Question Ongoing Issue

[Danny953]

Hello there everyone!

I've built myself a computer from scratch about 8 months ago.

Lately, starting about.. 3 months ago, maybe, I've had the computer start to get sluggish and freeze up (may not be the right wording).

Essentially, I boot up, log in, go on Youtube and suddenly, the videos start loading SUPER slow, my Windows/File explorer freezes up and doesn't work (occasionally it will work, just takes about 5 minutes for it to bring up the right click menu, and another 5 to bring up task manager).

Typically my CPU will be at 100% while this is happening, if I can ever get task manager to show me that information.

I've tried re-installing windows from scratch, but I start getting the same issue after a week or two.

Is it perhaps a faulty USB install that i'm using, or perhaps something like my CPU is failing and this is causing these issues?

Looking for some advice and solutions, and i'm willing to provide whatever's needed. Just keep in mind i'm not SUPER techy so It may take me a bit of time to get all of the details.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PC Tailor]

Please post your entire system specification including PSU make and model

 

[punkncat]

I would first ask if you are running a good AV solution and ad blocker?

I would consider letting it get running and then open task manager. Use another machine or your smart phone and look up every process running there. In particular I would see if you can locate specific programs with high CPU usage, and verify that they are supposed to be running.

Aside from the above suggestions there are a few things that can cause this type of issue. If you have very little RAM, or have a great deal of programs running it could be running on page file. IE, you have used up all your physical memory and it's taking tasks back and forth from the RAM to the disk. It (can) cause your CPU to run really hard.
Having a faulty drive, or a full drive can cause issues like this too, but in the case of a full drive you should have seen some notification pop up telling you about free space.

As above, post your specs and hopefully we can glean more information from that.

 

[Danny953]

Please post your entire system specification including PSU make and model

Hopefully this is what you're looking for.. I'm a bit unsure.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.17763 Build 17763
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DESKTOP-26E1BOI
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU SKU
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8350K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4008 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 1803, 2019-03-29
SMBIOS Version 3.0
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product PRIME Z370-A
BaseBoard Version Rev X.0x
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State Off
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume3
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.17763.404"
User Name DESKTOP-26E1BOI\danny
Time Zone Atlantic Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 12.0 GB
Total Virtual Memory 18.3 GB
Available Virtual Memory 12.1 GB
Page File Space 2.38 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Virtualization-based security Not enabled
Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not InstantGo, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, TPM is not usable
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware No
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

 

[Danny953]

I would first ask if you are running a good AV solution and ad blocker?

I would consider letting it get running and then open task manager. Use another machine or your smart phone and look up every process running there. In particular I would see if you can locate specific programs with high CPU usage, and verify that they are supposed to be running.

Aside from the above suggestions there are a few things that can cause this type of issue. If you have very little RAM, or have a great deal of programs running it could be running on page file. IE, you have used up all your physical memory and it's taking tasks back and forth from the RAM to the disk. It (can) cause your CPU to run really hard.
Having a faulty drive, or a full drive can cause issues like this too, but in the case of a full drive you should have seen some notification pop up telling you about free space.

As above, post your specs and hopefully we can glean more information from that.

I'm running a paid for version of Bitdefender, it's what I've used for years with no issues, plus any basic protections that come with Win10. I also run an adblocker on Google Chrome.

I cannot locate any programs using high CPU as it will state 100% but all processes will be listed as 0%, while the PC is running sluggish and nothing is opening.

Right now, Discord is at ~5.5% and Google Crome is ~2.6%, with Google Chrome (7) at ~2.0%.

 

[Danny953]

It's getting worse now. It will freeze a few moments after boot up (usually within 20) but if I'm watching youtube/netflix, or get a game launched (Such as R6 or Overwatch) it will continue to work for longer. Seems super weird.

Any suggestions?

 

[Danny953]

Just had to do another forced reboot and was logged out of a few apps, growing concerned.

 

[PC Tailor]

Apologies for the delayed response - by system spec, i mean your component make and models - which your post has pulled some out of:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8350K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4008 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Motherboard: PRIME Z370-A
Graphics Card: ?
Power Supply: ?
RAM: Only have a size...
Storage: ?

Does this issue occur in safe mode?

 

[Danny953]

Hey there!!

No problem!

I'll go ahead and attempt to locate that information for you. Just a minute.

And I'll attempt it in safe mode as well and get back to you.

 

[Danny953]

I'm having difficulties finding that other information. Could you provide me some specifics on how I can get that for you?

Sorry for being such a pain. lol.

 

[Danny953]

Additionally, attempted to use safe mode and it appears that it was not afflicted by the same issues running my PC normally does, but I will test it again just to be safe.

 

[PC Tailor]

If it doesn't occur in safe mode, it usually indicates it's software/drivers and not hardware, but:

I've tried re-installing windows from scratch, but I start getting the same issue after a week or two.

In most cases, I would expect this to fix it, as you'll likely have to install to latest drivers anyway, however there is still a possibility. Either way, for random slow downs, it may be suitable to run memtest to see if you have any memory issues which can commonly cause the slow downs you are describing.

Downloading Speccy / CPU-Z / / HWInfo will all tell you RAM, GPU, CPU, MB, Storage.

 

[Danny953]

Perfect! Here's the information from Speccy!

Power Supply is:
Corsair CP-9020121-NA CX Series 550 Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Non-Modular Power Supply

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MRW2K79/ref=pe_3034960_233709270_TE_item


Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i3 7300 @ 4.00GHz 29 °C
Kaby Lake 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME Z370-A (LGA1151) 26 °C
Graphics
LG ULTRAWIDE (3440x1440@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (EVGA) 35 °C
Storage
465GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA050 (SATA ) 30 °C
223GB TOSHIBA MKNSSDCR240GB-7 (SATA (SSD)) 27 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
High Definition Audio Device


RAM
Memory slots
Total memory slots 4
Used memory slots 2
Free memory slots 2
Memory
Size 16384 MBytes
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 28 %
Total Physical 16 GB
Available Physical 11 GB
Total Virtual 18 GB
Available Virtual 12 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 2
Slot #1
Slot #2

Graphics
Monitor
Name LG ULTRAWIDE on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Current Resolution 3440x1440 pixels
Work Resolution 3440x1400 pixels
State Enabled, Primary
Monitor Width 3440
Monitor Height 1440
Monitor BPP 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Frequency 60 Hz
Device \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Model GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Device ID 10DE-1C03
Revision A2
Subvendor EVGA (3842)
Current Performance Level Level 0
Current GPU Clock 139 MHz
Current Memory Clock 405 MHz
Current Shader Clock 405 MHz
Voltage 0.650 V
Technology 16 nm
Bus Interface PCI Express x16
Temperature 35 °C
Driver version 24.21.13.9924
BIOS Version 86.06.68.00.62
Physical Memory 2047 MB
Virtual Memory 2048 MB
Count of performance levels : 1
Level 1 - "Perf Level 0"
GPU Clock 1607 MHz
Shader Clock 4006 MHz


Storage
Hard drives
TOSHIBA DT01ACA050
Manufacturer TOSHIBA
Heads 16
Cylinders 60,801
Tracks 15,504,255
Sectors 976,768,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number 356SWYNHS
Firmware Version Number MS1OA750
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 2415 times
Power On Time 380.9 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 465 GB
Real size 500,107,862,016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
Temperature 29 °C
Temperature Range OK (less than 50 °C)
S.M.A.R.T attributes
Attribute name Real value Current Worst Threshold Raw Value Status
01 Read Error Rate 0 100 100 16 0000000000 Good
02 Throughput Performance 69 142 142 54 0000000045 Good
03 Spin-Up Time 11534515 ms 129 129 24 0000B000B3 Good
04 Start/Stop Count 3,840 100 100 0 0000000F00 Good
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 0 100 100 5 0000000000 Good
07 Seek Error Rate 0 100 100 67 0000000000 Good
08 Seek Time Performance 35 113 113 20 0000000023 Good
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 380d 22h 99 99 0 00000023B6 Good
0A Spin Retry Count 0 100 100 60 0000000000 Good
0C Device Power Cycle Count 2,415 100 100 0 000000096F Good
C0 Power-off Retract Count 3,859 97 97 0 0000000F13 Good
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 3,859 97 97 0 0000000F13 Good
C2 Temperature 29 °C 206 206 0 00000C001D Good
C4 Reallocation Event Count 0 100 100 0 0000000000 Good
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 0 100 100 0 0000000000 Good
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0 0000000000 Good
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 0 200 200 0 0000000000 Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #0
Disk Letter D:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 48E66593
Size 465 GB
Used Space 141 GB (30%)
Free Space 323 GB (70%)
MKNSSDCR240GB-7 (SSD)
Manufacturer TOSHIBA
Heads 16
Cylinders 29,185
Tracks 7,442,175
Sectors 468,857,025
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number MK130816AS1078105
Firmware Version Number 507ABBF0
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 1336 times
Power On Time 274.9 days
Speed Not used (SSD Drive)
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ, TRIM, SSD
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 223 GB
Real size 240,057,409,536 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
Temperature 27 °C
Temperature Range OK (less than 50 °C)
S.M.A.R.T attributes
Attribute name Real value Current Worst Threshold Raw Value Status
01 Read Error Rate 0 106 106 50 0000C76114 Good
05 Retired Block Count 131 100 100 3 0000000083 Good
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 274d 21h 93 93 0 00000019C5 Good
0C Device Power Cycle Count 1,336 99 99 0 0000000538 Good
AB Program Fail Block Count 0 0 0 0 0000000000 Good
AC Erase Fail Block Count 0 0 0 0 0000000000 Good
AE Unexpected Power Loss 370 0 0 0 0000000172 Good
B1 Wear Range Delta 4 0 0 0 0000000004 Good
B5 Program Fail Count 0 0 0 0 0000000000 Good
B6 Erase Fail Count 0 0 0 0 0000000000 Good
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 65,535 0 0 0 000000FFFF Good
BE Temperature Difference from 100 73 °C 27 39 0 000027001B Good
C2 Temperature 27 °C 27 39 0 000027001B Good
C3 On the fly ECC Uncorrectable Error Count 13,066,516 120 120 0 0000C76114 Good
C4 Reallocation Event Count 131 100 100 3 0000000083 Good
C9 Uncorrectable Soft Read Error Rate 13,066,516 120 120 0 0000C76114 Good
CC Soft ECC Correction Rate 13,066,516 120 120 0 0000C76114 Good
E6 Life Curve Status 100 100 100 0 0000000064 Good
E7 SSD Life Left 0 100 100 10 0000000000 Good
E9 Media Wearout Indicator 15,637 0 0 0 0000003D15 Good
EA Vendor Specific 10,834 0 0 0 0000002A52 Good
F1 Lifetime Writes From Host 10,834 0 0 0 0000002A52 Good
F2 Lifetime Reads from Host 12,670 0 0 0 000000317E Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number B4D02048
Size 498 MB
Used Space 396 MB (79%)
Free Space 102 MB (21%)
Partition 1
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #1
File System FAT32
Volume Serial Number 50D2B6CF
Size 96 MB
Used Space 25.8 MB (26%)
Free Space 70 MB (74%)
Partition 2
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #2
Disk Letter C:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 0E077874
Size 222 GB
Used Space 198 GB (89%)
Free Space 24.5 GB (11%)