CPU spikes and lags pc with 2nd monitor

[Turvs]

I just added a 2nd monitor and my pc's cpu is constantly spiking causing it to lag/skip, its impossible to play games as it just does it to an unplayable level of lag, i cant even listen to music. My Pc is more than powerful enough to handle 2 monitors so any reason why its doing it? I just updated my graphics card with no change.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, its getting severely annoying now.

Thanks

 

[popatim]

Are you referring to the pc in your sig?
What res are your monitors at?
Is the HDD light flashing like crazy? (hdd issue)

 

[Turvs]

Yea i am, Graphics card being the ASUS AMD Radeon HD 7970 3072MB, CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K. So should easily be able to run it.

Both monitors at 1920x1080. The HDD light does flash a lot when it lags a lot, so could this just be a hard drive issue instead?

 

[Turvs]

Any one else help? Today there hasnt been much activity of the HDD light, but still massively lagging my pc, i can just browse the internet and listen to music without it happening to much, but when i just loaded steam up a second ago it went to an impossible level.

 

[laircouk]

Hi Turvs,

Could you please provide FULL detail of your motherboard's bios version?
Also, please check your AMD Driver version...

Second, do you have anything running when playing games? For example, Norton / Symantec Anti-Virus (which is resource hogging).

Third, what type of HDD / SSD are you using? Please state this for the community, so they can help you further.

 

[Turvs]

I just realised i hadnt updated my bios in a while, doing it right now will post if it works or not, but the update is the 2012.02.24 - P8Z68-V-GEN3 BIOS 3201

I have the latest AMD drivers 12.4v - 4/25/2012

These should be the only programs that are running at all times/when playing games:

Bitdefender 2012
Razer deathadder drivers
Logitech G15 LCD drivers/programs
Realtek HD audio manager

Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1TB Hard drive

 

[laircouk]

Hi Turvs,

Please do update your Bios. But, be VERY careful. You don't want to brick your motherboard.

Second, you may want to install this. It will help your motherboard / chipset driver which controls the motherboard. I don't trust ASUS to pre-pack their INF drivers for the motherboard. It's better to get them directly from Intel...

Click HERE - Intel Chipset Driver

Third, if everything else fail, please un-install "Logitech G15 LCD drivers/programs" and allow ATi driver to control your monitor / display. I think, from my perspective, the driver must be fighting against ATi display driver for control.

In short, most G15 driver and video card driver will NOT get along well. Therefore, I would suggest you to remove it and see how it goes.

 

[Turvs]

I decided not to update the bios mysef as i personally have never actually done it, and its not worth the risk.

I have installed the intel chipset drivers you said and uninstalled all Logitech g15 drivers and still have made no difference. I have also unplugged my 2nd monitor from my pc and made it slightly better, havent tried it with a game just yet though

 

[laircouk]

I decided not to update the bios mysef as i personally have never actually done it, and its not worth the risk.

I have installed the intel chipset drivers you said and uninstalled all Logitech g15 drivers and still have made no difference. I have also unplugged my 2nd monitor from my pc and made it slightly better, havent tried it with a game just yet though

Okay, this is seriously odd. My buddy's GPU, ATi 7970 (3GB) Frozr didn't do this sort of thing when he's playing games @ max settings.

Hmmm... this is going to be crazy... here goes..

How many WATT is your PSU? 750W, 800W, 900W, 1000W?

This is my last question. From your specification, everything looks fine...

 

[Turvs]

I know, its just watching a simple youtube video, with the 2nd monitor now just looking at task manager at the CPU levels.

And its a 750W XFX power supply. This one specifically. http://www.ebuyer.com/191824-xfx-750w-black-edition-modular-psu-13-5cm-fan-11x-sata-4x-p1-750b-ukb9

This is everything thats plugged in to the power-supply if that helps:

1 x 120mm fan, 1 DVD-RW drive, 1 Blu-ray Drive, my 1TB hard drive, mouse, keyboard, printer, xbox 360 controller wireless receiver, and wireless lan card, thats everything i can think of that could draw power from psu.

 

[Turvs]

Been playing a while longer without the second monitor plugged in, and working fine, lagged a couple of times but thats it, no idea what could be causing it though.

 

[Turvs]

For the past hour and half i have been playing with the second monitor plugged in again, absolutely no problem now. What?! I dont get what the hell is going on. Maybe it was a program i uninstalled and just needed to be turned off for an hour or 2 (yes i did restart my pc after uninstalling them and it didnt work then). I have no idea, gonna keep playing and try a more processor heavy game like bf3 see how it compares then.

If it is fixed then thanks for you help , if not then thanks for trying to get me this far.a

 

[laircouk]

By rebooting your system, the un-installed program will be erased from Memory & System Cache. Also, please don't install Logitech G15 LCD drivers. It may cause problems, again...

Second, if you're using SSD, please disable "Superfetch". This thing can be annoying...

Optional (SSD User Only!) ------------
If you use SSD drive, please Disable ‘Superfetch’. That can kill / hang your system or even cause BSOD.


Disable ‘Superfetch’ (Windows 7 / Vista)


Superfetch does look great and helpful if you are NOT a heavy user like me. But, it sure does KNOW HOW to strangle system memory!


1.] Click Start >> Right Click: My Computer >> Manage >> Services and Applications >> Services


2.] Locate this process and “Disable” it – celetape it against the wall if you want…


Services (process): Superfetch

---------------------------------------------

From your PSU unit, that is one heck of a quality PSU! That's GREAT!!

Finally, I would like you to try this if you haven't done it yet.

1.] Go to ATi Catalyst (Advance Option)
2.] Look for 3D Application Settings and de-select / un-tick "Use Application Settings" on both "Anti-Aliasing" + "Anisotropic Filtering". However, don't select Morphological Filtering. It will make your game run like nutz.

P.S. You will need to slide the bar to MAX settings since you're using 7970 GPU. It shouldn't effect your games...

8x = Anti-Aliasing, Filter = Standard
16x = Anisotropic Filtering

Tesselation = AMD Optimized (Keep it checked!)

Catalyst AI = Keep it AT "Quality" - Slide it to Middle (50%)

For more infos, please take a look @ my pictures. The control centre may be different. But, it will give you better understanding.

 

[Turvs]

Done all that, and dont have a SDD. Loaded my pc up this morning and its exactly as it were before constantly lagging, yesterday i could play bf3 with both monitors on without a single problem, now i cant do anything without it doing it.