Question Annoying Freezes

[S31FER]

Hey all, I have the following;

Intel i7 6700K
Asus Maximus VIII Ranger mobo
16GB DDR4 (Forget brand, but not cheap)
Nvidia GeForce 980GTX TI 6GB
2TB Mechanical HD (games)
128GB SSD (Windows)
Win 10, 64bit Home (Newly installed from scratch)

The issue I'm having, is that upon startup*, it takes forever to load up. I've heard that the Maximus VIII Ranger (and others in this line) can be slow to load. But if I have Windows on a mechanical HD it can take up to 20-30 minutes before it's usable. On SSD, about 5-10 minutes before it's usable. Then every now and again while playing, the system "freezes" for about 15-30 seconds. The same when opening programs. For example, opening the browser causes a system freeze for about 30 seconds to two minutes.

It's been like this since I first had it put together. *Updating BIOS on the VIII Ranger helped moderately at boot. But the freezes between opening programs and during gaming still persist. As does a slow boot before the system is usable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm about to throw the entire system out the window once and for all.

 

[rgd1101]

how full is the ssd?
check cpu temp?

 

[S31FER]

I have about 80ish GB left on the SSD. But it also happens if I use a mechanical HD. CPU and all temps are normal.

Edit
Corrected HD space.

 

[S31FER]

Anyone have any idea? It's been about three or so years with this issue and it truly is driving me nuts. I've even switched to play on my Surface with GeForce Now when I care to play. Hate having this PC not being able to be truly used.

 

[rgd1101]

what is on the hdd? could test by unpluging that

 

[S31FER]

Thanks for that, will do that today and see if that changes anything. On the mechanical drive, there was nothing. I totally formatted everything when I updated the BIOS when I reinstalled Windows 10 in hopes that it may have been a driver issue somewhere.

 

[mdd1963]

testing without the spinning drive connected is a great first step...

I've personally seen a failing spinning drive drag down an otherwise good system; even after a quick format, the constant background read /file inventory attempts massively lengthened boot times as you described...

 

[S31FER]

Hey, thanks for the replies. The hard drive itself is fairly new, but I did unplug it from the motherboard. (Annoying spot, right behind the graphics card) However, the system still showed issues. I've even plugged it into different SATA ports, same thing.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the motherboard. After updating to the latest BIOS it sped up things but still a far cry from a normal system.

For example, Windows 10 will boot up quickly, a matter of seconds and I'm on the desktop. However, any programs from there on (for example, Steam) it takes ages to finally get it up and running. Same when the system is on, and I go to open my browser. The system will just slow down to a crawl until it's fully loaded. The same if I attempt to open "Start" or use the "Search" function from the taskbar.

There are two games I've been playing lately. Read Dead Redemption 2 and Warframe. Read Dead opens and starts without any issues(!) but Warframe, it takes FOREVER to finally get into the game. Once I'm there, it'll stutter up to 10+ seconds numerous times before it's playable. And Warframe is far less demanding than Read Dead. Two different games but on the same hard drive yet one acts completely normal whereas the other does not.

This is driving me insane. Two days ago, I upgraded the RAM so there's a total of 32GB of RAM. Just wanted to throw that in there.

 

[rgd1101]

do you have hibernation on?
is the virtual memory on the hdd?

 

[S31FER]

Only sleep is enabled. Virtual memory is on my C drive which is my SSD. After leaving the computer on for a couple of days, it gets slightly better. Thanks for your guidance, any other suggestions on what to look at?

 

[rgd1101]

malware scan?
check what is running in the background?

 

[S31FER]

Yes, it's been scanned for malware. (Like I said, it even happens during a fresh install of Windows. Even DURING installation.) When checking background resources, very little is being used if any at all.

 

[S31FER]

I'm just going to give up on this computer. I appreciate everyone's help and input.

 

[rgd1101]

brand and model of the psu?
got another gpu for testing?

 

[S31FER]

I do not, unsure what PSU but I'm pretty fed up and have made up my mind. Since day one it's been a little "off" and been nothing but a headache. But thanks for trying to help. Thread can be closed if you do that here.