Question System-wide freezing and stuttering ?

Jan 26, 2024
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I recently built a new PC and I am having a problem where my entire computer will freeze and stutter. Several seconds between each frame and it lasts for about a minute. It doesn't happen often, only once per boot it seems, and I can't seem to figure out what causes it. It seems to happen entirely randomly with no consistent run time or application use when it starts. While it is stuttering, I have noticed that audio doesn't seem to be affected. Audio plays normally while the rest of the system freezes up.

I have tried various different drivers to make sure that cpu or gpu drivers were not the cause. I have done a clean install with DDU each time, I have updated to the current BIOS update, and I have also fully re-imaged the system to a fresh install of Windows 11 to make sure I did not have a corrupt install. I have replaced the PSU already and the problem still persists. I had a Cooler Master v850 and I replaced it with a Corsair RM1000x.

My PC specs
Ryzen 7 7800X3D
ASRock Taich RX 7900 XTX
GIGABYTE B650 AORUS ELITE AX ICE
64GB CORSAIR Vengeance (4 x 16GB) DDR5
Corsair RM1000x
 
Run task manager and check if there are any spikes in CPU or memory usage when the stuttering is going on.
Can you actually start some application, or open menus or is it freezing so much that nothing works?

I see you have 4 sticks of ram and sometimes using all 4 slots can limit the ram clock, or cause issues.
Are you overclocking ram?

Maybe your ram and CPU aren't playing nice with one another, OR the motherboard isn't happy for some reason.

You would get marginally better performance with two sticks of RAM, but more importantly you'd eliminate some compatibility or speed/timing issues.

Edit - Memory support of that motherboard is quite good actually. But there are some caveats as mentioned on gigabyte's memory support page:

* 2 DIMM: One pair of memory modules installed into the paired of slots will enable Dual-Channel memory configuration. Please install the memory modules into slot of DDR5_A2, DDR5_B2 for best compatibility and performance.

* Speed dropping policy according to AMD processor specification (EXPO/XMP disabled):- Drops down to DDR5-3600 when 2 DIMMs of the same channel are installed e.g., DDR5_A1 / _A2. Please adjust your setup according to the recommendation as above.- Drops down to DDR5-3600 when 4 DIMMs are installed.

* When running EXPO/XMP at DDR5-5200 or higher, the system's stability may vary by AMD processor and memory module's margin of capabilities.

* When running EXPO/XMP at DDR5-6600 or higher, the memory performance gain may not be proportional due to AMD processor current architecture limitation.

* When enabling Dual-Channel mode with two or four DDR5 memory modules, it is recommended that using the same capacity, brand, speed, and chips of memory modules.

* Memory modules listed above is for reference only. Due to massive memory models in market, we would try to verify as many as possible.
 
Run task manager and check if there are any spikes in CPU or memory usage when the stuttering is going on.
Can you actually start some application, or open menus or is it freezing so much that nothing works?

I see you have 4 sticks of ram and sometimes using all 4 slots can limit the ram clock, or cause issues.
Are you overclocking ram?

Maybe your ram and CPU aren't playing nice with one another, OR the motherboard isn't happy for some reason.

You would get marginally better performance with two sticks of RAM, but more importantly you'd eliminate some compatibility or speed/timing issues.

Edit - Memory support of that motherboard is quite good actually. But there are some caveats as mentioned on gigabyte's memory support page:

* 2 DIMM: One pair of memory modules installed into the paired of slots will enable Dual-Channel memory configuration. Please install the memory modules into slot of DDR5_A2, DDR5_B2 for best compatibility and performance.

* Speed dropping policy according to AMD processor specification (EXPO/XMP disabled):- Drops down to DDR5-3600 when 2 DIMMs of the same channel are installed e.g., DDR5_A1 / _A2. Please adjust your setup according to the recommendation as above.- Drops down to DDR5-3600 when 4 DIMMs are installed.

* When running EXPO/XMP at DDR5-5200 or higher, the system's stability may vary by AMD processor and memory module's margin of capabilities.

* When running EXPO/XMP at DDR5-6600 or higher, the memory performance gain may not be proportional due to AMD processor current architecture limitation.

* When enabling Dual-Channel mode with two or four DDR5 memory modules, it is recommended that using the same capacity, brand, speed, and chips of memory modules.

* Memory modules listed above is for reference only. Due to massive memory models in market, we would try to verify as many as possible.
I haven't noticed any spikes at all, resources seem to be stable during the stuttering. I am able to open applications, though it is not an easy task since the mouse teleports, but if I can get the mouse to land in the right spot during the stutter and click on something, it will open, though of course it may take a moment for the app to actually open since the stuttering is still going on.

Late last night I did pull out two of the ram sticks, leaving the ones in A2 and B2 with unfortunately the same result. After roughly one hour after I changed the ram, the stuttering happened again.
 
How up to date is everything? Newest bios and fully patched Windows? If Core0 is getting pegged to 100, maybe there is a scheduling issue. Updating windows might be the easiest way to fix? I saw in the OP you did a fresh install of windows, but I know some people get odd about running updates.