CPU speed jumping up and down at idle

[Mastashake15]

I've never noticed this before, so I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but it seems strange to me. If I open up CPU-Z, and am at full idle with no other programs running, it shows my CPU speed jumping around erratically from 1600-4200 and everything in-between. It makes a jump around once a second. So it will look like this...

1600
3100
4200
3000
2899
3200
1700
etc. etc. all in the span of a few seconds

I have an I5-3570K OC'd to 4.2 GHz, and an AsRock Z77 Extreme 4 Mobo.

 

[Brett928S2]

Virus ?

 

[Mastashake15]

I've done a full scan with both MSE and Malwarebytes, so I don't think so but I guess it's always possible.

 

[Brett928S2]

I've done a full scan with both MSE and Malwarebytes, so I don't think so but I guess it's always possible.

Hi

Scan with NIS 2013... MSE is ok but misses some that Norton wont...

All the best Brett

 

[Mastashake15]

I appreciate the advice but I'm not willing to pay for an Anti-Virus, is there anything else that could cause this issue?

 

[Mastashake15]

Updated my BIOS and the problem still persists even with all BIOS settings at default. Really not sure what to do next, ran 3 different virus scanners here so almost sure it's not that. Any advice?

 

[Mastashake15]

I'm debating just wiping my HDD and doing a full reinstall of Windows 7 but I'd rather keep that as a last resort so if anyone has any idea of anything else to try I would sure appreciate it.

 

[10hellfire01]

Have you disabled C1E in your BIOS and the sleep states (S3,etc.) just for kicks? Usually it's on per default and not sure if you disabled it earlier.

 

[Mastashake15]

I figured this out, can't believe what it was that was causing it. It seems if I use a custom power plan in windows that starts from the "High Performance" template it causes the CPU to do this. If I switch the power plan to the Balanced setting, it works fine. If I make my own custom power plan from the balanced template, it also works fine. Seems odd because I use the same settings for the CPU in each plan but it must be some glitch with the power plans. Any thoughts on this? Should I just ignore it and make a plan off the balanced template instead?