Question Stuttering across PC, especially when loading anything or booting up a game.

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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Hi all.
In the past months, my PC has been experiencing stuttering across the entire PC, especially when loading into areas in games. In games, when starting a multiplayer match and loading into the map or just loading into games in general, the stutter is fairly long. sometimes, when booting up a game from desktop, my pc can freeze for up to 5-10 seconds.

I think this could have something to do with a very high number of hard pagefaults. I can fairly consistently get 1000-2000 hard pagefaults when opening up chrome, for example (based on readings from latencymon). There might be a slight hitch when I do this as well. When launching games, it varies, however in performance monitor when launching fortnite (the worst game I have tested) i have seen it be 100,000+ hard page faults a second.

I have seen moderately high DPC latency in latencymon (up to 1500, give or take) from the video driver as well. from what I understand, DPC latency and hard pagefaults go hand in hand, but I could be wrong.

I have replaced every component in the PC except for the GPU and the PSU attempting to fix this. This includes a fresh install of windows on an SSD.
Thanks in advance.
 
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Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-issues-fix-and-workaround-for-ftpm-stuttering-issues I assume you don't have ftpm turned on?

Hard Page Faults occur when CPU can't find the information it needs in ram and looks on storage, so it makes sense you get a lot when loading a game. Its not an error, its a normal action of windows, that like page faults, could be named better. Page faults occur when CPU can't find info in its onchip caches and has to look in ram. Hard Page Faults are just one step further.

try running magician on the Samsung drive - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/
try running seatools on the HDD - https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

Nvidia drivers always at top of latencymon reports. I don't know if its a clue or just normal. I did look
My PC
jalxCgv.jpg


there is a newer bios on motherboard site, I wouldn't get Beta though - https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B550M-PRO-VDH-WIFI/support#down-bios
Do you have newest chipset drivers? https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/b550

Speccy has no idea what PSU you have.
 
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bentheblobfish

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https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-issues-fix-and-workaround-for-ftpm-stuttering-issues I assume you don't have ftpm turned on?

Hard Page Faults occur when CPU can't find the information it needs in ram and looks on storage, so it makes sense you get a lot when loading a game. Its not an error, its a normal action of windows, that like page faults, could be named better. Page faults occur when CPU can't find info in its onchip caches and has to look in ram. Hard Page Faults are just one step further.

try running magician on the Samsung drive - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/
try running seatools on the HDD - https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

Nvidia drivers always at top of latencymon reports. I don't know if its a clue or just normal. I did look
My PC
jalxCgv.jpg


there is a newer bios on motherboard site, I wouldn't get Beta though - https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B550M-PRO-VDH-WIFI/support#down-bios
Do you have newest chipset drivers? https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/b550

Speccy has no idea what PSU you have.

I wasnt aware of the issue w/ fTPM but it was disabled regardless - along with all TPM.

I have newest chipset drivers.

i can update BIOS, but I just did about a month ago and it didnt change anything.

Ran samsung magician and seatools, both drives were good. In Seatools, however, there were 3 drives with about 50-100GB each that are unavailable. Any clue what these are? cant do anything with them, they arent in disk manager.

my latencymon actually has lower peak DPC latency. maybe its not hard pagefaults and latency after all? could be something else in PC? still freezes and hitches when opening anything and I noticed it a ton when booting PC today. (missed the bios delete key like 3x lol)

any other ideas?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
In Seatools, however, there were 3 drives with about 50-100GB each that are unavailable.

You don't happen to have any Microsoft games installed? some of those make virtual drives to install games on. Might not be what you are seeing though.
can seatools show any info on the drives?

its odd they don't show in disk management but do in seatools.

Do they show in BIOS? it appears it shows all sata/m.2 drives on the advanced view/settings/system status tab (EZ view tab just shows boot devices) - page 51: https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/E7C95v1.7.pdf
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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You don't happen to have any Microsoft games installed? some of those make virtual drives to install games on. Might not be what you are seeing though.
can seatools show any info on the drives?

its odd they don't show in disk management but do in seatools.

Do they show in BIOS? it appears it shows all sata/m.2 drives on the advanced view/settings/system status tab (EZ view tab just shows boot devices) - page 51: https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/E7C95v1.7.pdf

that’s it. i have 3 games installed from game pass. thanks for clarification
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
back to figuring out real problem then

CPU - R5 3600X
MB: MSI B550M Pro VDH WIFI
Ram 32gb 3200mhz Crucial (Hyper X? - this is a guess)
GPU Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
1tb Samsung 970 Evo Plus
2tb Seagate HDD

what PSU do you have?

I feel we could play a game of spot the differences - https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/sLbY7X
I guess we only share similarities, I have helped someone with exact same PC as me before and its spooky.

I know hdd tests fine, but just curious if stutters at boot still happen if its not attached.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
You need to reduce the parts in system to bare minimum and see if it still happens.
so maybe 1 stick of ram, CPU, MB, GPU and PSU. Can't run with any less really.

shame can't run 3600x without gpu, since you only kept GPU and PSU they could be cause.
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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You need to reduce the parts in system to bare minimum and see if it still happens.
so maybe 1 stick of ram, CPU, MB, GPU and PSU. Can't run with any less really.

shame can't run 3600x without gpu, since you only kept GPU and PSU they could be cause.

Already tried one stick of ram plus those componenets; with each replaced component haha.
No change, unfortunately.

back to figuring out real problem then

CPU - R5 3600X
MB: MSI B550M Pro VDH WIFI
Ram 32gb 3200mhz Crucial (Hyper X? - this is a guess)
GPU Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
1tb Samsung 970 Evo Plus
2tb Seagate HDD

what PSU do you have?

I feel we could play a game of spot the differences - https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/sLbY7X
I guess we only share similarities, I have helped someone with exact same PC as me before and its spooky.

I know hdd tests fine, but just curious if stutters at boot still happen if its not attached.

Wow, our PCs could be twins lol.
Ram is 2x8gb Teamgroup T-force 3200mhz, 2x8gb Crucial ballistix 3200mhz. just got the ballistix ti see if that would fix anything but no change; have them both plugged in currently.

I have a corsair CX650W PSU.

Stutter persists with HDD uninstalled too:( i usually leave it unplugged when troubleshooting.

Thanks again for your time, by the way. really appreciate it.
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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try taking one set of ram out and see if you still stutter

it could be the fact they not exactly same brands.

I’ve tried 1 stick at a time, all 4 sticks. also did it in pairs based on brand. no change unfortunately

And yes, it stuttered before new ram. When i say ive replaced parts, I replaced and then returned when they made no difference, outside of the ram, which i havent returned yet.
 
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Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
not ram, not storage (probably, hard to be 100% certain with ssd)

try running prime 95, it checks CPU & Ram - - https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/prime95-download.html
Prime 95 how to Guide: http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html
I would run this overnight as it takes a while

it shouldn't be CPU if you replaced it. But it also checks power sort of.

have you got latencymon installed? Curious what it reports as using highest latency

what USB devices do you have?? curious if its something you plug into PC.
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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not ram, not storage (probably, hard to be 100% certain with ssd)

try running prime 95, it checks CPU & Ram - - https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/prime95-download.html
Prime 95 how to Guide: http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html
I would run this overnight as it takes a while

it shouldn't be CPU if you replaced it. But it also checks power sort of.

have you got latencymon installed? Curious what it reports as using highest latency

what USB devices do you have?? curious if its something you plug into PC.

I have tried 2 separate SSD's with persistent stuttering so I am confident its not storage.

I have also swapped out motherboard and CPU just in case so dont think its them. rest of system stayed the same when I swapped anything.

Ill run that later tonight, currently playing games. Will run latencymon in background while playing
 
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Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
if the only parts you haven't swapped out are PSU and GPU I would be looking at them. I looked for previous cases and most results seem to suggest PSU isn't cause.

but if you can play games all you like and only stutter loading them... i doubt its GPU
that and you not getting any errors. So windows doesn't seem to know its happening.

I have asked for 2nd opinions as they might have some ideas.
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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if the only parts you haven't swapped out are PSU and GPU I would be looking at them. I looked for previous cases and most results seem to suggest PSU isn't cause.

but if you can play games all you like and only stutter loading them... i doubt its GPU
that and you not getting any errors. So windows doesn't seem to know its happening.

I have asked for 2nd opinions as they might have some ideas.

The games never really crash, computer just seems to stutter or freeze when loading anything really. even just a chrome tab. I am going to try and test my GPU in a friends build at some point soon.

I even brought the PC to micro center and they gave it back empty-handed (in terms of a fix).

thanks for asking others for a second opinion. again, really appreciate it.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
i would have been curious if the problem happened elsewhere. Did they test the hardware?

Its why I asked about what you attach to PC. I could be lucky but the last 2 problems I have had with my PC's have been caused by peripherals. One was a set of speakers and other was a mouse. Both times the problem looked like my GPU. It was only after I unplugged the 2 items, one by reinstalling windows in another room and the other by giving PC to a store to test hardware, that I realized what real cause was.

So do you plug in anything to PC that has always worked before? My speakers were part of my furniture, I had them for at least 12 years and never considered they were cause. Mouse was 8 years old... I guess they don't have to be old. Any peripheral could be to blame.
 

bentheblobfish

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i would have been curious if the problem happened elsewhere. Did they test the hardware?

Its why I asked about what you attach to PC. I could be lucky but the last 2 problems I have had with my PC's have been caused by peripherals. One was a set of speakers and other was a mouse. Both times the problem looked like my GPU. It was only after I unplugged the 2 items, one by reinstalling windows in another room and the other by giving PC to a store to test hardware, that I realized what real cause was.

So do you plug in anything to PC that has always worked before? My speakers were part of my furniture, I had them for at least 12 years and never considered they were cause. Mouse was 8 years old... I guess they don't have to be old. Any peripheral could be to blame.

Currently have plugged in:
Razer viper ultimate mouse
custom mechanical keyboard
Fifine K669 condenser mic
USB to audio jack into my headset
Webcam

Will try unplugging one at a time
 

boju

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still freezes and hitches when opening anything and I noticed it a ton when booting PC today. (missed the bios delete key like 3x lol)

Hi. Not sure how helpful i can be. Went through the conversation and wondering what you mean by the part i put in bold. Do you mean lots of stuttering in windows after booting up or something is going on during boot process as well? Missed bios key etc.
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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Hi. Not sure how helpful i can be. Went through the conversation and wondering what you mean by the part i put in bold. Do you mean lots of stuttering in windows after booting up or something is going on during boot process as well? Missed bios key etc.

once i get into windows (after BIOS), i get lots of stuttering, hitching, and occasional freezing, even on just the login screen where i type password
 

bentheblobfish

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Feb 11, 2022
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Final tidbit before I go to sleep...
The other night i tried overclocking GPU to fix the issue with an OC scanner; the scanner was alright at lower clocks and applied appropriate boost, but once it reached higher voltage, the OC scanner curve pretty much met the stock Mhz values, and the scanner told me it was an "unstable overclock". makes me think that at higher voltages, the scanner would push the card and a stutter or something would happen, causing it to drop back down a level.

Basically, i think the card was more unstable at a higher voltage.
 

boju

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Bios version 22nd June last year. The date of bios isn't listed at Msi for your board, https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B550M-PRO-VDH-WIFI/support#down-bios , i wonder how that bios came to be from the manufacturer, not that there's anything wrong about it though, im just curious. There's a newer version available anyhow and beta. Description says it only adds support for Win11 but there might be other undescribed fixes. Maybe look into it.
 
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