What is wrong with my desktop?

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joy83

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So I've had this gaming desktop for a while now. Here are the specs.

core i7-2600k @3.4 Ghz
8GB RAM
EVGA Geforce GTX 760 (Upgraded from a GTX 560)
2x1TB WD Hard Drives (Came with just one of these)
1 240GB Kingston SSD (Added later)
Thermaltake 750W Power Supply.

This computer was bought from iBuyPower in 2011 and since then it has been working fine. I have done few upgrades in the last 5 years as you can see from the specs listed above. I run 2x 25 inch monitors with this desktop and never had any issues before. I play games on one of the monitors while watch Twitch streams on the other and it works like a charm. However, few days ago, the computer started throttling. Even basic webpages in Chrome started loading slowly and the computer in general became slow. Since then, I have reinstalled Windows 10 but the slowness hasn't changed. Here is what I have noticed so far.

Sometimes Windows takes some time to load when starting the machine. After that when I go to Task Manager and Performance tab, I see the CPU speeds around 0.2-1 GHz. I believe this is the reason why the computer is stuttering and everything is slow. I'm saying this because when I restart the machine and open a Twitch stream and watch the CPU speed, I see the speed to be around 3 GHz and the stream works as intended at the highest settings. In 5 minutes the CPU speeds drop to below 1 Ghz and that's when everything become choppy. Mind you this is on a brand new install of Windows. CPU Utilization percentages are also low (around 10%)

Here is what I've done so far.

1. Cleaned the entire interior of the tower. Put in new thermal paste on the CPU.
2. Tried different PCI-e slots for the GPU but of no avail.
3. Used a brand new Samsung EVO SSD in place of the Kingston SSD and re installed Windows on that to check if it's a problem with the SSD but the results are same. CPU and the entire machine is still choppy and slow.
4. Used the old GTX 560 card to check whether it was a GPU problem, but that didn't help.

I've run out of ideas as to what to do. Could it be the Power Supply? Could it be the standard 1 TB hard drives or could it be the RAM? Anyone have any suggestions as to what to do?

Thank you.
 
Solution
G
Your cooler isn't doing its job, but you haven't told us which one it is. Is it the stock Intel cooler? You should also enable all hardware monitors in XTU (little blue icon on the right).
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T

TMTOWTSAC

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Windows doesn't have anything built in, but there should be some sort of hardware monitor in your BIOS. Check when you first boot, then wait until it slows down and reboot and check again. It certainly sounds like some sort of heat issue though.

Can you tell if the CPU fan and case/psu fans are still spinning? Most people check their CPU fan but if your case fans die heat builds up inside your case. PSU's can overheat too of course, but failing PSU's usually just cause shutdowns. Usually.
 
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J

joy83

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Thank you very much all for the suggestions. So this morning after I switched on my pc, everything has been working fine so far. THe CPU clock frequency is pretty high which I've downloaded the Intel XTU and Core Temp and here are 2 screenshots of temperature readings.

As you can see there is Thermal Throttling happening, but so far the CPU clock hasn't gone below 2.5 GHz. Also, the temperature at the moment is 95C+ which is concerning.

So it seems like CPU throttling is the problem when the clock slows down to less than 1 GHz (not encountered today as of yet) and everything slows down and becomes choppy.

So what should I do to avoid the problem of slow CPU speed and thermal throttling in the future? Should I reapply thermal compound again?



 
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Ecky

Ecky

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I assume you've checked that the heatsink isn't full of dust? Make sure the fan is spinning too.

Your problem is in one of two places:

1) Heat getting from the CPU to the heatsink (e.g. mounting issue, thermal paste)
2) Heat getting from the heatsink to the air (e.g. fan problem, dust)

Put your hand on the heatsink while it's running, it should not be more than warm to the touch. If it's extremely hot, that suggests the fan isn't doing its job. If it's cool, you have a mounting or paste problem.
 
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joy83

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I cleaned everything yesterday. Used Iso-propyl alcohol to rub off old paste and then applied new thermal paste on the CPU. To save $5 I bought the cheaper Ceramic Thermal Compound :p. It said it was made by Arctic Silver. Should I reapply it again today?

If so should I use the Credit Card method of making a thin layer over the CPU or just put a circle of paste on top of it and let the heat sink take care of it.

I opened the box and the heatsink seems to be mildly warm on the top. The left and right sides are mildly warm while the top and bottom are little bit more warm.
 
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joy83

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It's a liquid cooler from Corsair that I installed 4-5 years ago. Actually I just noticed that the temperature has dropped quite a bit to low 80s since my Dropbox stopped syncing and downloading all my files. It was syncing and downloading my files to my desktop after I re installed Windows. Here is the screenshot of the XTU now with Path of Exile (an ARPG game running on one monitor and a Twitch stream running in another monitor).



Should I reapply thermal compound again? If so any specific method like the Credit Card method or anything else?
 
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J

joy83

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So now the temperature has stabilized as it seems to have been okay the entire day yesterday. I'm now stuck with another problem. I restarted my machine for a reason and this is what came up. Mind you when I first switched on the machine today, everything was fine. This is when I restarted it later




I pressed F9 and then it booted to Windows fine. I tried this again by restarting and the same screen showed up which I bypassed by pressing F9.

Any ideas what is wrong? Thanks.
 
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joy83

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I seemed to have solved the problem by going to the BOOT tab in msconfig and deleting the "other" Windows 10 install which was the OS by default. I've no idea where this OS install came from and why it was default, since I installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 on my SSD by erasing everyting and that's the only place I have an operating system.
 
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joy83

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Do you think I should get a liquid cooler like the one that I have. At the moment I'm using a Corsair liquid cooler that I bought 4-5 years ago. I believe it's this one (not sure if they have updated the model but it looks exactly like this).

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Performance-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA

Or get an air cooler?
 
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J

joy83

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I have no idea what the heck is going on with my machine. I've cleaned and applied thermal paste 5 different times using Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 and Arctic Silver 5 and still my temperature are around 95C+ even when idle.

My liquid cooler is 5 years old (Corsair H60), but does it make such a difference? I mean even when idle my temperature are through the roof. Should I trash this computer or get a new liquid cooler to give it another chance? Here are the current readings. Should I change some settings in the BIOS?





BTW Thanks to everyone for replying and giving me suggestions. If every thing fails, I might go for this PC

Walmart link

Anyone have any experience with this PC or buying it from Walmart? Seems like it's cheaper than buying it directly from CyberpowerPC and I can return it within 15 days if there is some major issue with it.
 
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J

joy83

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Thanks for your continued replies. Do you recommend any specific air cooler. I'm thinking of getting something shipped to Walmart so that for some reason the temperatures don't go down then I can return it to the store instead of mailing it back to the online retailer which is a hassle for me. Also why air cooler over liquid cooler? Other than being simple I don't see any benefit.

Thanks.
 
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