Hey guys,
I've been running on a custom built rig for 3 years with the following specs:
Intel E6850 DuoCore 2 3 GHZ Processor
4 GB Corsair PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Memory
EVGA Nvidia 8800 GT 512 MB
EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard
I started out with Windows XP of course and just upgraded to Windows 7 in October. Everything has worked smoothly, though I recently moved to a USB based sound system with a Tritton AXPC headset. All has been well up until today, when I started noticing random slowdowns occuring (Playing Left 4 Dead 2 is when I first noticed it, the computer would freeze up for a split second, all sound and video stopping, and it would then go back to normal). These freezes would occur every so often, maybe 40 seconds apart, and would start getting worse as time would go on.
At a certain point these freezes would happen every 1-2 seconds, causing extreme choppiness and extended to not just games, it indeed happened in Windows itself. While simply idling rarely caused it, it would often crop up again when using multimedia (such as music and videos) and any other application that used a major piece of the processor.
The interesting bit: Rebooting did little to help it. Shutting the computer down and starting it back up again would produce the same symptoms, meaning I usually deal with a boot up that would take 25-30 minutes to complete. HOWEVER, when I leave the computer for awhile and start it up, everything is smooth again. This immediately made me believe heat was the problem, and I am now monitoring my CPU temperature as well as passively looking at my GPU (which simply stays idle at 51 degrees celsius when in Windows so I really doubt it has anything to do with this)
During idling I'm usually at 47-49 degrees celsius on both cores. During moderate use it's at 55-60 degrees celsius. When it completely tops out (90-100% load), which obviously happens during the freezes, I'm at 68-72 degrees celsius.
I am now convinced that my processor heat is the problem and am going to do a thorough cleaning of the entire rig tomorrow to get all the dust out. I just wanted to share my issue with FP and see if you all had any ideas or concur with my diagnosis.
If reduced temperatures don't seem to help then I guess it's a software problem as I initially suspected, in which case I am completely stumped (and I unfortunately have no system restore points since Windows deleted them all for some unknown reason)
Ahah, my moms computer has the exact same issues, it's caused by CPU overheating.
I'm actually thinking of underclocking the CPU in her computer, since the fan can't do shit to keep the temperatures down.
It's a Dell by the way.
I'd reccommend you to either get a new CPU cooler, or see if the cleanup helps.
Also, upgrading your OS might be an idea, i mean, like start over again with no programs.
Only thing you really need to backup is savefiles and other personal stuff.
My thoughts as well, Paul. It's either hardware (Overheating) or software (Something bogging down the computer, etc.).
I'm hoping Hardware since it has the simplest solution. Re-installing my OS is not something I want.
Clean out your chassis with some compressed air, and if you have an aftermarket cooler, apply some new thermal paste because 3 years is a while for paste that's being used for maybe an hour or two a day.
72 Degrees isn't that hot for a cpu and should not cause the slowdowns. Toug it is a tad high.
You can stress your CPU with PRIME95 and your GPU with Furmark.
Can you post your temperatures after 30 minutes of using that?
Or if cleaning out your system fixes your problem ignore the above.
Just watch out with static electricity and vacuum cleaners.
[QUOTE=taipan;19121721]72 Degrees isn't that hot for a cpu and should not cause the slowdowns. Toug it is a tad high.
You can stress your CPU with PRIME95 and your GPU with Furmark.
Can you post your temperatures after 30 minutes of using that?
Or if cleaning out your system fixes your problem ignore the above.
Just watch out with static electricity and vacuum cleaners.[/QUOTE]
According to intel that is the max tempature for this processor.
[url]http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLA9U#[/url]
[editline]04:07AM[/editline]
OP find ways to make the temperature lower, I suggest you get new thermal paste and replace the old stuff on that cooler.
Still unsure at this point if it's temperature or not. However, I have discovered what is at the very least a huge symptom of what's going on (The jury is still out if this is indeed the cause). During these slow downs I have noticed a process called Deferred Procedure Calls taking up 20-30% of my CPU power. When the slow downs disappear DPCs usually go down to only using 0-1% of my CPU. I did some investigation and concluded that some drivers were not agreeing with Windows 7 and causing massive paging to my system. I re-installed Windows 7, however the slow downs continued (And, I might add, were easily trigger able when in games).
Prime95 gets my core temperatures up to 67 degrees celsius with the side of my case off and a fan blowing into it (I was trying to keep it as cool as possible to determine if heat was the problem or not). More importantly, as soon as Prime95 gets going, the DPCs and slow downs start and go up to about 20%. Furmark went by smoothly and no DPCs occured, computer was very smooth. I have also run memtest+ to verify that my memory is okay, and it passed with no errors. Also done hard drive tests for bad sectors and they all check out.
So I've concluded that it's NOT software (or at least VERY unlikely after an OS re-install), and must be my CPU (or a very strange motherboard problem) since the problems crop up VERY quickly once the CPU gets under heavy load. I'm doubtful it's heat, since it was having these problems with temperatureswell under the design spec for the processor, with a giant fan blowing at it, so I'm not sure what that leaves.
EDIT: UPDATE. As a last resort I hypothesized that some of my parts may have been jostled loose. I unseated my RAM to start, and cleaned the contacts with Q-tips, and re-seated them all as firmly as possible. No slow downs at all, made my first full campaign run in L4D2 since these problems started. I am being cautiously optimistic, but I am hopeful that this is the end of my problems.
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