[SOLVED] Intermittent stuttering with 100% "System Interrupts" CPU usage

[LilPinky]

Hi folks

Faultfinding help requested...

• Longstanding Windows 10 desktop system, with some parts now 5-9 years old. Build details at the end.
• No recent changes (apart from usual Window's regular updates). All drivers up to date. Down to 30Gb spare on the main SSD (which includes Windows), but everything else appears fine.
• Fault: over the last week when gaming, I've encountered periods of very heavy lag. Frames down to 1-3 FPS. Sound is fine. Recovers after 15-20 seconds. Happens maybe every 15 mins.
• Looking at task manager, "System Interrupts" is always at 100% during these incidents.

Google suggests check drivers (done), check USB devices (no recent changes), possibly a hardware fault.

Running a GPU benchmark, I managed to reproduce the fault once after five mins of FurMark (and it ended up completely crashing the PC). Haven't managed to reproduce it in another two tests. MemTest64 ran without issue.

I have a spare identical graphics card (for reasons...), which I can swap in and try in case it's the card. If not, possibly the motherboard PCIe slot dying?

Any other suggestions?

Cheers

Rob

System: i5 3570k overclocked, GTX 970, 16GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 RAM, Gigabyte Z77-D3H MoBo. Windows 10.0.18363.

 

[NalyAhmad]

Hello LilPinky,

Can you tell me your PSU? If it is less than or exactly 450W, the PC has not got enough power.

Hope this helps,
Naly A