[Problem]- PC starts terrible lag after few hours... help please...

H

Hexstatic

New member
Hi guys

Looking for some help and advice here please. For a while now, at least a month, my PC has started lagging terribly after being turned on for a few hours. This lag happens regardless of what the PC is doing, whether I'm just on the desktop, internet, or playing games. If I'm on the desktop the PC will lag like hell and i can barely move my mouse pointer around. If I'm in games the FPS will drop to around 4 fps and fluctuates between 4 fps and 25 fps, (normal FPS is over 120 constant).

I have a 2nd monitor open that shows me MSI Afterburner and displays two graphs for info on my GPU's. I notice the "Power %" graphs get very choppy, like big ups and downs when this FPS lag happens. Normally they show very small fluctuations and generally draw a smooth line. I don't know if this is relevant but I thought it may be.

A friend mentioned that it could be a RAM problem, I had to replace my previous RAM (32GB Corsair Dominator 1600mhz) roughly 6 months ago because it failed. The cause of the RAM failure was not identified, I just put it down to dodgy RAM, although it had worked fine for the previous year. The new RAM I am using is 32GB Kingston HyperX 2400mhz, the RAM is only 6 months old so I doubt the RAM is faulty.

I had a RAM caching program installed but have since uninstalled it.

The only thing that fixes the problem in the short term is logging off Windows, then logging straight back in. Due to this I suspect it is a software related problem and not hardware..???


My PC specs are as follows;

Win 7 64 bit,
3930k @ 3.20Ghz,
Rampage 4 Extreme,
32GB Kingston HyperX 2400mhz,
2x GTX 680's in SLI, 331.65 drivers,
120GB OCZ Max IOPS SSD, (OS drive),
480GB Corsair ForceGT SSD, (games),
8x 2TB WD RE4-GP HDD's in RAID 6, (storage),
Adaptec ASR-6805,
Enermax Revolution 1200w,
Corsair Cosmos 2 with lots of airflow,


Would really appreciate some help and advise with this please. :)

Many thanks
Ryan
 
Last edited:
Hey Ryan,

Is there any unwanted activity going on in the background? Like some sort of process running at a high priority stealing lots of CPU resources/memory or causing I/O activity?

What's the task-manager say for resource usage if you bring it up?

Hardware failures are normally more abrupt, a RAM issue you normally have when you start seeing complete lock-ups.
 
Zoot said:
Hey Ryan,

Is there any unwanted activity going on in the background? Like some sort of process running at a high priority stealing lots of CPU resources/memory or causing I/O activity?

What's the task-manager say for resource usage if you bring it up?

Hardware failures are normally more abrupt, a RAM issue you normally have when you start seeing complete lock-ups.
Click to expand...

I think I've checked this before when it happened, I dont think there was anything obvious, I'll have a check when it does it again.

Its got me stumped, I thought it may be my PSU is on its way out, but then it would only make sense if the problem was constantly like this. A friend mentioned something could be overheating, but i doubt this as I have good air flow and simply re-logging from windows would not get rid of any heat build up.

hhmmmm :(
 
Hexstatic said:
I think I've checked this before when it happened, I dont think there was anything obvious, I'll have a check when it does it again.

Its got me stumped, I thought it may be my PSU is on its way out, but then it would only make sense if the problem was constantly like this. A friend mentioned something could be overheating, but i doubt this as I have good air flow and simply re-logging from windows would not get rid of any heat build up.

hhmmmm :(
Click to expand...
A PSU failure is likely to be more abrupt too, the system shutting off randomly or in the extreme case, smoke or fire. If you want to rule that out you could try loading up Prime95 on the CPU and Furmark on both your GPUs at the same time, if the PSU is suspect, chances are it'll balk at that.

Another thought - have you a Windows System Restore point that you can roll back to prior to all the laggyness?
 
Zoot said:
A PSU failure is likely to be more abrupt too, the system shutting off randomly or in the extreme case, smoke or fire. If you want to rule that out you could try loading up Prime95 on the CPU and Furmark on both your GPUs at the same time, if the PSU is suspect, chances are it'll balk at that.

Another thought - have you a Windows System Restore point that you can roll back to prior to all the laggyness?
Click to expand...

Checked the restore points and I only have 2 from a couple of days ago :(
 
You could run a live linux distro (ubuntu, mint, elementary) overnight or for a few hours to quickly see if it's a hardware or software problem.
 
^^^Was going to suggest the same thing, if you're the type to tinker with Linux Ryan.

Also, is re-installing the OS out of the question? Maybe hook up an old HDD and put a clean installation of Windows on that, see how it runs, given I'd be amazed if this is hardware-related.
 
Right, ive done a complete reinstall of windows. C drive fully formatted, my drives on a separate SSD so no problem there.

However, the problem is still happening!

What else could be causing the problem? I guess it is now a hardware related issue?

Really stumped, no idea what to do now.
 
Looks likely now that it is some sort of hardware issue. I'd start with the memory Ryan, since it's an easy one to rule out.

Either try the memtest bootable image - http://www.memtest.org/ , or the blend test in Prime95. Leave them running for like 8 hours or so to rule out the memory being a problem.

Also have a look through the warnings, errors, or critical errors in the Windows Event Viewer, there could be some sort of driver issue going on.

Other things to try:
- Remove one of your 680's.
- Remove everything except your SSD with the OS on it.
- Remove any overclocks, and set your motherboard BIOS settings to the default.
 
thanks for you reply

i notice that when this happens my 12 cpu threads are all over the place. they will all be goi g from high load to no load very quickly. i took a screenshot will upload it when i get home from worm this evening.

i looked in processes but couldnt see anything abnormal or anything using much cpu. total cpu useage was around 10% but it looked like much more when lookjng at each threads graph.
 
It's a bit strange that logging off and then on makes a difference. Have you ever tried waiting it out?

I'd instinctively be thinking about the PSU after what you said about Afterburner but that issue above confuses me.
 
yes mate if i wait it out it just gets progressively worse then my headphones (usb) give a loud ringing sound and i cant do anything. pc completely hangs and i have to do reset...
 
try and unplug all usb things except mouse/keyboard and see what happens. Could be the usb bus i think im having the same problem. i have a 1tb hdd plugged in, ive unplugged mine now and im going to see if it helps
 
Havent had time to do more troubleshooting yet as ive been busy with work the last week. Here's the screenshot of what the CPU load looks like when this lag is happening.

 
Hexstatic said:
Havent had time to do more troubleshooting yet as ive been busy with work the last week. Here's the screenshot of what the CPU load looks like when this lag is happening.

Click to expand...
The next question that picture begs is what are the processes that are causing that CPU usage?
 
Zoot said:
The next question that picture begs is what are the processes that are causing that CPU usage?
Click to expand...

I was monitoring this when it was happening, i didnt see anything that stood out. All I was doing on the computer at the time was on teamspeak and downloading an update. No major programs were running just general background stuff...

...whats weird tho is this is a fresh install of win 7 64 bit, and logging off and back on windows temp fixes the problem for around 3 hours each time... :confused:
 
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