Windows Unresponsive, Doubtful Hardware to Blame

[MechPilot524]

Acquired a franken-pc from a friend. Windows is acting weird, kinda like the hard drive was too slow, but it doesn't seem that is the problem. Still some setup work to be done driver-wise but I want to go ahead and hear some input on this. More info below.

 

Specs first:

 

Windows 10 Home build 15063, fresh reinstall

i5-2500K running stock on a Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 (Haven't visually identified mobo model, this is what Windows tells me)

8GB Patriot RAM, a 2GB stick for a 3x2GB kit along with a complete 3x2GB kit. Rated for 1600MHz, but I've left it at 1066 so far.

XFX HD 7850 GPU

Maxtor by Seagate 7200RPM 160GB HDD. It's 3.5 inches wide, but it's awfully thin.

PSU - no clue, haven't removed it and no labels visible. Looks like a cheap one though.

 

You'd think the hard drive is to blame, but Task Manager reports quick response times and low disk usage compared to a laptop I recently used which was definitely bottlenecked by the hard drive. A cursory glance at HWMonitor and other parts of Task Manager shows the Ethernet port isn't even breaking a sweat, I'm barely using a quarter of my RAM, and the processor (while at generally 100% utilization over all cores, is only operating at 800MHz instead of 3300MHz which is what the BIOS says it's clocked at). When I say unresponsive, it takes a moment to change to another open window, and sometimes a window like Chrome, Task Manager, or even the Start menu freeze a bit before resuming their normal actions. I haven't downloaded Radeon Crimson but doubtful this is the cause as the cursor itself is always responsive and the GPU seems to rendering what it's told to render. All I can think of is some API that I've forgotten about, or maybe the power supply?

[3rrant]

3 minutes ago, MechPilot524 said:

Acquired a franken-pc from a friend. Windows is acting weird, kinda like the hard drive was too slow, but it doesn't seem that is the problem. Still some setup work to be done driver-wise but I want to go ahead and hear some input on this. More info below.

 

Specs first:

 

Windows 10 Home build 15063, fresh reinstall

i5-2500K running stock on a Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 (Haven't visually identified mobo model, this is what Windows tells me)

8GB Patriot RAM, a 2GB stick for a 3x2GB kit along with a complete 3x2GB kit. Rated for 1600MHz, but I've left it at 1066 so far.

XFX HD 7850 GPU

Maxtor by Seagate 7200RPM 160GB HDD. It's 3.5 inches wide, but it's awfully thin.

PSU - no clue, haven't removed it and no labels visible. Looks like a cheap one though.

 

You'd think the hard drive is to blame, but Task Manager reports quick response times and low disk usage compared to a laptop I recently used which was definitely bottlenecked by the hard drive. A cursory glance at HWMonitor and other parts of Task Manager shows the Ethernet port isn't even breaking a sweat, I'm barely using a quarter of my RAM, and the processor (while at generally 100% utilization over all cores, is only operating at 800MHz instead of 3300MHz which is what the BIOS says it's clocked at). When I say unresponsive, it takes a moment to change to another open window, and sometimes a window like Chrome, Task Manager, or even the Start menu freeze a bit before resuming their normal actions. I haven't downloaded Radeon Crimson but doubtful this is the cause as the cursor itself is always responsive and the GPU seems to rendering what it's told to render. All I can think of is some API that I've forgotten about, or maybe the power supply?

First, always get the latest drivers of everything. The less painful way to do it, it's with Windows Update.

 

On the other hand, the cause of your problem is either the ram of the hard drive. The fact that windows doesn't say that your hard drive is working at 100% doesn't mean it isn't hardly bottlenecking everything. For the ram, search memtest and run it. See if you get problems

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, MechPilot524 said:

snip

 

Can you take a screen recording or use your phone to take a video of this?

 

I'd like to see visually what you mean.

 

1 hour ago, ErrantNyles said:

First, always get the latest drivers of everything. The less painful way to do it, it's with Windows Update.

 

On the other hand, the cause of your problem is either the ram of the hard drive. The fact that windows doesn't say that your hard drive is working at 100% doesn't mean it isn't hardly bottlenecking everything. For the ram, search memtest and run it. See if you get problems

I find Linux on a Hard Drive to be unresponsive. So my immediate thought is HDD but it could potentially be RAM.

[MechPilot524]

Well.... I missed one tiny thing in HWMonitor.

 

 

This is 5 minutes with Google Chrome.

 

Looks like I need to check under the CPU cooler! TCase is 72 C...

 

Thanks you guys for your input but I think I found the problem. Lesson learned: don't automatically trust other users' thermal paste applications, especially when stock coolers are involved.

 

#CookingWithIntel