[SOLVED] Severe, random stuttering with seemingly fine system

[thegreennico]

Games are having random, severe, audio/video stuttering, with no easily discernable cause, any ideas? I'm sort of at my wit's end, aside from spending a ton of money on new parts, but even then, I'm not entirely certain it's a hardware fault.

Basically, games, whether it's something like Risk of Rain 2, Hades, or even the mGBA emulator, will go from running at well over 100+ fps consistently, instantly down to maybe single digit FPS counts, with the audio cutting out as well. These drops can last from a single skip, to several agonizing seconds, rendering whatever I'm trying to play unplayable. The issue has purely been lag with games - there've been no actual crashes, or issues anywhere else on my computer that I've noticed, other than an unknown motor somewhere inside that sounds a little unhealthy (on occasion I hear it when I boot up the computer, but it goes away and sounds totally normal for the rest of the day). No hardware changes have been made since before the issue aside from installing a wireless/bluetooth card (and the issues came a week or so after I installed that, nothing unusal beforehand). I've tried all sorts of updates, error checking, and diagnostics with no positive results.


Here's what I've gone through to try and solve the issue:
-Flashed the BIOS, and updated my mobo drivers
-Used DDU to uninstall my graphics drivers and did a clean install of the newest drivers for my card
-Checked multiple times for Windows updates, downloaded and installed those
-Error checked my SSD (which has Windows and a few games installed on it)
-Analyzed and optimized the SSD with the defrag option in Window's Optimize Drives (other HDDs have "Current status" of "OK", automatic checks are set to run every week)
-Ran Windows' Memory Diagnostic tool and found no errors
-Ran CCleaner's Custom Clean, and it's Registry scans, resolving all issues it found
-Ran a full scan with my anti-virus, found nothing suspicious
-Monitored the performance tab in Task Manager, and everything seems to consistently have plenty of availability; CPU is typically cruising ~60% usage @ ~150F under load, GPU is typically ~30% usage @ ~150F, Disk drives are all within expected loads (high when loading large portions of game data, low otherwise), and Memory consistently has several GB of available space (typically running at about ~50% or ~60%)
__Small note on the memory; I'm slightly suspicious the issue might lie here, as the issue kinda feels like a memory issue to me, and I'm not sure why the the system wouldn't call on more RAM to make up for a memory shortage, but maybe I'm totally wrong
-Closing all other apps and unnecessary processes that I can identify
-Closing anti-virus and overlay applications
-Disabling all apps opening on startup

None of these have caught anything outstanding, or made any noticeable changes to the issue.

Here are my specs (let me know if I forgot to post anything important here):
Motherboard: MSI X470 Gaming PLUS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080ti (manufactured by GIGABYTE)
RAM: (2x) DDR4 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws in slots 2 & 4
PSU: Corsair RM750
OS: Windows 10
Drives:
1x SSD, Samsung SSD 860 QVO 1TB (Windows installed here),
1x internal HDD, ST2000DM001 - 1ER164,
1x external USB HDD, PHD 3.0 Silicon-Power USB Device

For funsies, here's a DxDiag I took a few weeks ago before the issue came up, as well as one that I took while writing this post:
Pre-issue: http://hastebin.com/ofexexaboy.yaml
Post-issue: http://hastebin.com/ukazuzatiy.yaml

 

[revodo]

Try extensive hardware testing, either with on-board diagnostics, or bootable USB.

If that all passes, try completely reinstalling Windows.

 

[Lutfij]

other than an unknown motor somewhere inside that sounds a little unhealthy (on occasion I hear it when I boot up the computer, but it goes away and sounds totally normal for the rest of the day)
Might want to take an A4 sheet of paper and roll it into a tube to hold against your ear and locate teh origin of the sound. It might be a fan or an AIO's pump(speaking of which, how are you cooling that processor?

Samsung SSD 860 QVO 1TB (Windows installed here)
That might be an SSD but the unit was designed to be more for content creators who needed a budget solution but faster than an HDD and high capacity. Regardless, can you use Samsung's Magician app and see if the drive is pending any firmware updates?

Did you recreate your bootable installer using Windows Media Creation Tools to rule out a corrupt installer? As for your motherboard, seem to have a Beta BIOS version pending update, considering you're on the last non Beta BIOS version, G0. Can you mention the slots name, per the manual? Got a link to the ram kit?

How old is the PSU in the build?

 

[thegreennico]

other than an unknown motor somewhere inside that sounds a little unhealthy (on occasion I hear it when I boot up the computer, but it goes away and sounds totally normal for the rest of the day)
Might want to take an A4 sheet of paper and roll it into a tube to hold against your ear and locate teh origin of the sound. It might be a fan or an AIO's pump(speaking of which, how are you cooling that processor?

Samsung SSD 860 QVO 1TB (Windows installed here)
That might be an SSD but the unit was designed to be more for content creators who needed a budget solution but faster than an HDD and high capacity. Regardless, can you use Samsung's Magician app and see if the drive is pending any firmware updates?

Did you recreate your bootable installer using Windows Media Creation Tools to rule out a corrupt installer? As for your motherboard, seem to have a Beta BIOS version pending update, considering you're on the last non Beta BIOS version, G0. Can you mention the slots name, per the manual? Got a link to the ram kit?

How old is the PSU in the build?

The CPU is cooled by the fan unit it came with, and the whole system runs on fan cooling. I'll try to pinpoint the noise if it happens again.

The SSD was indeed pending a firmware update, which has now been fully installed. The issue persists.

I honestly forget how I went about installing Windows, and having recently moved out of my parent's house, it would take a day or two for me to get back to where I left it (forgot about it while moving out). As far as BIOS goes, I was using a relatively older version of it (several months to over a year), but just updated to most recent non-Beta BIOS version yesterday, as an attempt to resolve the issue. Should I update to the beta version? I was hesitant because I figured something more stable would be smarter to roll with for now. The RAM slots are in DIMMA2 & DIMMB2.

I've done a search for the RAM I'm using, but haven't been able to accurately pinpoint it online. CPU-Z lists the Part Number as F4-2666C15-8GVR (see screenshots below). This is the closest set I could find online, but this is a F4-2666C15D-16GVR. I got the RAM I'm currently using from my dad, who is unavailable for the time being, and whose house is a day trip away, so unfortunately I don't have access to the box.
CPU-Z Memory & SPD screenshots:

https://imgur.com/a/tzasG0E

View: https://imgur.com/a/tzasG0E


The PSU is right around 1.5 years old.

 

[thegreennico]

Seem to have solved the issue. I opened up the case and did a thorough dust cleaning. I had done a minor clean a few weeks ago, but missed some spots where significant dust had gathered. I also took the RAM out, and put it back in just as it was. Yesterday and this morning, the lag has been totally gone.

Not sure if it was a temperature or a RAM issue, but for anyone finding this thread, both are pretty simple procedures that can easily be done in one go!