Question Spotify and specific video playing services causing computer to stutter

[ABigGoofyGamer181]

Stutters only last a minute after starting spotify or playing a video. Stutters will occur when Spotify starts, if Spotify plays a song with a looping video on it, or when specific video services like Crunchyroll start playing a show. Issue happens on desktop apps and web apps. They don't occur when gaming or during benchmarks. Issue appears to get better when I disconnect monitors (I have a 3 monitor setup). Issue became noticeable after I moved my computer across my room to install a new desk. Don't know if they were happening before or not.

Specs:

GPU: 3070 fe
CPU: ryzen 5 5600x
RAM: 32 gigs of tridentz ram at 3600mhz
MOBO: asus b550 wifi
PSU: corsair 650 watt gold rated psu
STORAGE: Seagate 2tb hdd, samsung m.2 500gb (windows drive), samsung 1tb ssd, samsung 500 gb ssd.

Things I've tried:

DDU and reinstall graphics drivers
reseat ram and gpu
uninstall spotify
check for mobo updates
update bios
use windows reset
swapping video cables around
switching from display port to hdmi on one of the monitors (my old config)

I'm completely out of ideas on how I can fix this. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?

 

[KingLoki]

Set it up to stutter and open task manager and watch the performance monitor to see what your hardware is doing during those times, cpu load, ram etc and also look at the processes and there load and memory usage to see if any are unusally high.

 

[ABigGoofyGamer181]

Set it up to stutter and open task manager and watch the performance monitor to see what your hardware is doing during those times, cpu load, ram etc and also look at the processes and there load and memory usage to see if any are unusally high.

Did that, my ram usage sits at about 30%. and the CPU activity varies between 20 - 30%. Nothing out of the ordinary for my computer, I run wallpaper engine when idle

 

[Ralston18]

Re: Task Manager and Performance Monitor. Yes.

You can also use Resource Monitor and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free).

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Another place to look is in Task Scheduler. Spotify may be being used to trigger something else.

A backup, an update, or simply some app trying to "phone home".

Also look for related error codes, warnings, or informational events in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

 

[ABigGoofyGamer181]

Re: Task Manager and Performance Monitor. Yes.

You can also use Resource Monitor and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free).

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Another place to look is in Task Scheduler. Spotify may be being used to trigger something else.

A backup, an update, or simply some app trying to "phone home".

Also look for related error codes, warnings, or informational events in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Monitored event viewer, nothing pops up when the stutters occur

 

[Ralston18]

What about Resource Monitor and Process Explorer?

Use both tools but only one tool at a time.

You will need to keep the tool window open and observable while gaming or otherwise "setting it up to stutter" per @KingLoki.

May require a bit of trial and error to discover what and how to effectively watch what is happening.

 

[ABigGoofyGamer181]

What about Resource Monitor and Process Explorer?

Use both tools but only one tool at a time.

You will need to keep the tool window open and observable while gaming or otherwise "setting it up to stutter" per @KingLoki.

May require a bit of trial and error to discover what and how to effectively watch what is happening.

I'll give it a shot. I should mention thought that I've noticed something. The issue occurs when I have all my monitors plugged in at the same time. I have three monitors, two use displayport and one uses hdmi. If I turn off all except the main one, issue goes away completely. If I try to use only the other monitor that uses display port, the issue occurs. If I only use my third monitor on HDMI, the issue occurs albeit to a noticeably lesser severity. If I plug the HDMI into the second monitor and only use it, that monitor displays the same behavior as the first monitor. It's an extremely strange issue that's persisted across gpus and OS installations.

 

[Ralston18]

Could be some lack of power.

Also perhaps some sort of created loop is involved:

Device A connected to Device B connected to Device C connected to Device D connected to Device A again.

Loops can be problematic.

However, my thought is that that PSU: corsair 650 watt gold rated psu is a likely culprit.

Age, condition, history of heavy gaming use? May be at or nearing its' built in EOL (End of Life) and starting to falter and fail at times of peak demand.

 

[ABigGoofyGamer181]

By loop, how would a loop be created? Would it be caused by daisy chaining surge protectors or is this something else?
for the PSU, would OCCT's power test be a good way to check if it's the culprit? The PSU is about 5 years old I would say. Wouldn't say its in bad condition since I clean out my computer every few months or so. Avid gamer so it's definitely seen its fair share of use. The stutters don't occur during times of peak demand though, I've put my computer through the ringer in terms of 3DMark benches and OCCT benches, both of which I would have thought would push my pc to its limit - they definitely push my gpu and cpu.