Im really confused. Someone help

[spedwolf658]

I Recently built a new PC, and when i booted it up it was perfectly fine. After a couple of weeks, i noticed that the power supply switch was set to 230v instead of 115. i turned off my computer, switched it to 115, and then after i booted it up, my CPU fan would "breath" basically. it would go up and down in the same loop. It would spin louder when i would open a program or a window of some sort. i then looked at task manager when i started up my PC. My CPU usage would be around 30-60% and my clock speed would fluctuate between 4ghz and 4.08ghz. this would go on for about 2 minutes and then the usage would fluctuate from 3 to 12% on idle. But my clock speed would go from .8 to 1.9 to 2.8 back down to 1.2ghz in the same loop. i checked my power plan and i even swapped out the power supply. but its still doing this. i reset my pc and restored it, thinking it was a virus background process hogging up CPU usage, but its still doing the same thing with a fresh install of windows. (im not overclocking)
Specs
ROG STRIX Z370-I GAMING motherboard
i5 8600k cpu
8gb of ddr4 memory
500gb ssd
1060 6gb
500w cx corsair power supply

 

[USAFRet]

After a couple of weeks, i noticed that the power supply switch was set to 230v instead of 115. i turned off my computer, switched it to 115, and then ...

500w cx corsair power supply

What country are you in?

 

[spedwolf658]

After a couple of weeks, i noticed that the power supply switch was set to 230v instead of 115. i turned off my computer, switched it to 115, and then ...

500w cx corsair power supply

What country are you in?

USA. When i built my computer at my moms, everything was fine when i started it up. and after a week or 2 i moved back to my dads. and then i noticed.

 

[dontlistentome]

Are you sure you know for a fact what the current switch position is? I ask because if you'd use it in the wrong position in the first place then that means I can't give you the benefit of the doubt in knowing what the current setting is. In other words, maybe it was right in the first place but you misunderstood what you were seeing and reset it to the wrong position.

 

[spedwolf658]

Are you sure you know for a fact what the current switch position is? I ask because if you'd use it in the wrong position in the first place then that means I can't give you the benefit of the doubt in knowing what the current setting is. In other words, maybe it was right in the first place but you misunderstood what you were seeing and reset it to the wrong position.

I know for a fact it was set to 230v before i switched it. Also, i swapped out the power supply recently

 

[Pinhedd]

Are you sure you know for a fact what the current switch position is? I ask because if you'd use it in the wrong position in the first place then that means I can't give you the benefit of the doubt in knowing what the current setting is. In other words, maybe it was right in the first place but you misunderstood what you were seeing and reset it to the wrong position.

I know for a fact it was set to 230v before i switched it. Also, i swapped out the power supply recently

Power supply is not the issue.

In fact, I'm not sure that there is an issue here at all. Everything seems to be normal from what I can tell.

CPU usage is not a measure of computational load, but rather a measure of thread scheduling. Load % is merely the fraction of time over a period that a logical processor is executing any thread belonging to any process other than the system idle process. Power management tries to keep the clock frequency low and will shut down cores (parking) if possible in order to schedule as many low priority threads (not time sensitive) onto as few logical processors as possible.

 

[spedwolf658]

Are you sure you know for a fact what the current switch position is? I ask because if you'd use it in the wrong position in the first place then that means I can't give you the benefit of the doubt in knowing what the current setting is. In other words, maybe it was right in the first place but you misunderstood what you were seeing and reset it to the wrong position.

I know for a fact it was set to 230v before i switched it. Also, i swapped out the power supply recently

Power supply is not the issue.

In fact, I'm not sure that there is an issue here at all. Everything seems to be normal from what I can tell.

CPU usage is not a measure of computational load, but rather a measure of thread scheduling. Load % is merely the fraction of time over a period that a logical processor is executing any thread belonging to any process other than the system idle process. Power management tries to keep the clock frequency low and will shut down cores (parking) if possible in order to schedule as many low priority threads (not time sensitive) onto as few logical processors as possible.

No other computer i have built has done this. and when i first built this computer it didn't have the issue. after the power supply switch was set to 115, i started experiencing tons of problems. My audio is acting weird and my WIFI is too. Every time i open a game or a window/program of some sort (such as google chrome) my CPU fan ramps up and my CPU clock speed goes to 4GHz. it never did this before. i'm seriously getting pissed because i cant find out whats wrong with my system. Im just about to get a new computer.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOlANj8_SHYGxToSGJzbgpD6Bx9PIsREtrPsi5n - This is what im talking about. And when i boot up my computer, its at 4ghz at arround 65 utilization. WITHOUT any start up applications.

 

[mdd1963]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

 

[mdd1963]

As to your system starting at 4.0 GHz or so for a while after startup, there might be several updates being checked, virus scans, web-storage update syncs etc...; if the clock speed drops to 800-1200 MHz after a minute or three with no browsers open, I'd not be concerned about that, specifically...

 

[spedwolf658]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

 

[Pinhedd]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

That's completely normal.

Modern microprocessors can control the supply voltage and clock multiplier on a per-core basis. They speed up when they have work to do, and slow down when they're idling.

 

[mdd1963]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

Stop staring at Task Manager?

It's not 'freaking out' , think of it as 'ramping up' only for as long as it takes to complete the strenuous portion of the task....; as clock speed fluctuates 20 times/sec, you should either get used to it, and/or...stop obsessing over task manager.

So far as I can tell from symptoms (or lack thereof) ....nothing to see here.

Other than you not liking the dancing/fluctuating numbers on task manager, etc., are there any actual performance issues?

 

[spedwolf658]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

That's completely normal.

Modern microprocessors can control the supply voltage and clock multiplier on a per-core basis. They speed up when they have work to do, and slow down when they're idling.

Shouldn't a cpu clock speed be constant on idle? My cpu goes from 65% usage and 4 ghz when pc boots up. And after 4 or 5 minutes, it has a steady usage on idle of 1% for about a second, and it instantly goes to 5% usage and back down to 1. And the clock speed isnt steady on idle. (Not a straight line on task manager with graph) its looks like mountains. Up and down and up and down. There is no way this is normal. Every single friend that games on a pc has never had this problem, as well as my self on other builds.

 

[Pinhedd]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

That's completely normal.

Modern microprocessors can control the supply voltage and clock multiplier on a per-core basis. They speed up when they have work to do, and slow down when they're idling.

Shouldn't a cpu clock speed be constant on idle? My cpu goes from 65% usage and 4 ghz when pc boots up. And after 4 or 5 minutes, it has a steady usage on idle of 1% for about a second, and it instantly goes to 5% usage and back down to 1. And the clock speed isnt steady on idle. (Not a straight line on task manager with graph) its looks like mountains. Up and down and up and down. There is no way this is normal. Every single friend that games on a pc has never had this problem, as well as my self on other builds.

That's entirely normal.

CPU usage is not a measure of computational complexity or computational load, it's a measure of scheduling.

Windows is a preemptive priority-level multi-tasking operating system.

CPU cores are exposed as one or more logical processors on which the OS kernel schedules threads.

A thread can be either executing (running on a logical processor), waiting (all logical processors are currently executing threads of equal or higher priority), or sleeping (waiting for a system call to wake it up, such as an IO return or timer).

Since logical processors are interfaces to physical cores, something must be executing at all times. Modern microprocessors can be put into an ultra low power sleep state, but it still needs something to execute when it wakes up.

Windows has a process called the "System Idle Process" that runs at priority level 0. There are 32 priority levels in Windows, 0-31. 0 is the lowest and is reserved for the system idle process. The system idle process is created with one thread per logical processor. If no threads of priority level 1 or higher are waiting to be scheduled, a thread from the System Idle Process will be scheduled instead.

CPU usage is simply a measure of how much time the OS schedules threads belonging to processes other than the System Idle Process. This is accounted on a per-logical-processor basis and then averaged out. If you have 8 logical processors (eg, a 4 core microprocessor with SMT/Hyperthreading), each core contributes to 12.5% of the total.

It would be very easy to write a program with a single thread at priority level 1 that simply busy-waits all day long; it never makes system calls so it never sleeps; it will always be executing or ready to execute. If the affinity mask for that thread were set to a single logical processor (tells the OS to always schedule the thread on a particular set of logical processors, rather than as they come available) that processor will never run a thread from the System Idle Process because our wasteful thread from out do-nothing program runs at higher priority (1) than the System Idle Process threads (0). This will show up as 100% CPU usage on that logical processor, and 12.5% overall on a computer with 8 logical processors.

CPU usage looks like a bunch of mountain peaks because threads are constantly switching between executing, ready, and sleeping. A thread may be woken up by network activity, be scheduled, run for a bit, go to sleep for a few milliseconds while it waits for data to be read from a hard disk drive, wake up, be scheduled, run for a while, and then go to sleep until something wakes it up again.

 

[spedwolf658]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

That's completely normal.

Modern microprocessors can control the supply voltage and clock multiplier on a per-core basis. They speed up when they have work to do, and slow down when they're idling.

Shouldn't a cpu clock speed be constant on idle? My cpu goes from 65% usage and 4 ghz when pc boots up. And after 4 or 5 minutes, it has a steady usage on idle of 1% for about a second, and it instantly goes to 5% usage and back down to 1. And the clock speed isnt steady on idle. (Not a straight line on task manager with graph) its looks like mountains. Up and down and up and down. There is no way this is normal. Every single friend that games on a pc has never had this problem, as well as my self on other builds.

That's entirely normal.

CPU usage is not a measure of computational complexity or computational load, it's a measure of scheduling.

Windows is a preemptive priority-level multi-tasking operating system.

CPU cores are exposed as one or more logical processors on which the OS kernel schedules threads.

A thread can be either executing (running on a logical processor), waiting (all logical processors are currently executing threads of equal or higher priority), or sleeping (waiting for a system call to wake it up, such as an IO return or timer).

Since logical processors are interfaces to physical cores, something must be executing at all times. Modern microprocessors can be put into an ultra low power sleep state, but it still needs something to execute when it wakes up.

Windows has a process called the "System Idle Process" that runs at priority level 0. There are 32 priority levels in Windows, 0-31. 0 is the lowest and is reserved for the system idle process. The system idle process is created with one thread per logical processor. If no threads of priority level 1 or higher are waiting to be scheduled, a thread from the System Idle Process will be scheduled instead.

CPU usage is simply a measure of how much time the OS schedules threads belonging to processes other than the System Idle Process. This is accounted on a per-logical-processor basis and then averaged out. If you have 8 logical processors (eg, a 4 core microprocessor with SMT/Hyperthreading), each core contributes to 12.5% of the total.

It would be very easy to write a program with a single thread at priority level 1 that simply busy-waits all day long; it never makes system calls so it never sleeps; it will always be executing or ready to execute. If the affinity mask for that thread were set to a single logical processor (tells the OS to always schedule the thread on a particular set of logical processors, rather than as they come available) that processor will never run a thread from the System Idle Process because our wasteful thread from out do-nothing program runs at higher priority (1) than the System Idle Process threads (0). This will show up as 100% CPU usage on that logical processor, and 12.5% overall on a computer with 8 logical processors.

CPU usage looks like a bunch of mountain peaks because threads are constantly switching between executing, ready, and sleeping. A thread may be woken up by network activity, be scheduled, run for a bit, go to sleep for a few milliseconds while it waits for data to be read from a hard disk drive, wake up, be scheduled, run for a while, and then go to sleep until something wakes it up again.

I feel so dumb right now. Ugh. I was so certain that I broke something. I have one more question. Why was it not like this when I first built it. And why did the cpu graph look like a straight line before, and all choppy now?

 

[Pinhedd]

The cpu fluctuating between 800-2000 MHz during normal desktop operation (w/ brief 1 sec spikes to max opening /closing applications), and then ramping up to max during a game or heavy load is 100% normal...and has been for years...

You can set the fan profile to medium/medium high in BIOS to avoid the annoying ramp ups/downs with clock speed, if that is a concern

Why is it that I have never encountered a CPU that has acted like this. When I first turned it on after I built it it didn't do this and neither has any other computer that I have built. When I open Google Chrome or start up my computer it's at such a high CPU usage and clock speed and it almost feels irregular. Anything I open, even scrolling down an article, the cpu freaks out.

That's completely normal.

Modern microprocessors can control the supply voltage and clock multiplier on a per-core basis. They speed up when they have work to do, and slow down when they're idling.

Shouldn't a cpu clock speed be constant on idle? My cpu goes from 65% usage and 4 ghz when pc boots up. And after 4 or 5 minutes, it has a steady usage on idle of 1% for about a second, and it instantly goes to 5% usage and back down to 1. And the clock speed isnt steady on idle. (Not a straight line on task manager with graph) its looks like mountains. Up and down and up and down. There is no way this is normal. Every single friend that games on a pc has never had this problem, as well as my self on other builds.

That's entirely normal.

CPU usage is not a measure of computational complexity or computational load, it's a measure of scheduling.

Windows is a preemptive priority-level multi-tasking operating system.

CPU cores are exposed as one or more logical processors on which the OS kernel schedules threads.

A thread can be either executing (running on a logical processor), waiting (all logical processors are currently executing threads of equal or higher priority), or sleeping (waiting for a system call to wake it up, such as an IO return or timer).

Since logical processors are interfaces to physical cores, something must be executing at all times. Modern microprocessors can be put into an ultra low power sleep state, but it still needs something to execute when it wakes up.

Windows has a process called the "System Idle Process" that runs at priority level 0. There are 32 priority levels in Windows, 0-31. 0 is the lowest and is reserved for the system idle process. The system idle process is created with one thread per logical processor. If no threads of priority level 1 or higher are waiting to be scheduled, a thread from the System Idle Process will be scheduled instead.

CPU usage is simply a measure of how much time the OS schedules threads belonging to processes other than the System Idle Process. This is accounted on a per-logical-processor basis and then averaged out. If you have 8 logical processors (eg, a 4 core microprocessor with SMT/Hyperthreading), each core contributes to 12.5% of the total.

It would be very easy to write a program with a single thread at priority level 1 that simply busy-waits all day long; it never makes system calls so it never sleeps; it will always be executing or ready to execute. If the affinity mask for that thread were set to a single logical processor (tells the OS to always schedule the thread on a particular set of logical processors, rather than as they come available) that processor will never run a thread from the System Idle Process because our wasteful thread from out do-nothing program runs at higher priority (1) than the System Idle Process threads (0). This will show up as 100% CPU usage on that logical processor, and 12.5% overall on a computer with 8 logical processors.

CPU usage looks like a bunch of mountain peaks because threads are constantly switching between executing, ready, and sleeping. A thread may be woken up by network activity, be scheduled, run for a bit, go to sleep for a few milliseconds while it waits for data to be read from a hard disk drive, wake up, be scheduled, run for a while, and then go to sleep until something wakes it up again.

I feel so dumb right now. Ugh. I was so certain that I broke something. I have one more question. Why was it not like this when I first built it. And why did the cpu graph look like a straight line before, and all choppy now?

Honestly... no idea because I haven't seen it. My best guess would be that it's a symptom of the way Windows optimises updates for OS components that are managed by the .NET framework. After updates are installed, the OS optimises and recompiles certain things, this takes time and hogs the CPU for a bit.