SOLVED Slowing down after running for a while.

[Dlaw]

So, before I overclocked, my system ran fine for weeks strait with no real slow down. Now, if I leave it on for more than a day, it starts to lag in games and while loading programs. I also noticed that my screen saver will play smoothly until the same time as it's going to be laggy in a game. I double checked to make sure that I didn't have anything running in the background that wasn't necessary, and there wasn't.

Just now I upped my CPU voltage from 1.3500 to 1.3625 or whatever the next step is, and I also bumped my CPU-NB voltage up a notch. I'm running P95 right now to make sure it's not going to overheat my system any, but is that going to help stability?

 

[TiZakit]

How is your RAM usage when this happens? It sounds almost like a memory leak.

 

[Dlaw]

Still 20% or lower. The Highest I've ever seen it is 26%, while running P95 and BF3 at the same time, to make sure that under the most extreme of situations, I wasn't going to fry anything.

 

[Dlaw]

Is there anything else it could be? Should I run Memtest86 again just to be sure it's not the ram itself?

 

[TiZakit]

Unfortunately, I'm not particularly useful for troubleshooting performance issues with relation to overclocking. I'm able to offer the following suggestions, however.

Set everything back to stock, to see if it persists. This will tell you that this issue is for sure with the increase clock settings.

Either way, Memtest isn't going to hurt, and it will narrow down the components you need to thing about.

 

[Dlaw]

I'm going to try leaving it on for a couple days with the upped voltage, and see if it helped. If it didn't, then I'll run it at stock and make sure it doesn't happen again. I have Memtest installed on my HDD, I'll run that on my next reboot.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Instead of running Memtest86(+) try running Prime95 with a custom setting derived from the blend test.
When you start the test, check "Blend", then change it to "Custom"...look near the bottom of the window and change the RAM usage to ~85% of your total ram.

After 4 hours you can turn it off.

What hard drive are you using? Mechanical, right?
For a Seagate/Samsung drive, try running the hard drive tests located in the SeaTools for Windows program.
For a WD drive, try WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

A failing hard drive can act exactly as you describe

 

[Dlaw]

Well, that would certainly be horrible. I'm a little more worried now. It's a Seagate Barracuda. I have just downloaded the tool, it's installing now. I don't have another $100 right now to replace the drive, so I really hope it's not that.

 

[Dlaw]

Good news! My drive passed SMART testing. Should I still worry about drive failure?

 

[Archer0915]

Good news! My drive passed SMART testing. Should I still worry about drive failure?

Try cleaning your system, and re-plugging in all accessible connections.

 

[Dlaw]

Well, as I was in the process of responding to Archer, my computer froze. I was literally running Firefox and HWMonitor. That's it. So, I pulled the system completely apart (down to the bear board), thoroughly cleaned and inspected every part and connection, and put it back together (with a different fan set up, just because I was going to switch it the next time I pulled it apart any way). I'm running P95 in blend mode to help cure the TIM (Just got through the break in period on the last application, DOH!), then I'm gonna let it run till tomorrow to find out if that fixed it.

 

[Dlaw]

So, after upping core and NB voltages, there seems to be no slow down at all after a day strait running. That leads me to believe that it was actually the NB voltage was just a hair too low, and causing memory leaks. (without any testing data) Is there any merit to my hypothesis?

Gonna keep it running and see how it performs tomorrow.

 

[Archer0915]

So, after upping core and NB voltages, there seems to be no slow down at all after a day strait running. That leads me to believe that it was actually the NB voltage was just a hair too low, and causing memory leaks. (without any testing data) Is there any merit to my hypothesis?

Gonna keep it running and see how it performs tomorrow.

Could be no telling. The reason I suggested cleaning is the contacts sometimes corrode. The fact is when you plug a new cable is any one is as good as another but over time only Gold keeps you going. I have had this happen to me a few times and whenever I cant find the problem I replug. That fixes it about 1/3 of the time. USB devices are really bad for that.

 

[Rotary]

I only buy gold plugs, i even rewire my USBs to gold or i get them dipped

 

[Archer0915]

I only buy gold plugs, i even rewire my USBs to gold or i get them dipped

It makes a big difference. Not nothing I would say ids better but it does prevent the constant replugging.

 

[Dlaw]

But the system has only been together for about 3 weeks. Is that enough time for corrosion to happen?

Something I just remembered; after I had it back together, I powered it up, I went through bios to make sure that all my settings were the same (didn't check boot priority), and once I had verified that my overclock was intact, I proceeded with the boot. Once past bios, I was surprised to see that the system was no longer recognizing my hard drive. So I powered it down, and replugged the power and SATA cables on it.

The HDD is the only thing I didn't completely remove from the case/unplug from the PSU. Could that connection have been the faulty one?

 

[Archer0915]

But the system has only been together for about 3 weeks. Is that enough time for corrosion to happen?

Something I just remembered; after I had it back together, I powered it up, I went through bios to make sure that all my settings were the same (didn't check boot priority), and once I had verified that my overclock was intact, I proceeded with the boot. Once past bios, I was surprised to see that the system was no longer recognizing my hard drive. So I powered it down, and replugged the power and SATA cables on it.

The HDD is the only thing I didn't completely remove from the case/unplug from the PSU. Could that connection have been the faulty one?

It is very possible and there could have been some dirt or corrosion from the factory or it could be a bed port or cable.

Change out the cable and change ports and see what that does you for.

 

[Dlaw]

Well, 3 days long and 3 days strong. Absolutely no issues with this system now. Well, except an issue with my video card software, but not a major one, nor one that warrants a reinstall. I wish I had tried replugging everything before I totally dismantled the system though. I have a feeling that my last TIM application was better than this one. Temps are still well within limits though, so I'll let it go.

Anyway, Thanks for the feedback guys. This thread will be marked as solved.