odd behavior My PC is all messed up now PLEASE HELP!!! 😭😭😭

[GFYNG]

Okay I don't even know what happened or what caused this but last night I installed a Windows update. I think it was Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 (KB5033372). Everything went fine until after it restarted. The ASUS TUF splash screen came up and the little loading circle came up as well, then it froze for what felt like 10-15 seconds. It finally booted into the windows login screen but very sluggishly. Then suddenly it BSOD and gave me an error saying kernel security check failed. It then rebooted again and this time no blue screen, however the system slowed to an absolute crawl! It was really laggy, choppy and hiccupping like crazy. The mouse cursor was skipping/stuttering, moved very slowly despite high DPI setting  and there were also some screen artifacts on the desktop. (Kinda looked like when an LCD screen gets cracked) So at this point I figured a clean install of Windows was in order because I recently upgraded my motherboard from a B450 to an ASUS TUFF B550 and never did a clean install of the OS. So I figured maybe it was conflicting driver issue from the old mobo?? I dunno. I should also mention that I recently updated to the latest BIOS version about a week or so prior to any of this happening but everything was fine for a while. I ran games, booted up my system from sleep, restart, shutdown etc. It all ran beautifully before that damn Windows update!

 

So anyway, I reinstalled Windows. I installed all latest Windows updates and all the necessary drivers etc. (I even had to spend $15 on another stupid Windows key!) All seemed fine and well until I woke the PC back up from sleep later on in the day. Black screen, no video signal. The PC then rebooted itself. Again, black screen. Finally when the signal came back it showed the TUF splash screen and the loading circle slowed and hung again. My heart sank! NOOOO! NOT AGAIN!! Windows login screen comes up and here we go again with the slow/sluggish/choppy responsiveness! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! WTF IS HAPPENING?!?! It also did those weird screen artifacts again! I ran sfc /scannow and it found and repaired some files. However the issue still persisted after another reboot.

 

I then ran Windows update and it installed a .NET framework update. I rebooted it again and then this time the system seemed normal and stable again. I ran 3D Mark Timespy DX12 stress test for 20 loops. 99.2% frame stability. No crash, no BSOD, nothing. System was still stable afterward. I then ran Speed Way stress test for 20 loops. Again, 99.2% frame stability. No crash, no BSOD. Also played some Cyberpunk for about a half hour, no crash, no BSOD, game ran smoothly. However, I tried rebooting the system again, same issue. Hang on splash screen, then slow, stuttering responsiveness. Reboot again, and the system ran stable. I then rebooted it a couple more times just to see if I could replicate the issue again and sure enough, boom! It happened again. Did another reboot, and it's fine. Another reboot, still fine. One more reboot, here we go again! I should also note that in Event Viewer I noticed a ton of "Metadata staging failed" errors that came up around the times the issue was present. (Then again it also do when it wasn't) I'm not sure if that's relevant at all, but I feel I should still mention it.

 

Like this is really weird! It seems like every now & then when I reboot my system it behaves really screwy. WHY?! Is it the BIOS update? If so, how? It ran great up until that update! Can someone please help?

 

Here are my specs:

 

ASUS TUF B550 Plus WIFI II motherboard

Ryzen 5 5600x (No overclock)

G.Skill 32GB 3200Mhz RAM (4 8GB sticks)

ASUS TUF RTX 4070

EVGA Supernova 750W PSU

Windows 10 Pro 

[emosun]

are there any usb devices plugged in or other hardware that isn;t 100% required for the machine to boot?

if not a failing drive then it kinda sounds like a device isn't initialising properly which causes the laggy boot state

[GFYNG]

4 minutes ago, emosun said:

are there any usb devices plugged in or other hardware that isn;t 100% required for the machine to boot?

if not a failing drive then it kinda sounds like a device isn't initialising properly which causes the laggy boot state

Nope, nothing else is plugged in other than my Mouse & keyboard, the USB passthrough built into my kb which I have my 2.4Ghz wireless dongle for my mouse plugged into and the power USB cord for my speakers. I even unplugged my VR headset before reinstalling Windows. I'm also running memtest86 atm to see if the RAM might be causing any issues. It's half way through pass #2 and still no errors so far. This is really racking my brain...

[emosun]

6 minutes ago, GFYNG said:

the USB passthrough built into my kb which I have my 2.4Ghz wireless dongle for my mouse plugged into and the power USB cord for my speakers.

plug the mouse and kb in normally and unplug the speakers

keep in mind memtest isn't the be all end all of ram errors. but your problem sound more like a file system issue vs ram. might help to install windows on a different drive for testing purposes regardless of speed just to see if it's more stable

[GFYNG]

23 minutes ago, emosun said:

plug the mouse and kb in normally and unplug the speakers

keep in mind memtest isn't the be all end all of ram errors. but your problem sound more like a file system issue vs ram. might help to install windows on a different drive for testing purposes regardless of speed just to see if it's more stable

With all due respect I highly doubt it's USB or drive related. If that were the case I would've had this issue months ago but everything has been working fine up until that Windows update.

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, GFYNG said:

With all due respect I highly doubt it's USB or drive related. If that were the case I would've had this issue months ago but everything has been working fine up until that Windows update.

with all due respect..... you reinstalled windows and still have the problem.

so if you aren't interested in doing diagnostics , then please let us know ahead of time.

[GFYNG]

19 minutes ago, emosun said:

with all due respect..... you reinstalled windows and still have the problem.

so if you aren't interested in doing diagnostics , then please let us know ahead of time.

Or you can, oh gee I dunno, tell me something helpful??

Tell me...no please, elaborate. How in the hell can something as simple as a USB dongle cause an issue like this?? Especially when it wasn't causing an issue before. That makes absolutely no sense. 

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, GFYNG said:

Or you can, oh gee I dunno, tell me something helpful??

Tell me...no please, elaborate. How in the hell can something as simple as a USB dongle cause an issue like this??

every single device on the machine has to initialize at some point including usb devices and if one of those is randomly stuck initializing forever and you're just overloading the machine with random requests for a non responding device then yeah , it's not going to run very well.

 

6 minutes ago, GFYNG said:

Especially when it wasn't causing an issue before. That makes absolutely no sense. 

So something people who don't do diagnostics often will say is " _____ didn't have and issue before it broke "

well , now it has an issue doesn't it?

the majority of light bulbs you changed in your life were previously working , then suddenly didn't work. the point isn't to be a crime scene investigator and figure out the motive. start doing diagnostics and change parts and fix the machine. doesn't matter why it broke all that matters is fixing it.

[GFYNG]

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

every single device on the machine has to initialize at some point including usb devices and if one of those is randomly stuck initializing forever and you're just overloading the machine with random requests for a non responding device then yeah , it's not going to run very well.

 

So something people who don't do diagnostics often will say is " _____ didn't have and issue before it broke "

well , now it has an issue doesn't it?

the majority of light bulbs you changed in your life were previously working , then suddenly didn't work. the point isn't to be a crime scene investigator and figure out the motive. start doing diagnostics and change parts and fix the machine. doesn't matter why it broke all that matters is fixing it.

Lightbulbs and USB dongles are two completely different things...

 

However, after memtest finishes up (it only has 1 and half passes left, I might as well let it finish) I'll give your suggestion a try. What could it hurt at this point? Although I'm betting dollars to donuts there will be no change...

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, GFYNG said:

What could it hurt at this point?

gonna be honest , if unplugging a usb cord was a problem then you won;t like any of the other diagnostics we have. thats was a considerably small thing to try

[GFYNG]

Just now, emosun said:

gonna be honest , if unplugging a usb cord was a problem then you won;t like any of the other diagnostics we have. thats was a considerably small thing to try

Heh, yeah which is equivalent to "did you try turning it off and back on again?"

It's not exactly "the size" of the suggestion. It just seems kind of thoughtless. Like you're not even trying, I dunno.  

[emosun]

1 hour ago, emosun said:

if not a failing drive then it kinda sounds like a device isn't initialising properly which causes the laggy boot state

hmm ok then best of luck to you

[Bjoolz]

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump and check if you have any minidump files. If you do, go back to the Windows folder and copy the Minidump folder itself to the Downloads folder (You can use the desktop if you don't have OneDrive syncing files). Zip the copied folder and attach it to a post. Please follow the instructions to the letter as Windows doesn't like you messing with files in this location.

[GFYNG]

10 hours ago, Bjoolz said:

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump and check if you have any minidump files. If you do, go back to the Windows folder and copy the Minidump folder itself to the Downloads folder (You can use the desktop if you don't have OneDrive syncing files). Zip the copied folder and attach it to a post. Please follow the instructions to the letter as Windows doesn't like you messing with files in this location.

Actually,  I think I fixed it earlier today.

So first I tried downgrading the BIOS to version 3202, (the latest version being 3404) that didn't solve the issue. I then tried downgrading it AGAIN to 3002, and that also didn't solve the issue. So I then powered down the system, unplugged everything, held the power button down for 30 seconds to clear the power, removed the graphics card and reseated it. Powered it back on, rebooted it 5 times, the issue didn't come up. At this time I only had the display port, mouse and keyboard plugged in. So I then plugged everything else back in. I.E my speakers, bluetooth, Ethernet and once again I rebooted the system another 5 times, the issue did not come up again. I then put it in sleep for awhile, woke it back up about 45 minutes later, no issues.

So perhaps I didn't even need to downgrade the BIOS after all. Maybe for some reason the power cord or the PCIe connector got jostled or something? I dunno, really weird!

In conclusion though I think it's best to just leave it as is. I'm not even going to attempt updating the BIOS again. As of now if it ain't broken don't fix it. Right?