Strange issue progressing as computer uptime increases.

Razoroth

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Aug 27, 2014
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4,510
So I will start this post off by saying I have been to college for computer and electronic service technology, and I'm currently obtaining my A+ cert, so I'm definitely not new to this area of expertise. However I have been having this issue for almost a year now with no success in solving the problem. So let's get to why I'm here:

The longer my personal home computer stays on, the slower it seems to run. Now this isn't your typical lag from spyware or malware, nor is it caused by any particular registry problems (from what I can tell). The type of lag I'm experiencing is better explained as a "time stretching" effect... This effect is better witnessed while playing music as the sound "time stretches" along with the pc lag. Think of a slow motion button being turned on and off as things are going on.

Now during idle, you rarely hear or notice anything, although it still glitches here and there and you can tell there is a problem at hand. But the action really happens when you do something like try to load a simple webpage or application. Suddenly I'm in slow-mo city and its just horrible. This sound effect is accompanied by glitchy cursor movement while moving the mouse around, as well as the video output (any window effects, etc) So all in all this is a system-wide lag that progresses and gets noticeably worse the longer the pc stays on. The strange part is once I notice it (or come home after a long day and it's REALLY bad) a simple reboot cures it all. That is, until it's been on for awhile again.

Now rather than write another chapter of a book on what I've done already, I will summarize into a list. (If you have questions or need further info on the steps I've taken so far, please ask. I will give any info needed to fix this annoying problem)

1.) Re-installed Windows 7
2.) Wiped hard drive (120gb SSD) and re-installed windows 7 again (diff copy)
3.) Using aida64, monitored temps and load %'s both at the beginning of uptime during problem-free use and during problematic use. (similar results so no overheating was observed in CPU/GPU)
4.) Deep scanned all hard drives with a paid version of Avast. (Results: Clean)
5.) During problematic use periods, terminated running processes related to any non-essential windows process one by one while playing audio (tried different program for the music each time)

I've done hours worth of research on Google and anywhere it could lead me, only to find "similar" problems (mostly related to cpu overheating) but have not found one person with this exact problem anywhere.

I have one last thing to do, which I will most likely due tomorrow when I leave for work, and that is to start it in safe mode and let it sit idle all day until I get home later at night and see if the problem persists in safe mode as well. I'm assuming this is going to be a hardware related issue but I want as much information as possible, as well as other peer's insight before spending money on parts I may not even need to replace.

Thanks for reading, and sorry this was so long. I've had a lot of time to think on this post and wanted to be as thorough as possible in my initial post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Also, I tried making a video showing what happens while at it's worst. Unfortunately when I finished recording it and played it back, all the problems were not there and just showed a smooth running computer... I recorded it using Bandicam, so since this is a windows application, I assume it just "lagged" with the rest of the computer and did not recorded the delays.
-Raz
 

Proofy

Admirable
Yea after you did all those things there's actually very little left to think off than actual hardware issue itself... Did you clean your computer maybe and accidentally scratched something on the motherboard or other crucial hardware it self? or changed thermal paste put it too much so it could get to the connectors on the cpu ?
 

Razoroth

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Aug 27, 2014
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Come to think of it, I didn't reapply fresh thermal paste when I bought a new fan for the CPU. I used what was already on the processor. This problem didn't start until about 8 months after the fan installation. But again the CPU temps never even come close to overheating. The only time this CPU has overheated was prior to the fan replacement.

As far as physical damage to the motherboard goes, I haven't seen anything indicating this and I am super delicate with my electronics. Even to the point of making sure I'm discharged before even opening the case. So although I'm not 100% ruling out that as being a possibility, I'm fairly certain its not the cause.
 

Proofy

Admirable
Hmm very very strange... the only thing and that's the last what comes up to my mind is that power supply is not giving enough power to the MB/HD/RAM. But that is 0,01% possibility... Non the less try connecting your HDD with another cable of your PSU, you can't really do anything for motherboard/ram (once again, if that is the case which I doubt)

Or you can try to use some other PSU if you have just enough W to power your PC up

Could you write what PSU you have and how old is it ?

dying PSU can cause performance issues. When the voltages are out of whack, the system may still run, but not optimally. Think of putting old/watered gasoline into your car. It will run, but not very well.
 

Razoroth

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Aug 27, 2014
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4,510
PSU is less than a year old. Bought it brand new from best buy as my last one wasn't giving enough power to the system (I do a lot of gaming and music production so my GFX card was demanding more power than I had.) It's a Thermaltake 600W I believe, although I can't remember if I went with the 750W or not... either way the system is getting more than enough power (the one I bought can run a modern GFX card in SLI mode, and I'm only running a single currently, so there's tons of juice)
 

Proofy

Admirable
It doesn't matter if it has 1200W + if it is dying. If you have some kind of voltmeter to test it with that would be great, if not you can try replacing it with some other PSU (borrow from a friend/neighbor/familiy)

What is the model of the specific PSU you are using?