Troubleshooting PC unresponsiveness

[Iron couch]

So last week I bought a used PC which was built in 2021. When examining the PC before purchase I noted it was quite slow but the userbenchmark results and the price were good enough for me to go ahead with the purchase. After the purchase I ran Cinebench R24, Unigine Heaven, CrystalDiskInfo/Mark and 4 passes of MemTest86 to benchmark the most critical components. Apart from high temps on the i9-10850k (80-90C during load) and a dead m.2 drive, everything seemed to work fine. I chalked the sluggishness of the system to the windows install, as the seller had used Windows 10's own reinstall feature instead of a full USB reinstallation before purchase. 

 

I have now moved all the components (apart from two drives) to a new case, completely reinstalled windows and updated the bios, but the unresponsiveness remains. SSD read and write speeds are decent when benchmarked with CrystalDiskMark, but extracting Cinebench to desktop took a good 5 minutes. I'm suspecting it could also have something to do with the CPU, though the cinebench scores were at expected levels for a 10850K. After reinstalling windows and getting decent results from all benchmarks, I don't really know how to proceed. Should I fiddle with CPU voltages? Are there better ways to benchmark SSDs? Could it have something to do with the motherboard? I have experienced zero crashes or bsods, the system simply performs extremely slugglishly. Any and all help is appreciated, below are the full specs.

 

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 Gaming OC

Asus Strix Z490-E mobo

Intel Core i9-10850k @3,60Ghz

NZXT Kraken X63 CPU Cooler

Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 2x16Gb 2444Hz RAM

Corsair RM850X PSU

NZXT S340 case

[Tetras]

What do you mean by sluggish exactly, can you describe it in more detail?

 

1 minute ago, Iron couch said:

but extracting Cinebench to desktop took a good 5 minutes. I'm suspecting it could also have something to do with the CPU, though the cinebench scores were at expected levels for a 10850K.

What is the SSD you're using now?

 

Are there are any errors in the event viewer?

 

If Cinebench scores and benchmarks are performing at the right level, then it doesn't sound like a hardware issue.

[Iron couch]

23 minutes ago, Tetras said:

What do you mean by sluggish exactly, can you describe it in more detail?

 

What is the SSD you're using now?

 

Are there are any errors in the event viewer?

 

If Cinebench scores and benchmarks are performing at the right level, then it doesn't sound like a hardware issue.

Its a basic Kingston 960Gb SSD with 86% condition according to CrystalDiskInfo.

 

There are two kinds of errors in the event viewer. My OS is in finnish but I think google translator did a good enough job

 

Error code 15: "The embedded controller returned data even though no data was requested. The BIOS may try to use the embedded controller without synchronizing with the operating system. This information is ignored. No further action is required. However, ask your computer manufacturer for an updated BIOS."

 

Error code 10016: "The application-specific access rights settings of the object do not grant the user DESKTOP-JPCQD85\Weguli, SID ID (S-1-5-21-431323335-1108619231-1637587771-1001) from LocalHost (LRPC enabled), the access right Local Activation to the COM server application whose CLSID ID is 
{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}
 and APPID is 
{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}
 and which runs in the application container Not Available, SID (Not Available). This security access right can be modified using the component services management tool."

 

These seem to happen somewhat frequently. I guess the bios isn't working as intended? It's weird since I just updated it to the latest version...

 

Edit: To describe the sluggishness in more detail: Just all around slow and unresponsive performance when doing basic things in the OS. Sometimes opening a small folder in file explorer can take twenty seconds, same with opening a file which just finished downloading. Things just hang for obscenely long times. It feels like I've had this Windows install for 5 years even though its only a couple hours old.

[Tetras]

2 minutes ago, Iron couch said:

Error code 15: "The embedded controller returned data even though no data was requested. The BIOS may try to use the embedded controller without synchronizing with the operating system. This information is ignored. No further action is required. However, ask your computer manufacturer for an updated BIOS."

A quick google suggests that monitoring utilities and/or motherboard software can cause this.

 

Can you show us the smart data using software like crystal disk info?

 

Is your drive a SATA drive? A400?

[Iron couch]

8 minutes ago, Tetras said:

A quick google suggests that monitoring utilities and/or motherboard software can cause this.

 

Can you show us the smart data using software like crystal disk info?

 

Is your drive a SATA drive? A400?

Here are my drives. The M.2 is completely empty.

[Tetras]

23 minutes ago, Iron couch said:

Here are my drives. The M.2 is completely empty.

Neither drive is ideal for a boot drive. The Intel drive has exceeded the warranty rating for TBW and both drives can potentially lead to sluggishness in certain circumstances / use cases, especially if you're extracting or working with large files.

 

There are also uncorrectable and other SATA errors being reported by the SA400. I'd suggest you try a different SATA cable, if you haven't already.

[SpookyCitrus]

I'd try Windows on a different SSD, I wouldn't use either as a boot drive nor storing important files. The one thing I always replace when going with used or refurb computers is the SSDs, no point in using someone else's with how cheap new ones are these days. Plus those results for both aren't ideal. It's pretty safe to say it's the SSD causing the sluggishness. 

[Iron couch]

2 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

I'd try Windows on a different SSD, I wouldn't use either as a boot drive nor storing important files. The one thing I always replace when going with used or refurb computers is the SSDs, no point in using someone else's with how cheap new ones are these days. Plus those results for both aren't ideal. It's pretty safe to say it's the SSD causing the sluggishness. 

 

8 minutes ago, Tetras said:

Neither drive is ideal for a boot drive. The Intel drive has exceeded the warranty rating for TBW and both drives can potentially lead to sluggishness in certain circumstances / use cases, especially if you're extracting or working with large files.

 

There are also uncorrectable and other SATA errors being reported by the SA400. I'd suggest you try a different SATA cable, if you haven't already.

Alright, I'll buy a new SSD and see if things change. The other drives on this PC weren't in great condition either so perhaps this is the root cause. Thanks for the insight!