Hello, I really need your help with troubleshooting.

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Vuragado

Vuragado

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I've been plagued with a large stuttering sound and frame freeze for months now. I have a strong feeling it's been since i've gotten my SSD OR PSU which was roughly around November.

I remember clearly having this issue during that time and I remember frantically replacing GPU cables and everything to figure out the issue, in fact, I even bought 2 different displayport cables during that time.

I have a pastebin: https://pastebin.com/VnJxFBTz and Ill also state them here. I'm lead to believe that it might be my PSU, SSD, HDD, Case, or Monitor as those are the two parts that have stayed the same. It could also be my Mouse/Keyboard as well.

I'm also lead to believe that it might be my SSD because ive wiped this about....3 times now? And about after a month of it working just fine, it just starts having the same issue again. I've even not installed certain programs just in case it's a software issue, but everything that i've uninstalled and reinstalled has done nothing to abide it.

My specs:


Specs | Specific Parts
OS | Windows 10 Pro N
GPU | EVGA 1080 FTW 3.0
CPU | I7-6700K
HDD | 1TB WD Black
SSD | Samsung 850 EVO
PSU | EVGA 850W G2+
RAM | Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000Mhz
Motherboard | Asus Z170-A
CPU Cooler | H100i v2
Keyboard | Razer Blackwidow 2016 Ultimate
Mouse | Logitech G502

All the steps listed below are in chronological order.

Steps Taken to Fix Computer | Y/N
Completely Swapped out Motherboard, CPU, Ram.| Y
Changed Wall Sockets| Y
Not Used Surge Protector | Y
Removed Old HDD | Y
Moved Analog Headphones to Different Ports | Y
Did SFC/Scannow | Y
Did Comprehensive Virus Scan | Y
Replaced Headphones for New Ones | Y
Tested PSU with a multimeter | Y
Re-Seated GPU | Y
Replaced GPU in its entirety | Y
Completely Wiped OS and Old Drivers | Y
Re-Seated RAM | Y
Replaced HDMI and Displayport | Y

Steps I haven't done to fix the issue are listed below.

Steps I haven't done yet.

Replaced SSD
Replaced PSU
Replaced Other HDD
Replaced Case
 
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amtseung

amtseung

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Jan 28, 2014
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I'll just brainpuke what comes to mind.

1.) SSD: it may or may not be broken. Have you made sure it's trimmed? It could be your SSD going because after a month without optimization/trimming, it'll just bog down because of how flash memory works. I'll spare you the super technical details because I'm not ultra clear on them either.

2.) I doubt it's case or PSU. Cases don't tend to cause these kinds of problems (usually stuff like refuses to boot or boot loops because it's shorting out on something), and your PSU is first tier quality. That doesn't mean it's guaranteed 100% to not be a dud, but it's far less likely.

3.) CPU/mobo temps? Download and run CPUID HWMonitor, play some games or run some stress tests, and see what the temps peak at. I can't imagine a FTW3 card getting very hot on that beefy af ICX cooler, but it'd be good to know anyway.

4.) I know everyone else says this too, but download/run memtest86 or whatever it's called. You can run windows memory diagnostic tool too, but memtest86 is more reliable.

5.) On the topic of freezes, some games/programs just plain old refuse to run properly with Razer Synapse in the background, particularly games published by Nexon *cough*Blade and Soul*cough*. Other games refuse to run properly with the Logitech periperal software in the background. When you say you've not installed certain programs just in case it's a software issue, I assume you've tried these already.

6.) If you're running XMP and/or the auto-overclocking utility, make sure to disable them to see if it's doing anything funky. If you're manually overclocking, reset to factory default. I've seen these random freezes/hiccups occur due to the CPU not receiving enough voltage, usually due to excessive Vdroop, but I haven't seen this symptom on any Intel system I've put my hands on. It's usually an AMD FX thing accompanied by VRM throttling.

I hope this gets you going and turns some gears.
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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Trim is enabled on the ssd.


Temps are normal, and even running prime95 with my cpu it rarely went above 75C.

GPU temps are no issue.

Motherboard is fine as well.

I might turn off Intel XMP and see if that does anything, but first im going to memtest86+ with intel XMP enabled.

Thank you for offering support, I'll continue trying to solve it.

 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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Oops, just learned how to reply properly to you, haha.

I want to thank you for trying to help me in this time of need. Im currently running memtest86 and im going to let it run through about two passes. It's been really frustrating as I generally just want to game but I use my computer as my one communication tool (Currently on another device right now.) and yeah. (Also, love the profile picture, it's cute as HEK). I legit don't know what I'd do without a working pc.

A few of my friends said the best way to determine if its ssd is to disconnect the ssd and try to run windows on another storage component which seems logical, so ill more than likely do that.



 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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Once the solution has been found, I'll more than likely share it here. For now, I'm picking amtseungs answer as he was the first to reply, and that's super helpful.
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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Okay, I've done another step to add to this list.

Ran Memtest with no issues - Check

Swapped OS to HDD for the time being to nullify if its actually the SSD/REMOVED ssd from system completely.

If anyone else has any other thoughts, feel free to contribute!
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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I should point out that this issue has been CONSISTENT; This issue was happening before replacing Mobo, Cpu, RAM, and GPU.

The only 3 components that haven't been replaced are PSU, HDD, and SSD.
 
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amtseung

amtseung

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If you're having the same problem with both the HDD and SSD and memtest says nothing is wrong, it could very well be a software-side problem. More specifically a corrupted and/or borked OS install. Have you tried clean re-installing windows rather than just copying a disk image back and forth?
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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All my windows reinstalls have been clean wipes thus far.

All 4 of them.

Issue rears its ugly head after a month, and I even avoid most of my softwares to test it.
 
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amtseung

amtseung

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Hardware acceleration is usually a good thing. It pretty much offloads a bunch of grunt work and repetitive tasks from the CPU to the GPU, which should in turn reduce stuttering/system lag.

Weird.

Have you tried googling "Optimize Windows 10" type articles and trying them? For example, going to services.msc and disabling stuff like superfetch, all the Xbox apps, notifications, windows tiles, etc. I know for certain that Windows notifications is a nearly universal source of headache.

The thing is, usually a hardware failure will rear its ugly head immediately. Software bugs may take forever to show. Maybe the W10 image you're using to install/reinstall is corrupted to begin with? I'm just randomly grabbing at straws now.

The last thing that comes to mind is that some program(s), probably in the OS itself, is doing attempting to do you a service and cache massive amounts of data, which over the course of a month, just plain old fills out your SSD. As an SSD gets near full, its performance drops off a cliff. Also, repeated read/write, like being used as a cache, can quickly wear out an SSD. Reinstalling windows onto said SSD will probably also make it worse. After all, SSD's do have a read/write cycle lifespan. Check your Windows pagefile and make sure it isn't some absurdly large number, or worse yet, unlimited. It'd probably be good to figure out what else Windows likes to cache. NVidia does a texture cache, but that's like 1MB at most.
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was thinking that, as the month went on, the ssd filled up more and more.

Roughly, it got the point where it only had roughly 100 gigs out of 250, so I think that's what caused it to tank to be honest.

I'm still going to be testing as time goes on, but yeah, I'll look into more optimization. If I figure anything out about it, Ill post here. If my issue is "resolved" after a while, Ill post here. It hasn't occurred yet, which sounds like a success, but I don't think it is.

I was thinking it also might be Windows Pro N itself, instead of it being regular pro, and adding the media pack to it might affect it.

I'm not sure.

Thank you for trying to help and ill post more as time goes on. I want this thread to get as much information to help people with the same issue if it happens to them. ;-;
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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My current build is microsofts latest build, and I don't seem to find any issues related to it.

However, I can only tell if the issue is resolved if I wait the "month" it takes or if the issue happens again. For now, it's "resolved". But any ideas that pop up, feel free to share!

Currently on build 15063.413, Version 1703.
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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I also want to point out that my OS was acting buggy before it was on the HDD. It'd always "reload" the task bar at the bottom from time to time, AND my search feature was downright useless.

Now that I have it on the HDD, it seems to be MUCH more reliable in that aspect. So I don't know if that's "telling"
 
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amtseung

amtseung

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If it was acting weird before when it was on the SSD and is now pretty normal on the HDD, you probably had a dud SSD.

BTW, I forgot to ask, is this a 2.5" ssd or an m.2? Could be a bad cable/connector or something. Or even worse, a bad mobo, in the case of a dud m.2 slot.

Strange, my 256g 850 evo m.2 drive is perfectly fine with like 80g free. Samsung makes really good nand dies, so maybe it's a bad controller. Either way, most likely a dud SSD. See if it's still under warranty, get it replaced, and see if it still does it.
 
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Vuragado

Vuragado

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Jun 12, 2016
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Yeah, I planned on RMAing it if the issue doesn't occur within the next month. It's a regular 2.5" ssd.

Also, thank you for all the help you've provided so far. If I find anything else related, Ill post it here. Feel free to add me on another program such as steam:

Vuragado the Traveling Merchant

Bnet: Vuragado#1939

or Discord Vuragado#3831.

It could be as something as silly as a sata cable too, but i'm not sure.

I'll do more research into this as time goes on.
 
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