Something wrong

[compupertortoise]

As ICT student and enthusiast, it feels kinda wrong saying this, but something is wrong is with my PC and it affects gaming and normal use. 

 

You can see my current build from my signature. Before I had an GTX 970 and after upgrading to GTX 1070TI, I didn't notice that big of an improvement. I use a 144Hz monitor.

 

I've "bought" some stuff for "free" from internet, but usually from places which I trust (if you can even trust anybody) and only couple programs. 

 

Symptoms:

- Watching 1080p video on Youtube (not in fullscreen) and opening something like WhatsApp Web/Reddit/Local News on a the second screen makes everything stutter badly. Video drops to 15fps slideshow and website on other screen isn't responding to mouse immediately. 

- Launching Task Manager which freezes for 3-5 seconds before even showing anything.

- Gaming performance is bad in my opinion. PUBG (which badly optimized but still) runs usually at 90FPS if I'm in a field where there is no actions. The second there a city in range of 300m, fps drops to 60fps and even lower when I'm close or in the city. Similar symptoms with R6 Siege and Warhammer: Vermintide 2. When fps drops its not static, it varies a lot. All of this on the lowest settings possible.

- Everything just feels choppy, even using my PCs at my university feels like they are 10 000 € gaming rigs compared to my rig.

 

What have I done:

- Checked Windows updates, GPU drivers. All are up to date.

- Monitored temps during heavy and light usage. GPU stays under 70 º C and CPU is usually under 60 º C during heavy load, no sudden temperature spikes during light usage.

- No unusual load on CPU, GPU or RAM when I'm not doing anything.

- Closed every background application possible, not like I have a lot of them, but e.g. I close Spotify during gaming.

- Run multiple full scans with Windows Defender, nothing found.

- My friend recommended checking this guide http://www.malwareremovalguides.info/trojan-bitcoinminer-removal-guide/ , he said it helped him. I'm desperate, so tried everything it said to do. MalwareBytes found one Bitcoin miner and couple suspicious registry keys. Deleted those, no help.

 

 

What should I do?

Could my CPU bottleneck this hard? Is there some kind of an guide for totally cleaning you PC? Which I can actually trust... Any ideas are welcome. 

 

If you need any additional information, feel free to ask.

 

 

[themctipers]

ddu?

[Radium_Angel]

what's the throughput on your internet connection? Is it solid?

memtestX86, run for 24 hours, it will eliminate RAM from the equation (or show you in big red errors that it is bad)

run hard drive diags from the maker of your HD (WDDiags for Western Digital, Seatools for Seagate, etc.)

 

do a CPU stress test and a video card stress test, both will show if those parts are bad.

[compupertortoise]

8 minutes ago, themctipers said:

ddu?

I just did that with last driver I installed.

[compupertortoise]

9 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

what's the throughput on your internet connection? Is it solid?

memtestX86, run for 24 hours, it will eliminate RAM from the equation (or show you in big red errors that it is bad)

run hard drive diags from the maker of your HD (WDDiags for Western Digital, Seatools for Seagate, etc.)

 

do a CPU stress test and a video card stress test, both will show if those parts are bad.

I'm sure it's not my internet. http://www.speedtest.net/result/7160641681

 

I will try running memtestx86 tomorrow, do you think like 6-8 hours is enough? If I remember correctly you are supposed run memtest from a bootable usb stick. I need my PC operating every day, I have a lot school stuff to do... 

 

My main storage drive is kinda old, maybe it's giving up. Gonna try that tomorrow also.

 

What CPU and GPU tests should I run? Prime95 is pain in the ass because I need to find the correct version for Haswell, any alternatives? Never really played with GPUs, what should use for testing? 

[Radium_Angel]

10 hours ago, Grendes said:

I'm sure it's not my internet. http://www.speedtest.net/result/7160641681

 

I will try running memtestx86 tomorrow, do you think like 6-8 hours is enough? If I remember correctly you are supposed run memtest from a bootable usb stick. I need my PC operating every day, I have a lot school stuff to do... 

 

My main storage drive is kinda old, maybe it's giving up. Gonna try that tomorrow also.

 

What CPU and GPU tests should I run? Prime95 is pain in the ass because I need to find the correct version for Haswell, any alternatives? Never really played with GPUs, what should use for testing? 

I recommend this one for GPU

http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

 

With memtest, it must complete at least one full pass, how long that takes depends on the speed of your system. Bad ram typically shows up immediately, but not always.

CPU testing should not be dependent on what type of CPU, try these

http://blog.logicalincrements.com/2015/12/the-best-programs-for-stress-testing-your-pc/

 

 

Also, check your event viewer and see what kind of errors (if any) you are getting, typically the most important ones are under the "system" subtask.

[compupertortoise]

8 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

I recommend this one for GPU

http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

 

With memtest, it must complete at least one full pass, how long that takes depends on the speed of your system. Bad ram typically shows up immediately, but not always.

CPU testing should not be dependent on what type of CPU, try these

http://blog.logicalincrements.com/2015/12/the-best-programs-for-stress-testing-your-pc/

 

 

Also, check your event viewer and see what kind of errors (if any) you are getting, typically the most important ones are under the "system" subtask.

I did some testing today.

 

I ran two full runs of Memtestx86, with no errors at all. They took around 2 hours each to complete, so I assume it's not my RAM.

 

I also tested all of my drives:

WD Blue 1TB, passed with no errors.

I also tested my Samsung SSDs with DLGDIAG, because I couldn't find any software from Samsung for testing drive integrity.

Samsung SSD 840 120GB

 

Samsung SSD 850 500GB

 

I did find software named Samsung Magician which can test drive speeds, so did that too. The speeds look decent.

 

 

 

Also checked Event Viewer, there was no serious errors. Only two which were classed as system errors were that windows failed to update sticky notes (even though sticky notes icon changed...) and other one was that Steam failed to connect somewhere.

 

I will be moving to stress testing my GPU and CPU, I'll keep posting as I proceed.

 

If there is anything else I can do test my system, feel free to post.

 

 

 

 

[compupertortoise]

I've run 6 IntelBurn test on Very High preset and temps seems to fine.

 

But during my test my screen went black couple of times, seemed like they lost signal and then got it back. I've read that it could be caused by the fact that there is not enough RAM for the system to run. Why could this happen? Is this normal?

 

 

And here is Furmark result, temps seems like they good.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2018 by Grendes
Added FurMark results.

[raphidy]

Last resort would be backup, wipe OS drive and reinstall windows. I would do it since it's not normal to have difficulties when idling/internet browsing with your rig. I would double check drives with crystaldiskinfo and verify drive health.

[Radium_Angel]

All the parts seem ok. You're not overclocking anything are you?

Have you updated the BIOS of the motherboard lately? Perhaps resetting things to their default values and see if it makes any difference.

[compupertortoise]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

All the parts seem ok. You're not overclocking anything are you?

Have you updated the BIOS of the motherboard lately? Perhaps resetting things to their default values and see if it makes any difference.

Everything is running on stock clocks. Only thing I changed was power and temp limit for GPU, that should't affect anything, right?

 

I actually never in my life updated any bios, so no, I haven't touched the bios.

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

You could have burned something out. Update the BIOS, see if it changes anything. I am NOT a fan of overclocking things, especially video cards, for reasons that are too long to get into here, but it certainly can cause issues, but start with a BIOS update, then, as a last resort (as mentioned from someone else) it's wipe and re-install time.

[compupertortoise]

Quote

You could have burned something out.

What do you mean by that? 

 

I will try updating bios in a moment.

[compupertortoise]

8 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

You could have burned something out. Update the BIOS, see if it changes anything. I am NOT a fan of overclocking things, especially video cards, for reasons that are too long to get into here, but it certainly can cause issues, but start with a BIOS update, then, as a last resort (as mentioned from someone else) it's wipe and re-install time.

I've checked that I have the second latest BIOS version, the newest one is BETA version (from 2016?) and the only changes according to description is "Memory Compability". I don't think it's worth updating to a BETA version.

[Radium_Angel]

38 minutes ago, Grendes said:

What do you mean by that? 

 

I will try updating bios in a moment.

Only thing I changed was power and temp limit for GPU, that should't affect anything, right?

 

You go over the limit set by the maker...and yes, you can burn things out, depending on how much over the set limit you go...

[compupertortoise]

43 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Only thing I changed was power and temp limit for GPU, that should't affect anything, right?

 

You go over the limit set by the maker...and yes, you can burn things out, depending on how much over the set limit you go...

Well yeah, but even with FurMark running temps weren't higher than 70 ºC which isn't that high. During games it never goes over 70 ºC.

[Radium_Angel]

2 hours ago, Grendes said:

Well yeah, but even with FurMark running temps weren't higher than 70 ºC which isn't that high. During games it never goes over 70 ºC.

If you are certain you've never exceeded the proper temps, then I am out of ideas.

[compupertortoise]

19 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

If you are certain you've never exceeded the proper temps, then I am out of ideas.

Yeah I'm sure, I would believe if I burned something that would show during stress testing. 

 

Today I run Valley and FireStrike just for fun, had no problems.

 

I'm gonna reinstall Windows today and I'll see if that helps. Gonna keep you posted.