Question One logical core spiking and holding at 100%

[SH Gaming]

I have recently have had a problem with one of my logical cores out of the twelve spiking, then holding at 100% for about 30 seconds. According to HWMonitor, it is core #1 that spikes to 100% and only that core. I have it happen when gaming and even just watching youtube and it is always just core #1. My audio also goes to 144p potato audio and my computer lags itself so hard when it happens. I have ran cinebench and CPU-Z and everything seems normal. I am curious whether or not this is my CPU finally killing itself after the torture it’s been under. Would it make sense to replace my processor? Thanks!

Specs:
Ryzen 5 2600 (OC to 4.0GHz)
Asrock B450 pro 4 ATX Motherboard
EVGA G3 Spuernova 650W PSU
MSI Radeon RX580 GPU (running slight OC)
250GB Samsung m.2 SSD
Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD
WD Green 2TB HDD
Seagate Berracuda 2tb HDD

 

[Darkbreeze]

What Windows version are you running?

Do you have automatic System Protection in the advanced system settings disabled for all drives?

Do you have automatic drive optimization and cleanup disabled?

Do you have any other third party utilities such as backup software, malware or antivirus scanners, that are setup to run automatic scans?

Because all those things tend to result in exactly the behavior you are experiencing AND even if you have shut off System Protection previously so that it would stop making new restore points, it gets re-enabled after any major Windows updates so you may have to do it again.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/system_protection_on_or_off.html

How to Disable Automatic Drive Optimization / Defrag in Windows 10 | Password Recovery

If you don't want to get disturbed by automatic drive optimization / defragmentation, here's how to disable it in Windows 10.

www.top-password.com

Furthermore, if you have not already OR have not done so in a while, it is likely there are updates for your motherboard BIOS and motherboard chipset, network adapter and audio controller drivers, and it would be a good idea to update those as well by going to the product support page for your motherboard and finding both the BIOS updates and drivers update pages and updating as needed. If you are uncertain, just update anyhow. Won't hurt anything to reinstall the same drivers again if you don't know for sure. Don't rely on Windows native drivers or ANY kind of "automatic driver updater" utility. That's a fools game.



If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.

First,​

Make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release. In cases where you DO already have the latest BIOS version, simply resetting the BIOS as follows has a fairly high percentage chance of effecting a positive change in some cases so it is ALWAYS worth TRYING, at the very least.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.

Second,​

Go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates. When it comes to the chipset drivers, if your motherboard manufacturer lists a chipset driver that is newer than what the chipset developer (Intel or AMD, for our purposes) lists, then use that one. If Intel (Or AMD) shows a chipset driver version that is newer than what is available from the motherboard product page, then use that one. Always use the newest chipset driver that you can get and always use ONLY the chipset drivers available from either the motherboard manufacturer, AMD or Intel.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.

Third,​

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.

Fourth (And often tied for most important along with an up-to-date motherboard BIOS),​

A clean install of the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Graphics card driver CLEAN install guide using the Wagnard tools DDU
​

And last, but not least, if you have never done a CLEAN install of Windows, or have upgraded from an older version to Windows 10, or have been through several spring or fall major Windows updates, it might be a very good idea to consider doing a clean install of Windows if none of these other solutions has helped. IF you are using a Windows installation from a previous system and you didn't do a clean install of Windows after building the new system, then it's 99.99% likely that you NEED to do a CLEAN install before trying any other solutions.


How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10, the RIGHT way​

 

[drea.drechsler]

I have recently have had a problem with one of my logical cores out of the twelve spiking, then holding at 100% for about 30 seconds. According to HWMonitor, it is core #1 that spikes to 100% and only that core. I have it happen when gaming and even just watching youtube and it is always just core #1. My audio also goes to 144p potato audio and my computer lags itself so hard when it happens. I have ran cinebench and CPU-Z and everything seems normal. I am curious whether or not this is my CPU finally killing itself after the torture it’s been under. Would it make sense to replace my processor? Thanks!

Specs:
Ryzen 5 2600 (OC to 4.0GHz)
Asrock B450 pro 4 ATX Motherboard
EVGA G3 Spuernova 650W PSU
MSI Radeon RX580 GPU (running slight OC)
250GB Samsung m.2 SSD
Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD
WD Green 2TB HDD
Seagate Berracuda 2tb HDD

If you question your CPU, reset your CMOS to disable the OC and run full stock for a while to see if it's doing the same thing. If it is then you'll have a good idea it's elsewhere.

 

[SH Gaming]

So, about 3 years late, still an issue. I've only noticed this with AMD CPU's only (the behavior of the random fram drop and the potato audio (basically if you just hold the spacebar on a video)) . On my Intel streaming pc, never happens.

The old 2600 had this issue, my new 5600 with a new Asus B550-F Gaming (non wifi)(or whatever it's called) has this issue, and even my laptop with a 6800H all have this issue.

My desktop is on windows 10, and my laptop on Windows 11.

Reverting overclock never changed it either

 

[artk2219]

So, about 3 years late, still an issue. I've only noticed this with AMD CPU's only (the behavior of the random fram drop and the potato audio (basically if you just hold the spacebar on a video)) . On my Intel streaming pc, never happens.

The old 2600 had this issue, my new 5600 with a new Asus B550-F Gaming (non wifi)(or whatever it's called) has this issue, and even my laptop with a 6800H all have this issue.

My desktop is on windows 10, and my laptop on Windows 11.

Reverting overclock never changed it either

Have you looked at thread affinity? It could be you have a task thats single threaded thats being dedicated to one thread.

 

[SH Gaming]

I'll look, but not sure if that's the case. Like it's not often that it happens. Maybe once every other day if that. Like I'll notice it when I am just trying to scroll down on my math homework (online), but it's so rare to happen and so inconsistent. There's no bloatware on either device or nothing that's open that should cause that. It doesn't matter if it's under load or not. It'll just happen out of nowhere.

I'll take a look though since I'm only have my laptop (which is one of the 2 devices that has the issue). (The windows 11 device)

I should mention my desktop has a fresh install of windows 10. Yes it has my games and stuff for video editing, but it'd not like they are running 24/7

 

[MrstimX]

if you want to try figuring out, this might help

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYHqrwQIoxc&t=1909s

 

[DvM]

So, about 3 years late, still an issue. I've only noticed this with AMD CPU's only (the behavior of the random fram drop and the potato audio (basically if you just hold the spacebar on a video)) . On my Intel streaming pc, never happens.

The old 2600 had this issue, my new 5600 with a new Asus B550-F Gaming (non wifi)(or whatever it's called) has this issue, and even my laptop with a 6800H all have this issue.

My desktop is on windows 10, and my laptop on Windows 11.

Reverting overclock never changed it either

Dear SH Gaming,

Stil having this issue or did you finaly found a solution?

Because i'm still having this issue too...

I experience unexplained stuttering in my Windows 11 environment. (22H2, 23H2 and even 24H2)
This is especially noticeable when dragging a program over my desktop or when i open a new program like a internet browser.
What I can see is that "Processor 1" of the 24 logical processors has high usage. (most of the time) (when this usage is low for a few seconds everthing works smooth)
In all open processes there is not a single process showing high usage with the exception of "Inactive system processes" but in my opinion a high % should be good for this process.
(however my games run fine on ultra settings)

Here's my Setup:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core
RAM: 64GB DDR4 3200Mhz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (8GB VRAM)
Display: LG UltraGear 45" 240Hz (3440x1440) (DisplayPort)
Storage 1: 1TB WD BLACK Gen4 SSD (Windows 11 is installed on it)
Storage 2: 2TB WD BLACK Gen4 SSD (various games and other software are installed here)
System: Windows 11 Home 22H2 / 23H2 / 24H2

Troubleshooting I've already tried:

* I performed a "Clean Boot".
Unfortunately without any result.

* I have emptied all temporary file locations... (TEMP / %TEMP% / PREFETCH folders)
Unfortunately without any result.

* I have the value of "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Ndu key;
" adjusted to "4"
Unfortunately without any result.

* I manually increased the virtual memory to a minimum of 9044 (which was a recommended number) and a maximum of 18088.
Unfortunately without any result.

* I have set my power management to performance.
Unfortunately without any result.

* In the OMEN Software i set the system management to High Performance.
Unfortunately without any result.

* I checked all drivers and updated where necessary (unfortunately there was only one driver update available for my audio)
(also the BIOS is already fully up to date)
Unfortunately without any result.

* I have disconnected my 2nd SSD full of games and other software (possibly the large amount of data can cause an issue)
Unfortunately without any result.

* I have connected a smaller 60Hz monitor.
Unfortunately without any result.

* I performed a clean Windows 11 installation (current SSDs fully formatted)
During the installation process of Windows 11 (bootable USB) I also experienced minor stuttering.
After Windows 11 was fully installed I updated all drivers and performed all windows updates and with this clean installation and only the basic drivers and software I continued to experience stuttering in the windows environment.

* I also tried to set all visual settings as simple as possible in windows 11 to get a smooth system as possible, but 1) this doesn't look nice and is not exactly desirable and 2) this didn't help either. ..

* I've also turned off "Core Isolation" in windows 11.

* I also removed 2 of the 4 memory sticks from the motherboard so that it functions as duo-threated and not as multithreated (which in some cases can also lead to instability)
But this also did not help (currently running on 32GB, 3200Mhz with 2 memory sticks)

After all these options, I decided to perform a clean installation of Windows 10 (bootable USB) and immediately upon installation everything went smoothly.
Also in the Windows 10 environment everything immediately ran smoothly and i did not experience any stuttering...

Now I'm half autistic who likes to have the latest of the latest, including Windows 11, but are there several Other people who experienced this with their AMD processor?
And/or does anyone know a solution for this?

Awaiting your responses and thanks in advance.

(i have a screenshot of the core #1 load, and all other cores are low when there are no program's active and windows is not getting used...)