My CPU is acting up when loading games. Help, panicking. 100% Usage

[MartinSten]

So I have been upgrading certain parts of my computer for a little while.
Started with my graphics card (Gtx 970) when my old one died on me.
Got more RAM (12gb total DDR3 1600Mhz),
a new Chassi (Define R5)
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
Some Noctua fans.

I haven't upgraded my cpu or mobo since im waiting for Skylake. Currently have AMD Phenom II X4 965 and some asus board called M4A78TD/USB3

The installations have all gone smoothly without and problems, as soon as I installed the SSD I also installed Windows 10 on it and started booting from the SSD.
(still having my Windows 7 on my old HDD in case of emergency).

I installed Witcher 3 on the SSD as well, I could max the graphics without problem. I played the game for 30-45 minutes without problems and then quit.
I decided to download and install Arkham Knight (from Steam), this was yesterday.

Today it finished and when I started it everything started to lag, the game was completely unplayable. When I checked in task manager I saw to my horror that the CPU usage was at 100%..
Closed the game, and while only using Firefox my cpu-usage is at 5-8%.

So I decided i'll check if Witcher 3 still runs smoothly, could barely get into the game and task manager is again showing the CPU usage at 100%.

So something has happened since yesterday, and I have no idea how to troubleshoot this? Have I killed my CPU somehow?

Today I noticed my computer couldn't recognize my ODD, so I turned it off. Killed the power on PSU, went in and put the SATA for the ODD in another spot on my mobo. All while using my anti-static wrist strap. Closed the chassi and turned it on, other than that I don't think i've done anything special to my rig since yesterday when I could play Witcher 3 flawlessly.

Sorry for my bad english and the wall of text, but im a little panicky here and english is not my native language.

When idling with firefox my cpu is at 34%.

TL;DR
Yesterday playing Witcher 3 on Windows 10 + SSD with Gtx970 on maxed graphics was no problem.
Today I installed Arkham Knight, could barely start game, CPU usage constant 100%.
Decided to test if Witcher 3 still worked, could barely start the game as well.

What happened and what do I do? :S

 

[MartinSten]

I have cooled my head a bit, I realized the reason the CPU usage is 100% is because something has happened to my brand new 970 Card. Which is making the games trying to run on the CPU. Obviously the cpu cannot handle the games.

However, what has happened to my GPU?
Speccy is seeing the GPU, isn't giving a temperature though.
Speccy is saying that "Current performance level" is "Level 0" whatever that means.

Also, the red and white MSI logo is glowing on the card, but the fans are not spinning. Something has happened to the card, dunno what :S

Moderator may put this thread in GPU instead of CPU, I still need people help here. Damn I just bought this card :S

 

[Tomba_Dude]

I would double check if the card is properly installed and getting enough power from the psu. Also make sure you have latest drivers and vBIOS for your gpu. What psu do you have?

 

[velo3100]

You could have blown the fans on the gpu if the cpu and gpu are close together as you said that you put heavy load onto the cpu. This could have caused the cpu to get damaged in the process which would be why the readings may not make sense.

First I don't know if this is possible as I am a laptop person but try replacing the fans in the gpu and see if it is any better. Otherwise you may need to replace the card. Also check that the cpu and the fans are working properly. Third try using a different hardware monitoring tool like hwmonitor as this is the one I use.

 

[MartinSten]

Well I solved the problem, if I had not solved it on my own I would surely have solved it with your post Tomba_Dude because I did what you described basically. I checked my drivers, that had been updated without my knowing during the night when I was sleeping. By windows 10. So W10 gave me some bad drivers that fucked up the GPU. I rolled back to the drivers I installed when I first installed windows 10. And problem was solved, now I need to find out how to keep W10 from installing crappy drivers for me..

I would double check if the card is properly installed and getting enough power from the psu. Also make sure you have latest drivers and vBIOS for your gpu. What psu do you have?

I have upgraded to a EVGA Supernova G2 750W, 80+ Gold from some old corsair 550w or something. However the problems lied in the GPU drivers.

You could have blown the fans on the gpu if the cpu and gpu are close together as you said that you put heavy load onto the cpu. This could have caused the cpu to get damaged in the process which would be why the readings may not make sense.

First I don't know if this is possible as I am a laptop person but try replacing the fans in the gpu and see if it is any better. Otherwise you may need to replace the card. Also check that the cpu and the fans are working properly. Third try using a different hardware monitoring tool like hwmonitor as this is the one I use.

One can not simply replace fans in a gpu (you can probably, but not simply mind you), and there is nothing wrong with Speccy I however appreciate your time and effort trying to help me even though you are a laptop person, so thanks a lot!

 

[Tomba_Dude]

Nice to hear you solved the problem, I am using windows 10 as well and wondering how to stop it updating drivers. Geforce experience keeps them up to date tho so I don't often even see W10 wanting to update graphics drivers

 

[MartinSten]

Nice to hear you solved the problem, I am using windows 10 as well and wondering how to stop it updating drivers. Geforce experience keeps them up to date tho so I don't often even see W10 wanting to update graphics drivers

I chose not to get Geforce Experience on windows 10 because it didn't work very well for me in Windows 7, bugged and just kept searching for updates never to find any.

So when I installed windows 10 I went straight to nvidia and downloaded the latest drivers for windows 10 (there are only 3 avaiable right now) installed them manually and everything worked great.

For some reason windows 10 decided that my drivers were crap and got me some other drivers that rendered my GPU useless, thanks windows.

I don't mind the updates but i'd appreciate it if I could decide for what devices it got me drivers. My gpu not being one of them.

 

[Tomba_Dude]

Yup, W10 still needs some more filing 😉
I've had no problems with Geforce experience on windows 8.1 nor 10, maybe they've updated it a couple of times after you've used it last time 😛