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Windows 7 poor performance after computer failed to post

Tags:
  • Performance
  • Windows 7
  • Computers
  • Blue Screen
Last response: in Windows 7
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October 11, 2014 10:32:40 PM

Hello everyone.

I bought a machine from ibuypower, it's about two months old now. Everything was fine until last week, my computer failed to post. I tried two things to get it to post again:

  • Reset the CMOS
  • Remove RAM chips one by one to test which worked and which didn't.

  • Thankfully both RAM chips still work and all I had to do was change which slots were being used to the other pair.

    The bad news is there's still a dead RAM slot which is obviously never a good sign.

    So, the computer successfully posted, and everything was mostly happy for a few days. Then the BSODs started.

    The first one was BCCode: 1000007e. All I was doing was browsing the internet, I still don't know why that happened.

    The next one was BCCode: d6. postcl.sys was involved. I believe what I did to fix that was uninstall Virtual Audio Cable.

    I got at least two BCCode: c4 BSODs.

    In terms of current problems, he bootup procedure now freezes (no BSOD) and is slow as molasses, which is bizarre for a solid state OS drive.

    Processor usage is another serious problem - something is using a lot of it, all the time.

    Sound is an issue now - because I'm using the onboard drivers, it skips for no reason sometimes. When I'm doing something - like internet browsing, which has also taken a pretty bad performance hit - it skips frequently, lags, or is overlaid with static.

    Games no longer run quite as well. As a working example, my computer used to be able to run Metal Gear Rising cranked to max at 1920x1080. During some of the more intense fights, my computer could tolerate upwards of 700 parts (chunks of things being sliced off and therefore rendered) onscreen before any slowdown occurred. Now, I'm lucky to get 100 parts before slowdown happens. Explosions (or too many particle effects) cause framerate drops when they weren't a problem before.

    The sound issue is intolerable; the games isn't the most annoying thing but it'd be nice to have it not freeze.

    With the assistance of one of my friends, we:

    • looked for malicious programs in add/remove programs
    • looked for auto-booting services and programs in msconfig
    • cleaned the registry, scanned for malware, viruses, and rootkits, not necessarily in that order
    • updated the BIOS
    • installed as many missing drivers as possible
    • did four full rounds of all ten tests in memtest86

  • Of the two devices that don't work, here are their hardware IDs:

    • PCI\VEN_1131&DEV_7160&SUBSYS_12AB7501&REV_03
    • ACPI\PNP0A0A

  • Software used for malware scanning:

    • ESET NOD32 safe mode scan (no log produced, I don't know what became of it)
    • MalwareBytes, of course, both in and out of safe mode
    • SpyBot S&D (it froze while removing spyware, but immunization fully applied)
    • CCleaner to clean the registry

  • We discovered that WMIPrvSE.exe was hogging a ton of processing power. Killing the process did nothing, but SUSPENDING it in resource monitor caused the CPU to stop spiking in usage every two seconds. I also removed Windows management instrumentation from bootup services.

    Additionally I watched resource monitor for a while even when the process was suspended and memory was detecting some hard faults. While writing this, SDUpdate.exe suffered 75 hard faults, and although memtest86 detected no problems, I'm pretty sure hard faults are bad.

    Other than that, we couldn't figure out what the hell is wrong after three and a half hours of banging our heads against all sorts of solutions. Presently we suspect a virus of some kind, but my scanners didn't find anything. That of course doesn't mean there can't be one.

    The last remaining bit of information I have is that there's currently a csrss.exe in task manager without a username associated with it, a static memory amount of 10,464K, 15 threads, and no description. Attempting to kill it gives an "Access denied" error. Right-click properties, and right-click open file location don't yield any results on this specific process.

    I should have tried system restore, but something wiped all of my restore points and I really am kicking myself for that.

    Hardware relevant to the problem:

    • Intel core i5-4690K
    • 16 GB GSkill Ripjaws X DDR3-1866 (8 GB x 2) operating in dual channel mode
    • AMD Radeon R9 270X - 2 GB
    • ASUS Z97-P motherboard

  • Software relevant:

    • Onboard sound drivers
    • AMD Catalyst suite 14.10.1006-140417a-171099C

  • Possibly relevant:

    • Samsung 840 EVO SSD (OS and Programs drive)
    • Corsair RM750 gold PSU

  • Not likely relevant:

    • 3 TB internal seagate hard drive (Data drive)
    • 3 TB external seagate hard drive (Backup drive)
    • Startech PEXHDCAP capture card
    • Kingston 120 GB SSD (purely for junctioning games)

  • Operating System:

    • Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (fully updated)
  • More about : windows poor performance computer failed post

    a b $ Windows 7
    October 12, 2014 8:48:53 AM

    Not a good idea, better to see what hardware is complaining and throwing errors than turn off the error reporting/tracing/logging.

    "We discovered that WMIPrvSE.exe was hogging a ton of processing power. Killing the process did nothing, but SUSPENDING it in resource monitor caused the CPU to stop spiking in usage every two seconds. I also removed Windows management instrumentation from bootup services."

    -Hard faults are not bad, it just means that a program needs data/code that currently is not in memory and the operating system has to get from a file.

    - csrss.exe is a key windows component it is the windows user mode client server runtime sub system
    you should not be able to kill it and be logged on at the same time.
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    a b $ Windows 7
    October 12, 2014 8:58:51 AM

    all I seen from windows 7 was things that work 100% fine with XP and vista don't and I wonder what else I loose moving up to a newer windows that I would have to rebuy or hack in to stay working ??
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    Related resources
    a b $ Windows 7
    October 12, 2014 9:05:17 AM

    ps.. you may look to see if something for the board you loaded [driver tools fast boot type stuff] is supported under 7 seemed there was somthings that required 8 only to work ??? lok at the the 7 and 8 support list for your board and compare the lists to see whats missing or added from one to the other

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    October 12, 2014 11:08:58 AM

    I re-enabled WMI and I haven't noticed anything yet except this:

    http://puu.sh/c9ITD/040147e02a.png all i'm doing is staring at the same webpage, I'm not doing anything else.
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    a b $ Windows 7
    October 12, 2014 3:17:37 PM

    take a look at
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/03/04/w...
    you can look at the WMI logs and set debug and tracing levels.

    ---
    you could also google on how to force windows to do a memory dump via the keyboard,
    make the registry settting, set your memory dump type to kernel or better yet full memory dump.
    make sure your pagefile.sys is large (1.5 times the size of your RAM)
    then run verifier.exe and set debug flags to enable extra debugging
    http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/65331...
    then reboot.

    when the problem happens again, use the keyboard to force a memory dump, then upload the memory dump to a server so it can be looked at with a windows debugger. This will copy the entire contents of your RAM to your memory dump, rather than just the list of drivers and the kernel stack.

    the verifiy.exe flags will allow the debugger to do very quick automated debugging and/tracing when looking at the memory dump with the windows debugger.

    if you get the memory dump, let me know and I will try to take a look. (if you have not figured out the problem yet)
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    October 12, 2014 9:09:26 PM

    I couldn't figure out how to get WMI logs working, and I never got the memory dump either. After a few reboots, I couldn't replicate the CPU spiking, which was frankly odd. So I don't really have anything to show for it.

    Performance was weird enough that at the suggestion of a friend, I did an upgrade-in-place to repair windows and while it seems to have done the trick with the bootup problems, game performance is still worse than when I first bought the computer. It's not as bad as before upgrade-in-place, but I still notice some weird lag at times.

    I think it might just be how the game performed anyway and I somehow never noticed. I have only tested Metal Gear Rising so far, as nothing else I own is quite as taxing on the machine.
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    a b $ Windows 7
    October 13, 2014 5:45:50 AM

    I feel Microsoft is more focused on added crapware then they are there core os
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    !