Weird bug. PC starts to stutter after being on for 12 hours. Restart of explorer.exe or a reboot, fixes the bug untill another 12 hours have passed.

[KillingForMoney]

The stutter last anywhere from some ms to several seconds. (Couple of instances where the stuttering have lasted 20+min) The amount of stutter is proportional to the length of time after power on. The stuttering starts to become noticable after 6 ish hours. (While typing, and a stutter occur, the typed word takes a second before it shows up on screen.) 

 

Now, I have had this issue for a looong time, and decided to buy new components since im sick and tired of the really anoying bug/issue/fault, but to my surprise, the bug/issue have transferred over to the new system.

 

What was brought over from the old setup:
PSU: Cooler Master V1000

RAM: 2x8GB Trident-Z White/Black (F4-3200C14D-16GTZKW)

GPU: RTX 2080 ROG Strix OC

M.2: Corsair 970 EVO 500GB (Boot Drive)

SSD: Kingston 480GB and a Kingston 240GB

HDD: Western Digital 10TB

 

Note: The ram is not on the motherboard qvl, but the motherboard is on the ram qvl. 

 

I did a fresh install of Windows on the new M.2 (Patriot Viper VPN100 512GB). The new ram 2x8GB Trident-Z RGB (F4-3200C14D-16GTZR). CPU/MOBO: 11700K and ROG Strix Z590-F

 

The bug is still present without the ssd's and hdd.

 

Since there is only 3 components that are the possible causer,(RAM, GPU and M.2) I can now try ruling out one after one to find the faulty hardware. 

 

Any knowledge and or discussion of this bug is appreciated.  

[helfisk]

Have you had any luck looking at process monitor?
What you describe could happen if CPU is fully utilized - might be some bloatware you had on both systems

[KillingForMoney]

Just now, helfisk said:

Have you had any luck looking at process monitor?
What you describe could happen if CPU is fully utilized - might be some bloatware you had on both systems

The bug can occur at any utilization percentage on the cpu

[helfisk]

Had a look at event viewer for potential errors occurring when the issue is present?

[KillingForMoney]

1 minute ago, helfisk said:

Had a look at event viewer for potential errors occurring when the issue is present?

No faults or warnings. 

 

The only thing is you see while the system stutters is utilization spike on explorer.exe

[KillingForMoney]

What should i look after in process monitor?

[KillingForMoney]

My old techsupportpost

[helfisk]

10 minutes ago, KillingForMoney said:

What should i look after in process monitor?

Anything using CPU really - had similar issues in the past, turned out to be a service installed by some Asus bloat, running in the background
But also high usage by "system interrupts" - a common culprit as well

[Allan B]

There is another option, it is something you are doing to Windows to "customize it" even after a clean install.  

 

• Explorer issues can be caused by add ons, if you right click on a folder or file do you have 3rd party options there (like I have 7zip and edit with notepad++ for example).. 
• Are you installing the collection of stuff with comes with the motherboard? Like Armory Crate can load a bunch of stuff like winrar, RAM cache etc... 
• Another comment I saw was around desktop background changing frequently.  Do you have a rolling background?

[KillingForMoney]

3 minutes ago, Allan B said:

There is another option, it is something you are doing to Windows to "customize it" even after a clean install.  

 

• Explorer issues can be caused by add ons, if you right click on a folder or file do you have 3rd party options there (like I have 7zip and edit with notepad++ for example).. 
• Are you installing the collection of stuff with comes with the motherboard? Like Armory Crate can load a bunch of stuff like winrar, RAM cache etc... 
• Another comment I saw was around desktop background changing frequently.  Do you have a rolling background?

1. I have a (atm) unlicensed Windows 10 image running. Also I have bare minimum installed. (Chrome (Add ons: Reddit (RES), AdBlock), Discord, Spotify, Steam, Valorant, Geforce Experience, SoundSwitch and the newest drivers (bios, lan etc.)

2. I exluded the option for that

3. Unlicensed Windows, but the question would be applicable with the old system.

 

It has to be a hardware issue, maybe firmware, but that i doubt. 

 

The 960 evo is my main suspect. It is suspecious. 

 

 

[helfisk]

2 minutes ago, KillingForMoney said:

The 960 evo is my main suspect. It is suspecious. 

Are you able to test this using a different boot drive temporarily?

[KillingForMoney]

4 minutes ago, helfisk said:

Are you able to test this using a different boot drive temporarily?

I am currently running windows on the new m.2. As mentioned above

[Allan B]

3 hours ago, KillingForMoney said:

1. I have a (atm) unlicensed Windows 10 image running. Also I have bare minimum installed. (Chrome (Add ons: Reddit (RES), AdBlock), Discord, Spotify, Steam, Valorant, Geforce Experience, SoundSwitch and the newest drivers (bios, lan etc.)

2. I exluded the option for that

3. Unlicensed Windows, but the question would be applicable with the old system.

 

It has to be a hardware issue, maybe firmware, but that i doubt. 

 

The 960 evo is my main suspect. It is suspecious. 

 

 

does Valorant come with the kernel level anti cheat thing?   I am not sure it is the SSD as Windows would have problems accessing data, but shouldn't overall be stuttering.. 

Any external devices, sound switch or other usb devices?  Maybe swap out mouse\keyboard especially if they are "gaming" with RGB for example.   

 

The issue getting worse over time and being solved by a power cycle points me away from thinking it is hardware related (does a reboot also fix it)?

[KillingForMoney]

17 minutes ago, Allan B said:

does Valorant come with the kernel level anti cheat thing?   I am not sure it is the SSD as Windows would have problems accessing data, but shouldn't overall be stuttering.. 

Any external devices, sound switch or other usb devices?  Maybe swap out mouse\keyboard especially if they are "gaming" with RGB for example.   

 

The issue getting worse over time and being solved by a power cycle points me away from thinking it is hardware related (does a reboot also fix it)?

I've changed periphials in the timeframe of the bug. No dongles etc. just mic, ps4 controller, streamdeck. Corsair K70 and dark core rgb

[KillingForMoney]

15 minutes ago, Allan B said:

does Valorant come with the kernel level anti cheat thing?   I am not sure it is the SSD as Windows would have problems accessing data, but shouldn't overall be stuttering.. 

Any external devices, sound switch or other usb devices?  Maybe swap out mouse\keyboard especially if they are "gaming" with RGB for example.   

 

The issue getting worse over time and being solved by a power cycle points me away from thinking it is hardware related (does a reboot also fix it)?

But the system runs fine for hours if explorer.exe is not running. Its being solved by terminating explorer.exe in task manager, and then file>run>explorer.exe

 

[helfisk]

14 hours ago, KillingForMoney said:

But the system runs fine for hours if explorer.exe is not running. Its being solved by terminating explorer.exe in task manager, and then file>run>explorer.exe

 

Just so I understand exactly what you are saying; runs fine when no instances of explorer.exe is running, i.e. you have a background but no taskbar?
Or are we talking about a file explorer instance?

[KillingForMoney]

9 hours ago, helfisk said:

Just so I understand exactly what you are saying; runs fine when no instances of explorer.exe is running, i.e. you have a background but no taskbar?
Or are we talking about a file explorer instance?

correct, no taskbar, but background. @helfisk

[helfisk]

24 minutes ago, KillingForMoney said:

correct, no taskbar, but background. @helfisk

My gut says it's software related, it's unlikely that killing explorer.exe "solves" a hardware issue.

 

Try uninstalling software by order of most likely or least vital.

 

Also, @Allan B might be on to something regarding the kernel thing. No personal experience but heard bad things.

 

You say unlicensed windows - if you have some sort of crack or rearming thing running, that could be the culprit

[KillingForMoney]

1 minute ago, helfisk said:

My gut says it's software related, it's unlikely that killing explorer.exe "solves" a hardware issue.

 

Try uninstalling software by order of most likely or least vital.

 

Also, @Allan B might be on to something regarding the kernel thing. No personal experience but heard bad things.

 

You say unlicensed windows - if you have some sort of crack or rearming thing running, that could be the culprit

What Microsoft say about issues or problems regarding explore.exe is that it is hardware related. 

 

I'm 99.9% sure that the bug is precent with barebones windows. I've done several fresh windows installs. Also my last system was licensed, as mentioned above.

[helfisk]

1 hour ago, KillingForMoney said:

What Microsoft say about issues or problems regarding explore.exe is that it is hardware related. 

 

I'm 99.9% sure that the bug is precent with barebones windows. I've done several fresh windows installs. Also my last system was licensed, as mentioned above.

Persistent problems perhaps, yours only present after extended usage and killing explorer doesn't normally fix hardware.

I don't think the issue has anything to do with the OS itself, but one of the programs installed throughout the troubleshooting attempts

[KillingForMoney]

On 9/10/2021 at 10:38 PM, helfisk said:

Persistent problems perhaps, yours only present after extended usage and killing explorer doesn't normally fix hardware.

I don't think the issue has anything to do with the OS itself, but one of the programs installed throughout the troubleshooting attempts

I have to reinstall windows to get my license transferred. And I'll download only chrome. And if the bug still exist, what would you say. 

[helfisk]

17 minutes ago, KillingForMoney said:

I have to reinstall windows to get my license transferred. And I'll download only chrome. And if the bug still exist, what would you say. 

Then I would say I'm out of ideas

[Allan B]

9 hours ago, KillingForMoney said:

I have to reinstall windows to get my license transferred. And I'll download only chrome. And if the bug still exist, what would you say. 

It is safe to say Windows doesn't have a bug this impactful to multiple systems, otherwise this would be a common problem.   Since it seems to follow you through multiple hardware swaps, it has to be something you have had the entire time (a mouse, stream deck, monitor, usb hub, bad cable)  or something you are doing every time you reinstall Windows (software, driver or setting).