[SOLVED] CPU Never reaches 100%

[xoceroxd]

Hello! So my AMD FX 8350 started acting up and after a little of investigation, my cpu never reaches 100% utilization (on any cores) it usually hovers around 50-62% never higher even while under load. My temps never exceed 49C and I’ve checked all the power settings and even tried using AMD Overdrive to see if it was a voltage issue, but I can’t figure anything out!! Any help?

 

[xoceroxd]

This started happening recently btw. Hasn’t done this before. Paired with a RX 580, 16GB RAM.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

What do you mean by acting up? Is it stuttering in games? Crashing? Giving the other computers wedgies?

Also, what is your GPU doing for utilization, is it maxing out or does it also seem underutilized? How is RAM and hard drive utilization?

 

[Obakasama]

Really depends what tasks you're running which will push a CPU to 100% usage. If gaming have you used something like MSI Afterburner to monitor how the hardware behaves? Have you used the stress test in AMD Overdrive? The latter would at least let you know if the CPU will go to 100% usage.

 

[Shoomer]

You do realise under normal use your CPU isn't supposed to hit 100%?

 

[xoceroxd]

What do you mean by acting up? Is it stuttering in games? Crashing? Giving the other computers wedgies?

Also, what is your GPU doing for utilization, is it maxing out or does it also seem underutilized? How is RAM and hard drive utilization?

GPU usually is around 90-100%, RAM is behaving how it should be and Hard Drive, well, it fluctuates alot. Ring of Elysium can't run at 60fps (unless at the lowest settings) FFXV can't hit 60 FPS (It used to back when I had a GTX 960, but now it has this weird stutter when the game doesn't take input from my mouse, and no matter how much I change the settings, it always sits around 40 fps). Everything just feels slower recently, more stuttery, and I can't even OC the CPU anymore using AMD Overdrive. If I raise the base clock even by an inch, it results in a system lock up (weirdly enough, using turbo core doesn't cause this).

 

[xoceroxd]

"Really depends what tasks you're running which will push a CPU to 100% usage. If gaming have you used something like MSI Afterburner to monitor how the hardware behaves? Have you used the stress test in AMD Overdrive? The latter would at least let you know if the CPU will go to 100% usage."

Well, I can't find a stress test tab in AMD Overdrive, but I did run the benchmark and monitored the usage using task manager. The CPU reached 90% for a second then dropped to 24-26% for the rest of the test. System Performance score was 12294

I also ran the stability test for two minutes with CPU, FPU, and Calculation test 0 checked and the CPU never passed 35% there. (I also can't change the frequency through AOD anymore since it results in an OS lockup, no matter if I raise it or lower it).

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

It sounds like a CPU power delivery problem... You say the voltages are good? What is strange is that usually a problem like a power delivery issue would result in a lot of blue screens and a system that just powers off when you hit it with a hard task. In this case it seems like the CPU is starved for power but can handle it by dumping the performance. Have you paid attention to CPU clock speeds while gaming or stress testing? Also, have you looked at the voltages while stressing the system? It could be that your system can deliver enough power at idle, but when asked to do work or overclock it just can't feed it enough. Normally it would down clock due to power, but overclocking would negate its ability to do that, so it locks up.

Give those two things a look at and we'll go from there.

 

[xoceroxd]

It sounds like a CPU power delivery problem... You say the voltages are good? What is strange is that usually a problem like a power delivery issue would result in a lot of blue screens and a system that just powers off when you hit it with a hard task. In this case it seems like the CPU is starved for power but can handle it by dumping the performance. Have you paid attention to CPU clock speeds while gaming or stress testing? Also, have you looked at the voltages while stressing the system? It could be that your system can deliver enough power at idle, but when asked to do work or overclock it just can't feed it enough. Normally it would down clock due to power, but overclocking would negate its ability to do that, so it locks up.

Give those two things a look at and we'll go from there.

I have looked into that, the clock speeds always remain the same, but I should also mention that I can't change the clock speeds at all without having a system lockup. It doesn't result in a blue screen but I def. have to restart my computer. I tried even under-clocking it to 3.9 or 3.8ghz but that causes the lockup as well. But no matter how much I change the voltage, the system performs the same.

Do you think it could be a problem on the MB itself?

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

It is sounding more and more like a CPU or motherboard problem actually.

Do you have another hard drive or like a 16GB or so USB stick? You could try loading a fresh install of Windows onto an old drive that you don't use anymore or possibly boot to a Linux USB drive, then run a stress test from that to rule out anything software. If we can 100% rule out software then we can see if we can troubleshoot it down to a specific component.

 

[Obakasama]

Would Windows safe mode be a viable option to rule out some software issues? At the very least it would eliminate issues with additional software and drivers. If an issue still existed in safe mode, then it could be at a more fundamental level.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

Would Windows safe mode be a viable option to rule out some software issues? At the very least it would eliminate issues with additional software and drivers. If an issue still existed in safe mode, then it could be at a more fundamental level.

Safemode kinda half eliminates software issues... but it is worth a shot.