Strange 'pulsating' performance on my PC

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MuppetThumper

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Apr 16, 2009
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18,510
I'm experiencing an odd fault with my PC -

Sometimes after gaming for a little while (say 30-90 minutes), my machine will suddenly start to stutter. By stutter, I mean the screen only refreshes every second or so - but in a strange cacophony the sound cuts in and out in rhythm, even my fan (I can't discern if its CPU or GPU or both) revs up/and down in the same pulsating pattern (cue terrible impersonation of the fan - 'Woo-woo-woo-woo').

Every time this happens I lose my Internet connection (disconnect from the game and tested by no ping to 8.8.8.8) even while my wireless connection to the router seemingly remains. Note that my tablet remains connected just fine, so its not a problem with my Internet per se.

If I exit to desktop, I have the same stuttering mouse as I move it about the screen and general pulsating performance, but looking at task manager memory usage is well within the 8GB I have and my AMD FX 4100 CPU is hardly at 100%.

My machine does not 'crash' - if I leave it 5 minutes normal performance will be restored and full internet connectivity regained. But the problem may reoccur again (if I start gaming)

Rather unhelpfully I don't have temperatures for you or graphs to show, but I wondered if anyone had any ideas as to what this potentially might be? I thought it might be a heat issue, especially since it 'recovers' rather than full on crashing, but I don't understand why my fans would rev up and down in time with the stuttering performance. I've got a wireless PCI card I use for net connections which is close to my GFX card and I wondered if heat from that was affecting the wireless card but I'm not sure if that is logical.

Core sys specs below
AMD FX 4100 CPU with Arctic Cooler 13 heatsink
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 motherboard
8GB Corsair DDR3 RAM
Radeon 7770 HD 1GB Gfx (albeit by VTX, not the best 3rd party manufacturer)
Samsung 840 SSD 250GB
Win 7 64

thanks
 
Solution
Skeefers
One thing I see there that concerns me is that your CPU temp is reading at 9C. Most CPUs don't idle below 25-30C, and that's with a really good cooling setup. I'm not sure what exactly that means though; it may just be a bad reading by your motherboard (which is certainly known to happen), but it could also indicate a problem (although I don't know what), particularly since the motherboard itself is reading at ~35C.

The big issue, as I see it, is found when you look at the voltages listed under your motherboard. Your +12V, +5V and +3.3V readings all seem very low to me. Looking at my readings in HWMonitor, they are all within a few tenths of the voltage listed. This, to me, indicates that at least one issue, if not the only one, is...
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Skeefers

Skeefers

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Aug 7, 2013
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Without seeing your temps and monitoring some other readouts, it's hard to say for sure, but it's possible that your power supply is dying causing fluctuating "surges" when under a heavier load (i.e. gaming). What PSU do you have, and how old is it?
 
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M

MuppetThumper

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Apr 16, 2009
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It's only a couple of months old and the PSU is 750W...

BUT

You might be onto something. It was a cheapo [new, ready built] system I bought off eBay and the PSU brand is something forgettable. It's possible it's a dud.

Then again, the 7770 GFX card uses comparatively quite little power (~100W under load) so perhaps if the PSU was responsible I'd see problems during normal use (web browsing etc).
 
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M

MuppetThumper

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Apr 16, 2009
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ok. so had it happen a couple of times this evening, though not always at max intensity 'in-game' - one was on the title screen when gfx card was at 50C.

Maybe its my PSU... its not great... but what else could it be?

HW monitor running the whole time so shows max reached, doesnt seem much wrong with those stats, no?

2hfrtz4.png
 
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Skeefers

Skeefers

Honorable
Aug 7, 2013
518
0
11,360
One thing I see there that concerns me is that your CPU temp is reading at 9C. Most CPUs don't idle below 25-30C, and that's with a really good cooling setup. I'm not sure what exactly that means though; it may just be a bad reading by your motherboard (which is certainly known to happen), but it could also indicate a problem (although I don't know what), particularly since the motherboard itself is reading at ~35C.

The big issue, as I see it, is found when you look at the voltages listed under your motherboard. Your +12V, +5V and +3.3V readings all seem very low to me. Looking at my readings in HWMonitor, they are all within a few tenths of the voltage listed. This, to me, indicates that at least one issue, if not the only one, is your PSU. I suggest getting a new PSU, 750W should still be fine, from a reputable manufacturer, and preferably with an 80+ rating which indicates that the PSU will provide power more efficiently.
 
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Solution
M

MuppetThumper

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Apr 16, 2009
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18,510


I've also read about low temps not reading correctly re: CPU, I think that's ok. I really appreciate you looking at the voltages though, I hadn't gone to that level of detail. I'll get a new decent PSU and hopefully that will solve my problems. Thanks
 
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