Super Low Clock Speed on 7th Generation i7-7700k after Extended Use

[JPSlattery]

As the title suggests, I am encountering a recurring problem with the clock speed of my i7-7700k after extended use on almost any given day. Basically, if I keep my computer on and running for longer than 8 or 10 hours in a given day, usually because I'm gaming or working from home for an extended period of time, my CPU will clock itself down to around .76 ghz and will not clock itself back up unless I shut everything down and let it sit for a while.

The problem is how inconsistent things are. Sometimes it happens. Other times it doesn't. Sometimes it takes a quick reboot, and it's fixed. Sometimes I have to shut down, hit the kill switch for all power, and kill power to my entire power strip to get everything to boot normal. If I just shut things off completely for the night and resume the next morning, the problem seems to go away, but this is super annoying, as I often spend long days not only gaming but on my computer in general when I'm working from home, and I need full power to take care of everything. Does anyone know what might be happening? I've looked into various BIOS settings, updated my BIOS, updated drivers (I think), tried messing with speedstep, etc., but nothing seems to be an actual fix. This is the first PC I've ever built completely by myself, so there's a chance I messed something up way back at installation, but it seems weird that the problem didn't occur immediately. I installed this CPU in late April, and the problem didn't start until late May if I remember correctly.

Full specs:
Msi z270 m7 gaming MOBO
7th Gen i7-7700k
EVGA 280mm AIO
MSI GTX 1080ti
16 GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
Corsair hx750i PSU
3x Thermaltake Premium Plus Fans 120mm
2x Thermaltake Premium Plus Fans 140mm on my AIO
Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB

 

[mdd1963]

And how are your cpu temps according to HWMonitor during this behavior?

Reset your BIOS, nake sure nothing is set to any sort of 'Power saver'/'laptop mode' , etc, both in OS or BIOS....

 

[JPSlattery]

And how are your cpu temps according to HWMonitor during this behavior?

Reset your BIOS, nake sure nothing is set to any sort of 'Power saver'/'laptop mode' , etc, both in OS or BIOS....

They're fine. Under heavy gaming loads they never exceed low 50's°C. I have multiple programs telling me temps, all of which report that same answer as well as the real time monitor on my MOBO. I know the 7700k's have bad temp issues for some users, but besides the occasional spike from opening a web browser, mine does just fine. As such, I don't think it's thermal throttling.

I'll reset my BIOS again, but I've set and reset a few things already, including power options, speedstep, etc. I've done quite a bit of looking into this already, but no one seems to have quite the problem I'm having, which is why it's especially dumbfounding.

Unfortunately I'm starting to think it's a bad chip, but I wanted to come here and see what other people thought before taking any rash action.