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Hey guys, I am pretty lost with this problem, maybe someone here has any ideas what the cause could be.
Details of problem:
Here are some screenshots of the task manager ressource monitor:
http://i.imgur.com/7sJgMOJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/qspR3O8.png
As you can see, the CPU frequency drops to 0 for a short period of time, it looks like it shuts down and then jumps back to normal performance. The intervalls of the occurences are not constant, but it happens about ever 30 seconds to 1 minute. Everytime it happens, my whole PC lags and the video and audio begin to stutter for a few seconds. Note that this happens even when all programs are closed and also right after startup.
Solutions and measures conducted:
First I tried to find a faulty process in the task manager, but couldnt find anything like that. I am not an expert so I dont want to kill every process of the system without knowing anything about it but this doesnt seem to be the problem. Next I checked the temperatures with various programs ( http://i.imgur.com/M5SceAm.png ) but everything seems fine, and as mentioned above the problem appears even right after startup and without CPU usage so overheating is very likely not the cause. I also tried to update chipset drivers from the factory website. My mainboard is from Gigabyte and I installed the according drivers successfully, but in the device manager under chipset is still says 2009 drivers frim Intel which confused me but it says the drivers are up to date. ( http://i.imgur.com/Cgft6tl.png ) Maybe I dont know enough about this and it is normal. Anyway the power supply doesnt seem to have a problem either because then the entire PC would probably shut down.
Recent changes to hardware/software
I tried hard to remember what I changed since the problem started occuring, but I cant remeber anything significant. I dont even know when exactly it started happening, I just noticed a little stuttering a while ago and only recently I found the frequency drops in the task manager. The only thing I did that I havent done before was entering standy mode 1 or 2 times and I heard that sometimes causes problems. But it is weird because I didnt change any drivers or something like that and the problem apparently started happening from one day to the other.
System specs
Windows 7 Professional 32 Bit
Intel i7 870 2.93 GHz
4 Gb Ram
Nvidia Gefore GTX 460
Gigabyte Mainboard P55M-UD2
Please tell me if you need any additional info. This issue is highly annoying, especially during gaming, so any advice is welcome. Thanks for help in advance!
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If you know the exact date this started happening, that might help you to find out if Windows Update installed something that caused this.
It looks like this for me in the Control Panel: http://i.imgur.com/ShgoUQJ.png
Those two views will show a list of installed updates. Sort by the date column. Maybe one of them will seem suspicious if you google for what they do.
There are various power saving features in the BIOS. Those are what allows Windows to do things to the CPU.
I think it's working like this (not quite sure of this):
"C1E" -- will cause the voltage to drop if a core is running but doing nothing
"C3" -- allows Windows to completely stop cores
"C6" -- power to stopped cores can be shut off
"EIST (Enhanced Intel Speed Step)" -- allows Windows to reduce the CPU speed (not to zero)
You could try to see what happens if you disable those "C-states" in the BIOS. That EIST stuff might already be disabled for you or does not work like I know it from current CPUs.
I have everything enabled and the resource monitor looks like this for me on a 2012 Intel CPU (the speed changes all the time): http://i.imgur.com/YP9fhZ9.png
Another thing you might want to search for is some sort of discussion about Windows "parking" CPU cores. In your screenshot, it says "geparkt" on some cores. There's a way to configure Windows 7 to never do this. Windows 8 seems to behave like this by default so it might not be a bad idea to disable that parking stuff.
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Thank you for the answer! The reason my ressource monitor looks a bit different is because I have the setting for the power usage on "maximum performance". If I set it to "balanced", my graph looks like yours. I have tried different power usage settings there, but the drops still occur.
Another important thing to note is that I havent done windows updates and it is also not possible at the moment, because I have a student version of windows which currently runs with decreased functionality.
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If you can change power settings, you might have the option to always set the cpu to maximum speed. At least laptops do have that option, don't know about desktops. It should be in the energy settings menu, under "change advanced energy settings" for the power plan you're using.
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On December 12 2013 07:44 Jukulmolder wrote:
If you can change power settings, you might have the option to always set the cpu to maximum speed. At least laptops do have that option, don't know about desktops. It should be in the energy settings menu, under "change advanced energy settings" for the power plan you're using.
Yes the option that I have selected ("maximum performance") already implies maximum CPU frequency as seen in the screenshots, yet that doesnt prevent the CPU drop from happening,
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Now that I think about it, the CPU might actually never drop down in speed. It might just be that graphical representation in the resource monitor drawing 0% for a bit because your PC freezes and locks up for a split second.
I think what you tried to do regarding updating drivers and stuff, that's exactly where you should look. Try also finding new network and audio drivers and USB drivers, not just drivers for Intel's chipset.
Download this program: http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
If your PC acts up again, start it and leave the program's window open, and go back to it after the lag and stutter happened once. Go to the drivers tab to see if one of the drivers was at fault.
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That "Main" screenshot you showed, that has a 53000 microsecond = 53 milliseconds latency recorded, which would be enough to cause stutter in audio and stuff, but the "Drivers" screenshot does not show any driver being the cause of those 53ms.
Can you check the HDD's "SMART" data? The program "Defraggler" can do that for example. There's a "health" tab in the lower half of its program window. It will have a list where you should look out for "read error" and "reallocated sector count" and perhaps something else. That would be a sign that the HDD is not working right anymore. That can also cause weird lag and stutter.
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Ok done, here is the result of the analyzing:
http://i.imgur.com/VH9Bc4H.png
Read error rate: Real value 0, current 200, worst 200
Reallocated sector count same
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Everything's fine on the HDD.
Perhaps the Antivirus got updated and the newer version is the cause?
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I guess it could be, should I try to uninstall it and check? I mean it doesnt really allow me to turn it off. I use Avira Antivirus.
Edit: I uninstalled Avira, the problem is still not gone.
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Ok an update, I booted Ubuntu from an USB stick and have no issues at all here, so the problem is not hardware related.
Edit, another update, I disabled CPU parking, which did not fix the issue either.
Edit, I used another program that clearly shows the issue: http://i.imgur.com/SwgOPTX.png
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EPT
