool, so something changed with how Windows and NVIDIA interract. However, the problem did not go away with 2004 as mentioned before. BUT there is a Beta NVIDIA driver that adds some extra fixes for 2004 update. I installed that and tested everything with the 650TI. It seemed fine, but I noticed #1 and #2 was NEVER happening. Whereas before the beta driver, it would happen multiple times a day, lasting 30+ minutes at a time. Starting NZXT Cam, Spotify, or gaming would force the problem to occur. 

 

I reinstalled my 980TI to see if I could get the problem to show up, since with the 650TI stuttering never happened, but #1 and #2 still existed. So far #1 and #2 have never shown up with both cards. For now, it seems the solution is to use the NVIDIA Beta Driver 27.21.14.5099. Hopefully I am not jinxing myself saying its fixed.

[CaffeineMan]

@lulizarti What beta driver did you use? We are also having micro stuttering exactly at 4 seconds. We tried all the normal things. We reloaded Windows 2004 and the issue persisted. 

The issue did not follow the video card when it was placed in a different machine, one running an older version of Windows. 

We wiped the machine and installed 1909 and the issue persisted. 

[TehDwonz]

2 hours ago, CaffeineMan said:

@lulizarti What beta driver did you use? We are also having micro stuttering exactly at 4 seconds. We tried all the normal things. We reloaded Windows 2004 and the issue persisted. 

The issue did not follow the video card when it was placed in a different machine, one running an older version of Windows. 

We wiped the machine and installed 1909 and the issue persisted. 

Try clearing NVRAM/CMOS with the GFX card removed (and drivers uninstalled with DDU). ie, total power off and battery removed. Power on to BIOS once with no GFX card (unplug the boot disk) basically, no need to actually hit DEL/F2 etc. Power off, install the GFX card and boot drive, and boot up. Then reinstall the GFX drivers.

[CaffeineMan]

On 7/5/2020 at 12:54 PM, TehDwonz said:

Try clearing NVRAM/CMOS with the GFX card removed (and drivers uninstalled with DDU). ie, total power off and battery removed. Power on to BIOS once with no GFX card (unplug the boot disk) basically, no need to actually hit DEL/F2 etc. Power off, install the GFX card and boot drive, and boot up. Then reinstall the GFX drivers.

Since I had asked we found Latency mon said it was usbport.sys causing a micro stutter every 4 seconds. The issue survived windows 2004 repair. Installing Win 1909.

 

Be nice, the diagnostic test were run before we found out it was the USBport.sys using Latency Mon.

The issue continued when we swapped out the GTX1050 for a HD4850. The issue did not follow the GFX card to my daughter's PC. We removed half the ram. We installed the removed ram in the open slots and removed the other half. (ruling out ram, and bad DIMMS). We removed the HHD. The 3 things we did not rule out was the SSD MoBo and power. We ran out of time. The set up is 9gb 3-1gb and 3-2gb of spare DDR3. i7 920 and a dell 435mt mobo. 

If I had more time I would have installed Win on a HHD. 

 

Today: the issue seems to be resolved better. We were fighting it until he left. When he got home he plugged in his computer made no changes and the micro stutter every 4 second stutter has been reduced to 4 in a 3 minute video. Also  Latency Mon has dxgkrnl.sys and storport.sys as the high usage. 

WT Beep? 

 

He will still try your instructions. I will follow up either way. 

 

[CaffeineMan]

The problem continued. 

This is the exact instructions he followed. I reworded your instructions so he could follow, if I made a mistake let me know. 

Uninstall graphic drivers with DDU (see link) .

Powered off, Turn off power to power supply.

Remove Card from slot.

Pull CMOS battery.

Hold power button down with computer unplugged and CMOS removed for 30 seconds.

Remove HDD and SSD Power

Turn on computer.

Turn off after beep beep beep.  

Install card (switched off power)

boot into BIOS F12 or Del or F2

Power off. 

Hook up SSD. 

Boot. 

<<< We had to change the drive in the BIOS back to Raid to get Windows to boot >>>

Tested with the same micro lag. 

[CaffeineMan]

On 7/14/2020 at 7:52 PM, CaffeineMan said:

The problem continued. 

This is the exact instructions he followed. I reworded your instructions so he could follow, if I made a mistake let me know. 

Uninstall graphic drivers with DDU (see link) .

Powered off, Turn off power to power supply.

Remove Card from slot.

Pull CMOS battery.

Hold power button down with computer unplugged and CMOS removed for 30 seconds.

Remove HDD and SSD Power

Turn on computer.

Turn off after beep beep beep.  

Install card (switched off power)

boot into BIOS F12 or Del or F2

Power off. 

Hook up SSD. 

Boot. 

<<< We had to change the drive in the BIOS back to Raid to get Windows to boot >>>

Tested with the same micro lag. 

We ended up upgrading the CPU, Memory, and Mobo. We moved PSU, SSD, HHD to the new machine. 

The some of the memory went to a different machine. 

[MiyokoPSO]

Just wanted to chime in and comment -- I'm getting the  same microstuttering issue, though mine's about every 6  seconds. However, I also get the EXACT same microstuttering issue on the recently released Genshin Impact. I was worried something in my system was bunk, as no potential fixes were helping, not  even a clean Win10 install. However, I DID come across a potential outlier though I'm not sure if/how it will help; a common thread between the two games: They both utilize GameGuard Anti-Cheat. Well, Genshin Impact doesn't actually say it uses GameGuard specifically, but both of them are a rather intrusive kernel based anti-cheat engine, so much so I believe Genshin's is just a rebranded GG. To make sure it wasn't a system wide thing, I fired open Doom 2016, maxed out every setting, and... Ran around, spun my camera, didn't notice a single stutter. It's entirely within these two games.

 

Again, not sure if that'll help but... There you go.

[CaffeineMan]

On 10/1/2020 at 3:57 AM, MiyokoPSO said:

Just wanted to chime in and comment -- I'm getting the  same microstuttering issue, though mine's about every 6  seconds. However, I also get the EXACT same microstuttering issue on the recently released Genshin Impact. I was worried something in my system was bunk, as no potential fixes were helping, not  even a clean Win10 install. However, I DID come across a potential outlier though I'm not sure if/how it will help; a common thread between the two games: They both utilize GameGuard Anti-Cheat. Well, Genshin Impact doesn't actually say it uses GameGuard specifically, but both of them are a rather intrusive kernel based anti-cheat engine, so much so I believe Genshin's is just a rebranded GG. To make sure it wasn't a system wide thing, I fired open Doom 2016, maxed out every setting, and... Ran around, spun my camera, didn't notice a single stutter. It's entirely within these two games.

 

Again, not sure if that'll help but... There you go.

It did not help me, because YouTube stuttered right after a factory reload but I appreciate your response. 

For us it was the MOBO. We tested all the parts except the MOBO and the SSD. The SSD moved to a new machine with no issues.