Question PC Performing pretty badly..

[Aypifox]

I'm a gamer, but at the same time I'm not. Due to the fact my pc was never able to handle good games easily I had just left myself playing Minecraft and Terraria, light games. After over a year though I'd actually like to get the performances I'm supposed to get with this PC

I really don't know if I'm in the correct sub-module, I tried finding a 'where-to-post' thread but I never found one, and since I dont know the exact problem if it is coming from my cpu, gpu or anything else I think here it the okay place to put it.

So when I bought this PC a year ago I really thought I knew enough about pcs but I definetly didnt.. the proof:
I bought and Alienware R7 on BestBuy REBURFISHED because it was on sale and now the Page doesnt even exist anymore feels nice..(thanks WaybackMachine : https://web.archive.org/web/2019070...hd-win-10-home-certified-refurbished/12725352)

So for my Specs I know some but I dont know if this is the ones needed to solve my problem os just incase ive also put the dialgx or something Soecs informations down there aswell of mypoor user benchmarch.. Its also possible its a setup problem as all ive installed on my pc was Nvidia Geforce. I have plugged the card(in the back , bottom) to my monitor(I believe) and I dont know what I do wrong.. honestly Im down for a full reset with a correct setting up if it is my problem.. I hope someone can help me.. I dont know how the heck I tolerated this a whole year!

Benchmark:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/21184580

Basic Specs :


Intel Core i7-8700 @ 3.20GHz

Ram : 16GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (Dell)

Full Specs can be found here:
https://pastebin.com/xifMDtjz

I've done one test which is CPU and I believe that could be my problem, but I really don't know much hardware oriented.

This is when I use CPU-Z's Stress Mode. Ive heard my temperatures were incredibly low for such stress.

I hope someone can help me with this.

Also, I thought about maybe using Discord/Anydesk to share my screen as I know many people would prefer to actually have access to the computer to find where the problem is from. Though I dont know if it is against a Tom's Hardware rule

 

[Darkbreeze]

First, get rid of HWmonitor. Uninstall it and don't use it ever again.

Next, download and install HWinfo. Based on your screenshots, and this is not surprising to me at all, HWmonitor is reading the completely wrong thermal sensor or is not reading one at all, because those temperatures are not accurate. At all. Ever. In any possible universe. Ever. Ok, I think you get the idea now.

Also, when you want to measure thermals, use Prime95 with AVX and AVX2 disabled. Take your thermal screenshots after about five minutes or so, as long AS you are not exceeding 85°C. If you are exceeding 85°C during thermal testing, stop the testing and exit the program. Do not just click the X in the top right corner, because Prime will continue to run minimized to the tray. You MUST click on the "File>Stop or File>Exit" options from the drop down menu at the top of the Prime window.

Do that first, and post those screenshots, and we can go from there. In the meantime it would be helpful to know your CPU cooler model, case model, how many case fans are installed, which direction each case fan for each location is blowing and what your exact power supply and motherboard models are?

Monitoring software​

HWmonitor, Open hardware monitor, Realtemp, Speccy, Speedfan, Windows utilities, CPU-Z, NZXT CAM and most of the bundled motherboard utilities are often not the best choice as they are not always accurate. Some are actually grossly inaccurate, especially with certain chipsets or specific sensors that for whatever reason they tend to not like or work well with. I've found HWinfo or CoreTemp to be the MOST accurate with the broadest range of chipsets and sensors. They are also almost religiously kept up to date.

CoreTemp is great for just CPU thermals including core temps or distance to TJmax on older AMD platforms.

HWinfo is great for pretty much EVERYTHING, including CPU thermals, core loads, core temps, package temps, GPU sensors, HDD and SSD sensors, motherboard chipset and VRM sensor, all of it. When starting HWinfo after installation, always check the box next to "sensors only" and de-select the box next to "summary".


Run HWinfo and look at system voltages and other sensor readings.

Monitoring temperatures, core speeds, voltages, clock ratios and other reported sensor data can often help to pick out an issue right off the bat. HWinfo is a good way to get that data and in my experience tends to be more accurate than some of the other utilities available. CPU-Z, GPU-Z and Core Temp all have their uses but HWinfo tends to have it all laid out in a more convenient fashion so you can usually see what one sensor is reporting while looking at another instead of having to flip through various tabs that have specific groupings, plus, it is extremely rare for HWinfo to not report the correct sensor values under the correct sensor listings, or misreport other information. Utilities like HWmonitor, Openhardware monitor and Speccy, tend to COMMONLY misreport sensor data, or not report it at all.

After installation, run the utility and when asked, choose "sensors only". The other window options have some use but in most cases everything you need will be located in the sensors window. If you're taking screenshots to post for troubleshooting, it will most likely require taking three screenshots and scrolling down the sensors window between screenshots in order to capture them all.

It is most helpful if you can take a series of HWinfo screenshots at idle, after a cold boot to the desktop. Open HWinfo and wait for all of the Windows startup processes to complete. Usually about four or five minutes should be plenty. Take screenshots of all the HWinfo sensors.

Next, run something demanding like Prime95 version 26.6 or Heaven benchmark. Take another set of screenshots while either of those is running so we can see what the hardware is doing while under a load.

*Download HWinfo


For temperature monitoring only, I feel Core Temp is the most accurate and also offers a quick visual reference for core speed, load and CPU voltage:


*Download Core Temp

​

Testing thermal compliance

Once you get to the Windows desktop, the first thing you will want to do is open HWinfo (Sensors only option) or CoreTemp and take a look at what your core and package temperatures are doing. At idle your core temps should be somewhere below 40°C. Preferably somewhere in the mid to low 30’s. This WILL be affected by whatever the ambient temperature is in the room where you are, so if your are in a very warm region and have no air conditioning going you may have an idle temp that is a bit closer to 40. For cooler ambient rooms or regions it will likely show low 30’s-ish. Be aware that unless you have excessively high idle temps, say, above 40°C, then what your actual idle temps are is practically irrelevant. Cooler idle temps are not indicative of much of anything specific.

Very HIGH idle temps however DO indicate that there is likely a problem with an incorrectly installed CPU cooler heatsink, too high of CPU core voltage or some other cooling or voltage related issue. If you are using one of those other utilities I warned about in the beginning of this tutorial, it may also be that the utility is reporting falsely. In that case, go get HWinfo or CoreTemp and check again.

If idle temps seem fine, then leave your monitoring application open and run Prime95 (Either version 26.6 or the latest version with AVX/AVX2 disabled).

Choose the Small FFT option (NOT "Smallest FFT") and allow it to run for fifteen minutes. If you are using the latest version of Prime95 (Version 29.8 or newer) then you NEED to be sure to disable the AVX and AVX2 options in the main options window. When you disable AVX2 the option to disable AVX will become available. If at any point your core or package temperatures exceed 85°C for Intel or 80°C for AMD Ryzen platforms, then click the “Test” menu at the top of the Prime95 window and select “stop” or “exit”. Do not simply click the "X" in the top right corner as that will NOT stop the stress test, it will only minimize it to the tray. 80°C is the maximum we want to ever "normally" see temps on either Intel or AMD platforms, but for testing purposes we can allow up to 85°C on Intel, even though we don't consider that to be within our "desirable" range.

You MUST click Stop or Exit from the drop down TEST menu at the top left of the window to stop the stress test.

​

 

[Ralston18]

Do not give anyone access to your computer.

You have many initial options.

Start by looking the required hardware specs for the games you play. Most games do some listing such as minimum, recommended, and best. You do not want minimum and you do want as much "best" as you can afford.

You used Task Manager to look at your system's performance. You should also use Resource Monitor and Process Explorer (which you may need to download from Microsoft). Use on or the other to observe system performance: first while simply "idling" and doing light work. Then while browsing, and lastly while gaming.

You can also use Reliability History and Event Viewer to look for error codes and warnings that occur at any time.

This forum has multiple reviews of different gaming builds within selected budget ranges. Read the reviews and determine where your system "fits" in. You may discover, for example, that some additional RAM will help.

Has the computer's case ever been opened for cleaning and maintenance? All OS updates and drivers up-to-date?

How much space is on the boot drive and how much space is still available. Any disk cleaning?

And, lastly, make and model PSU; wattage, age, condition?

If your computer is experiencing a wide range of problems the PSU is a likely suspect.

 

[mdd1963]

Looked to me as though you were stuck at 800 MHz in your screen cap of 100% usage. something that I've seen happen when assorted chipset drivers were not installed. (Win10 will work with default installed drivers, often leading people to think all is well, when they are running at 20% of rated speed..

Make sure all chipset/mainboard drivers are installed, and/or, not stuck in Economy mode in WIndows power plan. You want Balanced mode, which will allow loafing at 800 MHz when under no load conditions, yet also allow ramping up to turbo speeds under an all core load.

 

[mdd1963]

HWmonitor works/has worked flawlessly on all Intel chipsets and mainboards I've used it with... (i know that is not true on many AMD chipsets); if he is showing 800 MHz as clock speeds within HWMonitor, it is very likely because that is what clock speeds are being achieved, I fear ( I know the 'stuck at only 800 MHz' is exactly what behavior I observed on a Dell laptop before installing all the needed drivers; not that that applies here, but, it is certainly worth asking about)

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm not going to argue that. Could be exactly right. What I WILL say is that both myself and Computronix, among others, have seen various Intel chipsets that HWmonitor wouldn't work correctly with either misreading or misreporting, or completely mistaking one sensor for another, more times than I can count. And that's without factoring in cases where it simply didn't report anything at all.

Not just AMD. Intel too. Personally, aside from CPU-Z for basic memory reporting, I don't recommend using ANY of the CPUID products because IMO they simply are lacking in the precision or coverage that other, better products offer. But if somebody insists to use HWmonitor, then that's up to them. If it works for you and you trust it, great. I don't, but I won't say you shouldn't use it if you haven't had any problems with it. Clearly in THIS case, there is something going on, so eliminating ANY known problems, and misreporting on HWmonitor is a known problem, so eliminating that as potentially part of the issue, is to me a good idea.

It might be that it ISN'T part of the problem, but using something else would verify that one way or the other.

I used to keep track of the number of threads where HWmonitor was THE problem, but I stopped doing it at about 40 threads and have since lost those links. I'm sure I could dredge them up if necessary but I don't think it is. Again, you could be spot on that this is some other issue AND it LIKELY is, but I like to eliminate basic known issues first so that I know the reporting is accurate.

The fact that, at 800mhz the CPU is CLEARLY at idle, and yet the utilization shows 100% on all cores, in HWmonitor, seems a pretty good indicator that there's a flag there which shouldn't be ignored. If later it turns out that other programs show the same result it is not some major difficulty to go back to HWmonitor if you decide you prefer it. Most users, once they've used HWinfo, do not ever go back to HWmonitor.

It is also important that you choose the "Sensors only" option in HWinfo, and disable the "Summary" option, else it is pretty much useless.

Knowing the exact motherboard model OR at the very least, the motherboard chipset type, would be helpful.

 

[Aypifox]

All Infos Before Prime(No restart):

https://imgur.com/a/1DMJidM

View: https://imgur.com/a/1DMJidM

https://imgur.com/a/d5CHW6P

View: https://imgur.com/a/d5CHW6P

https://imgur.com/a/UIAzwIm

View: https://imgur.com/a/UIAzwIm

https://imgur.com/a/jgTrLTz

View: https://imgur.com/a/jgTrLTz


Thermal (restart):

https://imgur.com/a/vFDDrbz

View: https://imgur.com/a/vFDDrbz


Thermal After Prime:

https://imgur.com/a/dCzXWH7

View: https://imgur.com/a/dCzXWH7


GPU No Games Thermal:

https://imgur.com/a/5K51HMR

View: https://imgur.com/a/5K51HMR


Motherboard : Alienware 0VDT73
No Idea the CPU cooler model..
Case Model idk.. but its the Aurora R7 one
I dont know the Power Supply model either
There is 3 fans installed:
One on top who blows downs on all the system
One who is situated down infront who blows air out
and one who is with the powersupply

 

[mdd1963]

That he was at 100% but still at 800 MHz is what I would see (and have seen) without chipset drivers installed immediately after testing with MS-default installed drivers, post-new WIndows install...

(I've just I've never seen HWMonitor not working with any recent mainstream chipsets, short of immediately after into, of course; there certainly may have been issues with X79/99/299. I will of course not discount others' having had issues with it. It working 8-10 times for me, etc., is hardly a golden sample size )
Can the OP confirm all chipset drivers have been installed, from Dell/Alienware , or whatever this system is?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Can you please PM me with your express service tag number, so I can locate and provide to you the exact drivers you SHOULD but perhaps do not, have installed?

As far as the chipset drivers themselves, that is a Z370 motherboard and unless there is something dramatically different between this Dell board and every other Z370 board on the market (Which there shouldn't be), then THIS is the chipset driver you SHOULD be using. I would highly recommend that you download and install it immediately:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28182/Chipset-INF-Utility?product=125903

 

[Aypifox]

That he was at 100% but still at 800 MHz is what I would see (and have seen) without chipset drivers installed immediately after testing with MS-default installed drivers, post-new WIndows install...

(I've just I've never seen HWMonitor not working with any recent mainstream chipsets, short of immediately after into, of course; there certainly may have been issues with X79/99/299. I will of course not discount others' having had issues with it. It working 8-10 times for me, etc., is hardly a golden sample size )
Can the OP confirm all chipset drivers have been installed, from Dell/Alienware , or whatever this system is?

https://imgur.com/a/QJwWPoi

View: https://imgur.com/a/QJwWPoi

 

[Darkbreeze]

Realtek audio driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05653934M/2/Realtek-Audio-Driver_Y82CT_WIN_6.0.8699.1_A10_01.EXE


There is actually also a NEWER Chipset driver than the one on the Intel website, which is unusual, because normally the Intel supplied driver is almost always the latest version. I'm not even sure how there could BE a newer version than what Intel supplies EXCEPT for the fact that Dell may have included some motherboard model specific modifications to the August Z370 Intel chipset drivers, so it's probably a good idea to install this although if you already installed the other one, then rebooted, and discovered your issues were resolved, then I'd forego bothering with this one. If you have not installed the other one yet, or if you installed it and rebooted and still had the same issues, then I'd try this one instead.

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...e-Driver_9NNTR_WIN_10.1.18019.8144_A08_02.EXE


Serial I/O driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER04724030M/4/Intel-Serial-IO-Driver_RXDJM_WIN_30.100.1725.1_A05.EXE

Killer wireless AC bluetooth driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...etooth-Driver_FWRVT_WIN_10.0.0.714_A11_05.EXE

Killer WiFi networking driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...535-WiFi-Driver_VNP1P_WIN_2.0.1170_A05_06.EXE

Killer ethernet driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...thernet-Controller_P1JP0_WIN_2.0.1167_A12.EXE



I would recommend that you install each of those, regardless of whether you think your drivers are all up to date or not. The Microsoft supplied drivers are not full featured drivers like these are, so if you are relying on them, that's a mistake.

Also, after those are all installed and you have rebooted the system after the last installation, I would also recommend that you download and install the latest Nvidia drivers, and during the installation choose the "Custom" option, and then put a check next to the "Perform clean install" option. I like using the DDU to do a clean install better than the AMD or Nvidia clean install options, but they've gotten better recently with their own clean installers so it's probably fine to simply use theirs and it's definitely the easier option than a reboot into safe mode and running the DDU. If we don't get the result we are looking for by the end of this, we may end up doing that anyhow though.

 

[Aypifox]

Realtek audio driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05653934M/2/Realtek-Audio-Driver_Y82CT_WIN_6.0.8699.1_A10_01.EXE


There is actually also a NEWER Chipset driver than the one on the Intel website, which is unusual, because normally the Intel supplied driver is almost always the latest version. I'm not even sure how there could BE a newer version than what Intel supplies EXCEPT for the fact that Dell may have included some motherboard model specific modifications to the August Z370 Intel chipset drivers, so it's probably a good idea to install this although if you already installed the other one, then rebooted, and discovered your issues were resolved, then I'd forego bothering with this one. If you have not installed the other one yet, or if you installed it and rebooted and still had the same issues, then I'd try this one instead.

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...e-Driver_9NNTR_WIN_10.1.18019.8144_A08_02.EXE


Serial I/O driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER04724030M/4/Intel-Serial-IO-Driver_RXDJM_WIN_30.100.1725.1_A05.EXE

Killer wireless AC bluetooth driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...etooth-Driver_FWRVT_WIN_10.0.0.714_A11_05.EXE

Killer WiFi networking driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...535-WiFi-Driver_VNP1P_WIN_2.0.1170_A05_06.EXE

Killer ethernet driver:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...thernet-Controller_P1JP0_WIN_2.0.1167_A12.EXE



I would recommend that you install each of those, regardless of whether you think your drivers are all up to date or not. The Microsoft supplied drivers are not full featured drivers like these are, so if you are relying on them, that's a mistake.

Also, after those are all installed and you have rebooted the system after the last installation, I would also recommend that you download and install the latest Nvidia drivers, and during the installation choose the "Custom" option, and then put a check next to the "Perform clean install" option. I like using the DDU to do a clean install better than the AMD or Nvidia clean install options, but they've gotten better recently with their own clean installers so it's probably fine to simply use theirs and it's definitely the easier option than a reboot into safe mode and running the DDU. If we don't get the result we are looking for by the end of this, we may end up doing that anyhow though.

I will do that as it can help either way, but I found the next step: CPU. as mentionned above, my cpu is limited at 800Mhz (you can even check in the BiOS and thats what it says) when Im supposed to get 3.20Ghz which is really weird. After searching on the internet it happened to a lot of people with the same pc. People says disabling 'BD prochot' did it for them but they have to do it Every single time they open their computer plus I dont even think thats safe? Is anyone here could help me out with a tweak so it would be 3.20GHz? My CPU is i7-8700 so not overclockable, not changeable in BiOS settingd

 

[Darkbreeze]

That is not an option. First, before doing ANY of the updates listed above, do this.


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 five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. 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 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, 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.



And after that, make sure you have the MOST recent motherboard BIOS version installed. If you do not, then it would be advisable to update to the latest version after first watching a few Youtube videos on updating the BIOS on the Alienware R7.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...wt64a&productcode=alienware-aurora-r7-desktop

 

[Aypifox]

That is not an option. First, before doing ANY of the updates listed above, do this.


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 five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. 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 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, 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.



And after that, make sure you have the MOST recent motherboard BIOS version installed. If you do not, then it would be advisable to update to the latest version after first watching a few Youtube videos on updating the BIOS on the Alienware R7.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...wt64a&productcode=alienware-aurora-r7-desktop

Reseting the CMOS did not work..

 

[Darkbreeze]

And did you update your BIOS to the latest version? Did you install ALL of the drivers indicated above INCLUDING the latest chipset driver?

If you did, then I'd start thinking about doing a clean install of Windows.

What exactly are you running in an attempt to get the boost speed to go to it's peak? What "stress utility" are you running? Should be using Prime95 with AVX/AVX2 disabled.