WTF is going on?: Strange screen latency issue

[Bageland2000]

I'm working on my PC today, and all the sudden there are strange latency/stuttering issues. Minimizing, maximizing, and closing windows happens like the computer is in slow-motion. Videos play, but there are little stutters. It's really concerning.

Checked CPU usage and it looks normal. I really don't even know how to begin troubleshooting. Any ideas?

...more info

Just went into BIOS to revert to stock clocks and BIOS was barely responsive. BUT once I reverted, everything seems to be working fine. hmmmmmmmmm.

What would cause OC settings to work stable for months, then start causing issues like this?

 

[c627627]

Testing your overclock for stability is important.


My old notes:

To test the stability of overclocked CPU, download the latest version of Prime95:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Double click on PRIME95.EXE to start the program.

Just Stress Testing (if prompted) > OK >

* Options > Torture Test > Blend (if prompted) > OK *

Number of torture test threads to run should be set to the number of CPU cores. However, Prime95 number of Torture Test threads should be 8 for the four core i7 CPU, not 4 like with the older CPUs.

The i7 runs hot. When running the Prime95 Torture Test for the old Athlon XP, alarm bells went off when the temperatures zoomed past 60° Celcius but I understand realistic OC threshold is now raised toward 90° for max stress when it comes to the i7 CPU.


The program should not give any errors.
It may be necessary to run the program 12-24 hours to make sure an overclocked system is stable (no program errors displayed).


If you get errors only after several hours, this is a result of slight instability because the system is running with little or no margin. It's stable enough to boot and to be moderately stressed, but as soon as the system is under enough load to go over that critical point, it may freeze. To be 100% stable, Prime95 should run 12-24 hours without any errors.

The point of testing is to see if you get errors or not thus testing the stability. The meaning of errors themselves is not as important.


Running Prime95 Torture Test for 5 to 30 minutes is enough to get a feeling about general stability. If it seems to be stable, increase the FSB (with 0.025V Vcore increase if needed), or increase the multiplier by 0.5.

Reboot and run Prime95 Torture Test for 5 to 30 minutes and repeat this until the Program displays errors.
It is then time to back down and repeat the Torture Test until there are no errors for at least 12 hours.

It's OK to use the computer while Prime95 Torture Test is running in the background.


For older processors, versions prior to v25 had the option of going to the Advanced section, setting the password to 9876 and then setting Priority to 10. (You weren't able to use your computer while Priority 10 Prime95 Torture Test was running, but it confirmed your system stability.) In version 25, priority options can be set by going to Test > Worker Windows...


3DMark used to test video card stability but now Furmark stresses the video cards much more.

 

[Bageland2000]

Thanks, I've run torture testing extensively and have a stable OC. I'm not running into the issue where I access the bios and that UI is extremely choppy and laggy. I do the same BIOS restore and everything works great, until a restart or two and the same thing happens again. Is my BIOS getting corrupted? This is so confusing.

 

[c627627]

Is your BIOS updated?

You should include one of the most important parts of your setup in your sig: the power supply brand.

 

[Bageland2000]

I'll update it when I have time. BIOS was latest last I checked, but it's a new board so I'll check again. PSU is Thermaltake Toughpower 850w. Thanks for all your insight!

 

[c627627]

Thermaltake Toughpower should be OK, if it were one of other Thermaltake submodels, I would suspect them.

Just to rule out software probs. maybe try booting into Safe Mode, then install Malwarebytes and run a full scan.
Reboot normally (not into Safe Mode), update Malwarebytes, then run it again.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/


But before that, if you can reliably replicate the problem, maybe try seeing if it can be replicated under a moderate overclock, vs higher overclock vs stock. Perhaps overclocking is the culprit here?

 

[Bageland2000]

Thermaltake Toughpower should be OK, if it were one of other Thermaltake submodels, I would suspect them.

Just to rule out software probs. maybe try booting into Safe Mode, then install Malwarebytes and run a full scan.
Reboot normally (not into Safe Mode), update Malwarebytes, then run it again.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/


But before that, if you can reliably replicate the problem, maybe try seeing if it can be replicated under a moderate overclock, vs higher overclock vs stock. Perhaps overclocking is the culprit here?

I'll try the Malwarebytes approach.

This problem is replicated until stock settings as well. If I restore the BIOS, the UI becomes smooth and Windows performs normally. If I restore the BIOS settings from a profile, the UI remains choppy, but Windows functions normally still.

 

[c627627]

If you have zero problems at stock and problems appear the moment you overclock even a little - I'd say that software/infection is not your problem so I wouldn't waste your time on that (no that it would hurt).

This then becomes the question of why your system has no margin for overclocking. It could be anything, perhaps heat caused by improperly mounted heatsink, perhaps other hardware factors.


But set everything to stock. Then instead of restoring any profiles, just overclock a tiny bit (making sure you increase voltage settings properly) Can you replicate the problem doing that, slight OC with corresponding voltage increase? In other words, only increase BCLK Frequency slightly, and CPU Voltage too.

 

[Bageland2000]

If you have zero problems at stock and problems appear the moment you overclock even a little - I'd say that software/infection is not your problem so I wouldn't waste your time on that (no that it would hurt).

This then becomes the question of why your system has no margin for overclocking. It could be anything, perhaps heat caused by improperly mounted heatsink, perhaps other hardware factors.


But set everything to stock. Then instead of restoring any profiles, just overclock a tiny bit (making sure you increase voltage settings properly) Can you replicate the problem doing that, slight OC with corresponding voltage increase? In other words, only increase BCLK Frequency slightly, and CPU Voltage too.

I'll try to explain it another way, I'm not doing a good enough job.

There are two problems (they're clearly linked, but I'll try to explain them separately so they make sense.)

Problem #1 - BIOS UI
The BIOS UI is super sluggish and unresponsive.
Fix: Implementing the A->B BIOS recovery. This fixes it at next reboot, but after another reboot, the BIOS returns to being super sluggish.

Problem #2 - Windows UI
Windows is also sluggish and slow to respond/choppy.
Fix: This can be fixed 1 of 2 ways
#1 the A->B BIOS recovery as explained above.
#2 by setting the BIOS to stock from a saved profile (setting it to an overclock from a saved profile works too-- basically I just need to set the BIOS).

This seems like there is some recurring error or some BIOS setting is not holding properly. I've verified I'm on the most recent BIOS version. Any ideas?

 

[wagex]

i had a similar issue a couple times. at one point it was a NB heatsink had fallen off. another the video card fan had stopped working and it was overheating really bad like.

hope that helps.

 

[Bageland2000]

i had a similar issue a couple times. at one point it was a NB heatsink had fallen off. another the video card fan had stopped working and it was overheating really bad like.

hope that helps.

Hmmmm, strange. you're saying an overheating Video Card was corrupting BIOS settings? Did you read my last post, wagex?

 

[c627627]

I understand that you have taken overclocking out of the equation, your BIOS is getting corrupted and there is no need to question your video card or CPU temperatures because they remain normal even under stress even if they have nothing to do with your BIOS problem.


Perhaps the question will be how to test for a bad BIOS chip? Before then perhaps flash back one or more versions of BIOS and post back to say that you can replicate the problem when doing that, and even if this has nothing to do with your problem, what are your temperatures after you CMOS pin reset your BIOS and set everything to stock.

 

[wagex]

Did you read my last post, wagex?

oops.. that last post....

 

[Bageland2000]

So I popped out my CMOS battery to clear the settings. And now my PC won't even turn on. I was having this problem before, replaced Mobo/CPU but now I'm wondering if I have a bad PSU. The PSU will turn on with the paperclip test, but I've tried everything and it won't turn on with the power switch. I'm at wit's end here....

 

[c627627]

You know the drill, disassemble everything.

Use only mobo, CPU, one single stick of RAM, video card, mouse and keyboard and PSU only.

Nothing else, no other cards or peripherals. Just one single hard drive with nothing else connected. Check cables.


The worst thing here is to assume something is bad and spend time and money replacing a perfectly good part. Unfortunately, other than disassembling and reassembling the bare minimum components, the best way is to have another rig and then do trial and error until you find the culprit.

Maybe all hardware is OK but it was not assembled correctly or a cable is bad. That's the worst time waster, when a cable is bad and you think it's the part itself.

 

[Bageland2000]

Pulled the PSU from my HTPC and everything booted up. Going on newegg soon to buy a new PSU.

 

[Bageland2000]

I wanted to follow up after determining what the issue was on my computer. I bought a Corsair ax860 (woot!) and booted up. The OPPOSITE of the chopy/slow screens happened. Everything was in fast forward. I figured out that this is due to the RTC (Real-time clock) on my motherboard being affected by my faulty PSU. Once I shorted the BIOS reset jumper on my motherboard, the RTS settings reset and everything was fine.