Frameskipping in Games and Videos

[MelTorefas]

System
-----------------------
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500k
Motherboard: ASUSTek P8Z77-V PRO
Memory: KINGSTON HYPER-X 4 GB DDR3 (2 sticks)
Video: AMD Radeon HD 7970
SSD1: INTEL 320 (120gb, OS)
SSD2: SAMSUNG PM800 (256gb)
HDD: Something Generic (1TB)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX V2
Monitor: Viewsonic VX2450WM 24" LED (x2)

Background: This system was bought in 2011, except for the motherboard and SSD2. It was working fine before I moved up to Alaska earlier this year, but during the move it sustained some damage to the original motherboard (an Asrock Z68 Extrem4 Gen3), which I replaced. I also added the SSD2 around this time, which came from an old computer my friend got from his work.

Sometime *after* obtaining the new motherboard, I began to have significant frameskipping issues in all (or nearly all) videos and games. FPS remains constant, but movement/panning becomes very jerky, with objects appearing to 'skip' as they go by, or video playback appearing choppy. These problems are constant and consistent, not intermittent or random, and happen regardless of which drive the application in question is being run from.

So far I have (in no particular order):

* Tried a different video card (Radeon R9 280x): Problem persists.
* Tried reinstalling video drivers/using older video drivers: Problem persists.
* Tried running with only a single monitor: Problem persists.
* Tried reinstalling the OS (several times, both SSDs): Problem persists even before installing any software other than basic drivers (network, video card, USB).
* Tried removing SSD2: Problem persists.
* Run diagnostics on the CPU and memory: Clean.
* Run stress tests on the video card: Clean.
* Run monitors for performance and temperature: Normal (as far as I could see).

At this point, the only thing I can think of is that the motherboard developed a problem at some point. It was working at first, but I can't think what else it would be. But, before I starting messing with trying to get a refund/replacement for that, I wanted to be sure there was not anything else I had missed. I make no claims to expertise here, so if anyone has suggestions of what else I should try first, I will give them a go.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope it was intelligible: I am tired and very sick. And thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Seems you've practically covered it pretty well, two things to check:

- Which specific tests did you use to test your CPU, RAM and GPU?
- Try booting your system with a live OS like Ubuntu or Mini Windows XP from Hiren's boot, with both SDDs disconnected, see if the problem persists.

 

[MelTorefas]

Sorry for the delayed reply, for some reason I never got notified there had been any response.

For the CPU, I ran Intel's official test utility obtained from their website, I forget exactly what it was called.
For the RAM, the test was (IIRC) Memtest86+. May have been another one as well, not sure.
For the GPU stress test it was Heaven Benchmark (https://unigine.com/products/benchmarks/heaven/), which I saw recommended somewhere.

And now for an update: When I turned my PC on this morning, it wouldn't start. It just turned on for a few seconds, turned off, then turned back on, over and over until I flipped it off with the switch in the back (I couldn't turn it off with the power button on the front at this point). Giving up, I took out the motherboard and reinstalled the old motherboard (Asrock z68 Extreme4 Gen3).

Initially, this had no effect. The power cycling continued. Then I saw the LED code, which was 55, indicating a memory issue. I re-seated the RAM and the power cycling stopped (I don't know if this was also the problem on the other board, but if so I don't know why it would have completely stopped working all of a sudden after functioning for months). Anyways, with the RAM out the code became 97, so I took out the video card, and was finally able to boot with video from the integrated card.

I tried a couple different things after that, but have not succeeded in getting anything other than the integrated card to work. There are two slots I can put the video card in on this board. The middle slot was damaged in shipping; putting either the 7970 or r9 280x in this slot causes them to be effectively unseen by the system, which will boot normally with video from the integrated card. The system still will not see the 7970 in the top slot (this actually was a problem even before the move), while the r9 280x in the top slot causes the system to fail to boot with the LED code of 97.

The weird thing is, I first replaced the 7970 with the r9 280x even before I replaced the board (because I thought the 7970 had also been broken in shipping, only discovering later it was still functional) and it ran fine in the top slot. So I don't know why it won't work there now.

I really don't want to have to go back to the other board without being able to test the video performance on this one, so if anyone has any insight it would be appreciated.

 

[MelTorefas]

Update: After trying a different set of PCIe cables for the r9 280x, it suddenly started working. The frameskipping issue persists, however, ruling out the motherboard as the problem. So, my original issue still stands. I also ran the BurnIn tests without encountering any errors. I am not sure what to check from here.