Computer Sluggish since new GPU

[PeskyEscky]

Do you guys actually read the FULL topic first before posting?! You're not exactly helping!

To say the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU when it is essentially IDLE does not even make sense!! He never said the lag and restarts occur only when gaming.

 

To OP: Download and run the WD HDD diagnostics (can get it from their website for free). Swap the HDD for a known working one and try again. If you don't have a spare, do a full image backup of yours, wipe it and start a fresh in the faulty PC. See what happens. After its tested you can restore the backup to your drive for your computer.

[PeskyEscky]

MoBo= M5A78L-M/USB3 CPU= AMD Phenom II X4 820 Processor 2.80GHz RAM= crucial ballistix 16g 4x=4g sticks PSU= Corsair 750w GPU= R9 290x MSI HDD= Western Digital 1Tb OS= Windows 8.1 x64

Hello, my brother recently purchased an R9 290X by MSI and installed it into his computer. It caused severe lag and intermittent restarting. When he installs his old Radeon HD 6850 it runs fine. At first we thought it was the drivers. So we updated to the newest "CCC 13.12" and the restarts and lag continued. Updated to the newest beta drivers 14.2. The restarts and lag continued. So we thought it was his PSU. We replaced it and the restarts and lag continued. We then would swap out his CPU with mine and start it. The restarts and lag continued. Swapped out the RAM with mine. The restarts and lag continued.Swapped out his GPU for my Radeon HD 7970. the restarts and lag stopped. We thought it was the MoBo since it was old and the drivers only went to 2010 for Windows 7. We replaced it and the restarts and lag continued. We wiped his HDD and made a fresh install of Windows 8. The lag and restarts ended. We updated Windows to 8.1 but whenever we were downloading and installing the updates it would take about an hour to do each set of 15 updates (total of about 89). We would have to "Update and restart" because we couldn't download the updates from the computers settings. After Windows 8.1 was installed the lag came back and we noticed that the "Disc" activity on the task manager would sometimes go to "90%" when idleing. At this point i think it's the HDD, but i want to make sure.

Before we send off the HDD we thought about swapping out the HDD with another one (Same Model) but it would still crash ( both hard and soft) so we put his old one back in and noticed that a crash (Whether "hard" or "soft") would occur every 10 minutes if YouTube had been watched on Firefox. So at this point i don't know what could be wrong. The temps run fine. Could it be a drivers issue? I downloaded "WhoCrashed" and ran it then this crash happened http://i.imgur.com/uvhwmPO.jpg Any ideas?

Unfortunately that crash dump is difficult to analyse. I suggest running these scans:

Open a command prompt. Type chkdsk /r

After that has run, type sfc /scannow

 

These scans find problems and repair corrupt windows files

[Killaconor]

Unfortunately that crash dump is difficult to analyse. I suggest running these scans:

Open a command prompt. Type chkdsk /r

After that has run, type sfc /scannow

 

These scans find problems and repair corrupt windows files

Thank you for reading the original post. I'll go and do these commands tonight. The only problem with swapping his HDD with mine is i have mine setup in RAID 0.But i have a spare one laying around somewhere i'll have to dig up and test. Thanks again.

[Killaconor]

ran chkdsk /r first and this popped up ( i hit N )

 http://imgur.com/3VzwVOl

 

so i ran it wouth the /r and this came up

http://imgur.com/TrIWfMO

 

I'm gonna run it with the /r and hit Y soon and show the results of that as soon as it finishes.

[Killaconor]

ran chkdsk /r first and this popped up ( i hit N )

 http://imgur.com/3VzwVOl

 

so i ran it wouth the /r and this came up

http://imgur.com/TrIWfMO

 

I'm gonna run it with the /r and hit Y soon and show the results of that as soon as it finishes.

http://imgur.com/4EWnOa3 results from the sfc

[PeskyEscky]

http://imgur.com/4EWnOa3 results from the sfc

When you re-installed Windows, how did you install it, using a DVD?  Are your windows updates up to date?

[Killaconor]

When you re-installed Windows, how did you install it, using a DVD?  Are your windows updates up to date?

Yes, a DVD with Windows 8 on it, then used an installer to get to 8.1

Whenever i restarted the computer with with the Y option on chkdsk /r it would get to 10% and stall. I restarted the computer a few times to get it past that.

[Killaconor]

When the computer was restarting i booted it into command prompt and this came up http://imgur.com/IX2Azao

I hit Y and this was the result http://imgur.com/NpvFRnm

Hope this helps

[PeskyEscky]

When the computer was restarting i booted it into command prompt and this came up http://imgur.com/IX2Azao

I hit Y and this was the result http://imgur.com/NpvFRnm

Hope this helps

Hmm still says it didn't find an error. Did you manage to dig up that other HDD yet?

[Killaconor]

Yeah, i'm gonna try to put a image file on it as soon as i get some free time.

[PeskyEscky]

Also what programs did you reinstall after installing OS again? Could you give me a screenshot of programs and features in control panel?

[dragoon20005]

try to reinstall windows 8.1 with all the updates

 

but minus the programs that you will be using

 

do in stages so that you can monitor the behavior of the computer

[papeles]

-update motherboard bios

-try a different pci-e lane

-check if the pci-e mode is auto or 3.0

-try adding power from different pci-e cables

-Clean your drivers using http://www.guru3d.com/files_get/display_driver_uninstaller_download,9.html. Doesnt matter if it is still amd card. Just clean, reboot, install newest. New beta drivers are 14.4 and not 14.2, even tho you should't be getting that problem

 

it's clearly software or motherboard related, so don't go changing disks and ram or whatever.

[Mr Velocity1577]

What's the CPU in your machine?

[Fred Janssen]

Could be that the L2 and L3 caches on ur cpu are to small (4x 512kb L2, 4Mb shared L3) when using that card

Just proposing and idea here ^^ but maybe the load with that card is to great and ur cpu doesnt have enough room in those caches to "breathe" and that that is the reason for the bottleneck..

[Mr Velocity1577]

Could be that the L2 and L3 caches on ur cpu are to small (4x 512kb L2, 4Mb shared L3) when using that card

Just proposing and idea here ^^ but maybe the load with that card is to great and ur cpu doesnt have enough room in those caches to "breathe" and that that is the reason for the bottleneck..

That is what we have been trying to tell him. My GTX 660 Ti was bottlenecking with my Phenom II x4 970 @3.7GHz so how he can say it's not that!

I brought a FX 6350 and all my problem went away.

[Killaconor]

That is what we have been trying to tell him. My GTX 660 Ti was bottlenecking with my Phenom II x4 970 @3.7GHz so how he can say it's not that!

I brought a FX 6350 and all my problem went away.

regardless of a bottleneck, it doesn't matter if the PC is restarting frequently. I have swapped it out with Phenom ll x6 1090t which works fine on my main rig but when i put it into the other rig the problem persists. So while i appreciate your comments on getting a better CPU it doesn't really add to fixing my problem.

[Mr Velocity1577]

regardless of a bottleneck, it doesn't matter if the PC is restarting frequently. I have swapped it out with Phenom ll x6 1090t which works fine on my main rig but when i put it into the other rig the problem persists. So while i appreciate your comments on getting a better CPU it doesn't really add to fixing my problem.

What were the Motherboard Models? And did you upgrade or just swap like for like?

[Killaconor]

What were the Motherboard Models? And did you upgrade or just swap like for like?

Upgrade, i forget what he had before but now he has an ASUS M5A78L-M

[Mr Velocity1577]

Upgrade, i forget what he had before but now he has an ASUS M5A78L-M

Is that the ASUS M5A78L-M/USB 3 version?

Have you got a 4pin or 8pin CPU power plugged in?

Have you checked that the Motherboard & CPU Drivers are all up to date? (Right click start button and go to Device Management and check 'Everything'.)

[Mr Velocity1577]

Accidental Double Post!

[Killaconor]

Is that the ASUS M5A78L-M/USB 3 version?

Have you got a 4pin or 8pin CPU power plugged in?

Have you checked that the Motherboard & CPU Drivers are all up to date? (Right click start button and go to Device Management and check 'Everything'.)

yes, the usb3 version. There's only a 4 pin CPU power slot.  The first thing i did was update the drivers because the older MoBo was using Windows 7 drivers on Windows 8.1 ( i thought that was the initial problem with the GPU)

[Mr Velocity1577]

You not running any OC on anything I guess? Did you say you tried a new HDD?

Does it keep running for longer when YouTube hasn't been viewed? If so it's more than likely a memory leak or something in FlashPlayer.

[Mr Velocity1577]

Another wield guess in the park but is the RAM voltages set to Auto in the BIOS? Might be worth trying to set them manually to 1.5v or whatever your RAM is speced to be running at.

It could be dropping below 1.5v and that causes BSOD's. The GPU will be sharing some of the system RAM for simple things like YouYube video encoding/decoding and when it drops voltages it will cause a crash. Have a look and see if this fixes it.

[Recon-UK]

I would go for a new platform, 290 with any phenom is a bad move.