PC suddenly awfully slow and dropping lots of fps.

[Tinsaus]

Hello there everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could perhaps help me out here.
First I'll tell you what my rig consists of and then I'll inform you about the problem(s) I am experiencing.

Intel Core i5-4460 (Processor)
MSI B85-G43 Gaming (Motherboard)
MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G (Videocard/GPU)
WD Blue WD10EZEX, 1TB (Hard Drive)
Kingston HyperX Fury Red HX316C10FRK2/8 (Ram)
Seasonic G-Series 550 Watt (Power Supply)
Crucial BX100 250GB (SSD)

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I've had this PC for about half a year now, maybe 1-2 months longer and it's always performed very well. I've never had any problems with it. For example, it used to get 300-ish fps on CS:GO on highest settings and recently on Overwatch it got 70+ on Ultra settings. Now, a week later it suddenly dropped both of these games to 20-30 fps and that's not even a steady number. It drops even further at times. Even when I change the settings much much lower. It doesn't change one bit.

Besides my games running much slower my PC in general has started running much slower as well. Looking up things on browsers takes from 5 to 20 seconds. Generally 10+-ish. Even right clicking folders on my desktop takes a few seconds. Whereas it never needed time to do such a thing.

I've tried to defragment my SDD & Hard Drive but it didn't help. I've scanned for viruses, no luck. I've used CCleaner to see if that would have an impact, it didn't. I've also used Malware Bytes, but it did not detect anything. I've noticed that my fans of my GPU aren't always on, but it's generally only at 38 degrees celcius, which is probably why they're not on. I've used programs to make the fans work at any given time though, but this as well did not have any impact on the performance of my PC whatsoever.

As far as I know I've also updated all the drivers yesterday, which had no impact either.
I honestly do not have a clue what's going on and why my PC is suddenly this slow.

Also, I've checked task manager and figured I'd put on something so it'd atleast have to do some work. I put on a stream on Twitch.tv on the highest possible quality and this is what my task manager showed.
CPU usage: around 10%
RAM usage around 20-30%
My SSD (Disk 0 aka C: ) was running at more than 90% at this time though. But a few minutes later it was suddenly running at 0 to 10%.

So I was wondering if anyone could help me out without taking apart my PC or emptying it completely and re-installing everything on it. That's pretty much what I aim to do if nothing else helps, but it's not my first choice. Hence this topic.

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,

Justin

 

[hozaif]

STOP everything your doing....

Hi, try de-clocking your card to say 650core 775ram and shaders also around the 800-900mhz mark.Instead of running a game,
hit "Windows key" + R and type DXDIAG then hit ok....
any errors? (click throught the top tabs on display, sound and input)

--if no errors, run game.
Crash sooner or longer after start ?

--if longer than before, can you test the gfx card in another pc.? No crash/reset

I think your motherboard cannot supply correct voltages and "cool and quiet" clocks, and declocks your cpu according to recieved voltage(FET's prob damaged or capacitors bulged / bad PSU).

Had similar issue in the past with an Ahtlon64.

Make sure to disconnect the power cord before removing any components.
only way is to take non critical components out, one for one, until it crashes again.Take all ram modules out insert 1 and power on, and test.Try all ram sticks one at a time and try different slots too.Remove extra pci cards(if you have any)Disconnect basically everyting-- extra HDD's , DVDrom's remove sata / pata cables /usb headers/ac97

You should now only have the motherboard and PSU on a table, attach a keyboard and start the pc,( you can short the power pin header on the motherboard if you removed the lead to the button.)

In bootup, go into bios and browse to hardware monitor/status. check the voltages, vcc core, +3.3v +5vsb -5v etc(it is normal for + and - 12 and 5 volt to vary a little), and wait for a few seconds/minutes. Look if any of these voltages take a drop, or rises by 0.5v-1v or more then you have a power problem.

Now switch off. and add (just the power) all HDD's ,if you have spare or old drives or cdroms plug them in aswell.
power on check bios hardware monitor and now look if those voltage drops or spikes are more severe of more often on +12v and +5v and -5v.
If so, its definately the PSU , if not then add the gfx card back after power off and add all ram back, make sure to disconnect the power cord before removing any components.
check readings again ,leave power on and wait like 10 mins and check readings again.

If readings are now very random, try another PSU and do the same again.If the readings are still random you can rule out the PSU, it is the Motherboard. I doubt it is the CPU, a CPU either works or is dead, never both.

Try you PSU on another PC and test everything again boots up properly, if all you ram, hdds, gfx card, psu works in other pc. Take the cpu off and chuck your mobo in the trash .(Or if your brave try and fix it) Oh and a fresh install of widows is a good start point.

 

[Tinsaus]

Thanks for the comment Hozaif, I'll have a look at your advice when I get home.
Also, you mention crashing. But my PC hasn't actaully crashed or anything like that. It's just gotten awfully slow out of nowhere.

 

[Tinsaus]

You mentioned de-clocking my card, I'm assuming you mean my videocard?

In MSI Afterburner it shows me this:

Core Voltage (mV)
Power Limit (%)
Core Clock (MHz)
Memory Clock (MHz)
Fan Speed (%)

Which ones of these did you mention exactly? And I don't see anything about shaders.
Sorry if I don't understand everything, haven't really done any clocking, ever.

 

[Tinsaus]

I put the core clock and memory clock at your given numbers. Started CS:GO and about 40-60 seconds into the game, it crashed on the loading screen to join a match. My screen turned an odd brown. But I can't say longer or shorter than before, because it hadn't crashed before.
And this currently the only PC we have, so I can't try my videocard in another pc atm. :/
We do have an old PC that doesn't work anymore, but I highly doubt that that would do the trick tbf.

And if it can't supply the correct voltages, how come this problem only started after about 8 months? (Just curiosity)

Also, you want me to take apart my PC, which I will at one point, but you're saying that I have to take out non-critical components until it crashes again. Are you refering to monitors etc. or just actual PC parts? And I'm not sure how the PC can crash when I take out components while the cable isn't inserted. Or should I take out the cable, take out a component, put in the cable, start game. Repeat this until it crashes?

Sorry for all the questions. Pretty damn new to all of this.

 

[hozaif]

you have a lot of questions. if all that did not work try this
scan your computer for viruses
Adjusting the Visual effects, indexing options, power settings, performing a disk cleanup and using ready boost are some of the tasks that you can undertake to increase the speed of the computer.
update all the drivers or restore your system to an earlier state using system restore

 

[hozaif]

tell me what happened after doing all this mentioned above

 

[Tinsaus]

tell me what happened after doing all this mentioned above

I haven't quite done everything in your first response.

''Make sure to disconnect the power cord before removing any components.
only way is to take non critical components out, one for one, until it crashes again.Take all ram modules out insert 1 and power on, and test.Try all ram sticks one at a time and try different slots too.Remove extra pci cards(if you have any)Disconnect basically everyting-- extra HDD's , DVDrom's remove sata / pata cables /usb headers/ac97''

I was wondering what you meant by this exactly. do you mean that I should take out the power cable, take out 1 piece of the PC, but the cable back in and then start it up? And keep doing this until it doesn't work anymore?
If that's the case I'll get to it later today!

After I know if this is what I should do and I've tested it out I'll make sure to try out your other ideas in your later response.

 

[hozaif]

do what i tell you
best answer please