[SOLVED] CPU spikes when launching programs

[Emma Tors]

The rig for reference:
Windows 10 Pro
1 Samsung M.2 NVMe 1 TB
1 SanDisk SSD 1 TB
2 Western Digital HDs 1 & 4 TBs
Gigabyte Aorus Elite X570 Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (stock @ 3700 to 4000 hz)
Corsair DDR4 16 GB (stock @ 2400 Hz)
EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Black (stock settings)
EVGA 750 BQ 750 W

To start, this issue first arose after fiddling with OC settings on the RTX 2070. Had 2 BSODs caused by an HDMI audio driver crash according to the error report. I fiddled with the settings more to get a stable OC on the RTX. After this whole process I started seeing the issue come up. I know it's standard for the CPU load to spike in % depending on the kind of app being started, BUT I'm having the CPU spike to 100% some times when launching dumb things like Firefox and Windows Explorer; which then leads to my machine stuttering on simple tasks... The load spiking happens after some hours of use. I've been monitoring temperatures and the CPU is within normal ranges. At load when playing games, it goes up to maybe 64 C. So the issue doesn't seem related to temperatures. I started updating any drivers I could find thinking it might be a driver issue. I've updated the GPU drivers, Chipset drivers & the BIOS. Any clue what could be causing this?

EDIT: I reverted any and all OCs I had to stock settings to try and determine the source of the issue.

 

[CountMike]

The rig for reference:
Windows 10 Pro
1 Samsung M.2 NVMe 1 TB
1 SanDisk SSD 1 TB
2 Western Digital HDs 1 & 4 TBs
Gigabyte Aorus Elite X570 Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (stock @ 3700 to 4000 hz)
Corsair DDR4 16 GB (stock @ 2400 Hz)
EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Black (stock settings)
EVGA 750 BQ 750 W

To start, this issue first arose after fiddling with OC settings on the RTX 2070. Had 2 BSODs caused by an HDMI audio driver crash according to the error report. I fiddled with the settings more to get a stable OC on the RTX. After this whole process I started seeing the issue come up. I know it's standard for the CPU load to spike in % depending on the kind of app being started, BUT I'm having the CPU spike to 100% some times when launching dumb things like Firefox and Windows Explorer; which then leads to my machine stuttering on simple tasks... The load spiking happens after some hours of use. I've been monitoring temperatures and the CPU is within normal ranges. At load when playing games, it goes up to maybe 64 C. So the issue doesn't seem related to temperatures. I started updating any drivers I could find thinking it might be a driver issue. I've updated the GPU drivers, Chipset drivers & the BIOS. Any clue what could be causing this?

EDIT: I reverted any and all OCs I had to stock settings to try and determine the source of the issue.

Have you tried with other disks disconnected ? Also check HDDs health.

 

[Emma Tors]

Have you tried with other disks disconnected ? Also check HDDs health.

Disk health is good. Need to attempt disconnecting the disks.

EDIT: Attempted starting it up with just the C drive connected, but still get the same issue.

 

[Emma Tors]

Other things I've tried so far:

PSU stress testing with OCCT, everything looks normal
Turning off multithreading on the CPU
Turning off Precision Boost, and Turbo boost
Full power cycle off, reconnecting power cables to the Motherboard, resocketing RAM, CPU, GPU.

I'm at my wits end. The same issue persists, after some hours (sometimes few minutes depending if I'm playing certain games like ARK or WoW) trying to launch even the simplest app like Firefox, the CPU usage will spike to or around 100% while it launches the program, then revert. If I'm multi tasking the system will downright freeze until CPU usage goes back down. I can replace the CPU with a new one, but I need to know if this is the true culprit, otherwise the investment will be for nothing.

EDIT: One more thing

I've been monitoring voltage when gaming, and I notice the GPU Core voltage is smooth as butter, just a flat straight line, the Core 0 VID & Vcore voltages are going wild all the time, it's an ugly mountainous ridge, essentially. Granted it doesn't spike way beyond what should be expected, but it's not pretty:

Is this normal??

 

[Emma Tors]

I changed the RAM to test that out as the symptoms I have on my PC could indicate bad RAM, but this new RAM shows no change. It takes longer to start seeing the symptoms of the CPU having to work much harder to do simple tasks (the RAM sticks are 32 GB and can run at a higher clock rate than the ones I previously had), but eventually, the same issues arise. Do I just have a bad/dying chip?

Still haven't been able to resolve this. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Emma Tors]

I followed some information I read online about reinstalling Windows 10 as my last ditch effort and found the Windows Media Creation Tool here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

I didn't have the original Windows installation USB stick, and that tool allowed for the creation of one. I used the "Keep Personal Files and Apps" option and essentially reinstalled Windows 10 without deleting anything. Lo and behold, my rig is running properly again. If anyone is facing a similar issue as mine, try reinstalling Windows 10 using this method (if you don't have the original).

 

[CountMike]

I followed some information I read online about reinstalling Windows 10 as my last ditch effort and found the Windows Media Creation Tool here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

I didn't have the original Windows installation USB stick, and that tool allowed for the creation of one. I used the "Keep Personal Files and Apps" option and essentially reinstalled Windows 10 without deleting anything. Lo and behold, my rig is running properly again. If anyone is facing a similar issue as mine, try reinstalling Windows 10 using this method (if you don't have the original).

"In place upgrade", as it's known, replaces all Windows system files with new and original ones without affecting personal files or installed programs although it may disable some if it finds a conflict. Some of settings also change to default.