Question Upgraded to a new motherboard+cpu+ram, PC stuttering. Please help!

[Walzo]

The Upgrade:

I recently upgraded my pc because my old cpu (i7 6700k) couldn't keep up. I bought an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU, MSI B650 Tomahawk Motherboard and 32GB (16GBx2) kit of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM. I kept the case/gpu/psu/ssd from my old build.

I did a clean windows 11 install with my new build (previously used windows 10), and I haven't activated it yet. The build seemed to go fine, it posted fine, started up. I enabled XMP for the ram, installed all my games. It went fine for the first few days as far as I'm aware. I played a lot of games, 12+ hrs and they ran amazingly and I was super happy....


The problem:

Then I noticed when i restarted my pc that my windows felt laggy/stuttery - I'll just refer to it as laggy from now on. I checked my refresh rate was correct (144hz on main and 60hz on second monitor) for both of my monitors. It was noticeable as I dragged my window around, not super bad but just 'slow'. I opened youtube/twitch and the videos also felt a bit laggy but the audio was ok. Then the laggyness just disappeared, I dismissed it as maybe some background processes, windows updated or something. I played games as normal again (12hrs or so). I didn't notice anything wrong the next day, but the day after I had the same problem - I woke up, turned on my pc (it's a bit cold in my room), this time the problem was back but worse - audio was completely messed up alongside the lag/stutter, and the lag was even worse. Trying to watch a youtube video/twitch was impossible. I restarted, I think I had the same problem but just the lesser-lag/stutter (audio is fine, video is watchable, but it's also noticeably NOT smooth like it should be and dragging windows around isn't smooth either). This is where I'm currently at, and today the problem hasn't gone away for the first time and it seems to be persistent. It occasionally becomes smooth for a short interval - 30sec or so, and I notice it - everything feels like it's working smoothly.


What I've tried:

I spent 12 hours today trying to tackle the problem. I've clean reinstalled windows 11 (again), used display driver uninstaller to clean install the latest GPU driver. My bios is up to date (apart form using a very recent beta version). I've tried with auto XMP on/off to overclock the ram, I've tried PBO on/off. I checked my ssd integrity. I unplugged all unneccessary devices (usb mic, xbox controller). I made sure windows was updated. I used MSI Center/AMD Adrenalin edition to make sure my chipset/lan/wifi drivers are up to date.

I've tried disabling/uninstalling the wifi adapter. I've tried using just one ram stick. I've tried messing with the power plan options (weirdly the first time I switched the windows power plan to ultimate performance my pc went buttery smooth for a second but then went back to stuttery). I disabled fast startup, though I don't think it's this because it happens on restart too. I've tried a safe boot and used an old GPU (nvidia 760TI) thinking it might be my GPU when I read people said it could be a hardware issue, but the same problem was present (system interrupts and cpu0 high usage as detailed below).


What I've noticed:

A high level of system interrupts/CPU 0 being very high usage (attached a pic). It shows 5-7% cpu usage from just system interrupts. When my pc occasionally runs smoothly these system interrupts are not present and cpu0 is very low usage (nowhere near the 90-100%). I attached an image of this transition in the resource monitor (where it unlagged for 20sec). I've searched around for other threads with similar issues where I tried things I saw listed there, such as trying to disable the wifi/reinstall windows.

I've also noticed some people recommend using latencymonitor to catch problematic drivers. I'm not very technical beyond following basic instructions so I don't really know what I'm doing, but I ran latencymonitor for a minute during the stutters and posted the results below. I've also used Windows Performance Recorder and Windows Performance Analyser based on another thread i found but I couldn't see anything standing out and I'm not technically capable enough to really understand what I'm seeing. Happy to post the report of 1 minute cpu analysis if it helps.

At this point I'm exhausted and in full despair, I don't know what the problem actually is beyond narrowing it down to there being a correlation with high CPU0 usage and system interrupts. Even if CPU0 is high the overall CPU usage isn't, same for memory/gpu etc. so I don't know why it would be stuttering. I don't know if it could be a faulty CPU/motherboard/RAM, or even my GPU though I did swap it out during testing. I don't know whether it could be a Windows 11 thing and I should try to install Windows 10. If anyone can help me fix this I'm ready to try out any potential solutions. Please help 🙁

My Setup:
Motherboard: MSI B650 Tomahawk WIFI

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB

GPU: NVIDIA 1080ti

PSU: Corsair RM750

Keyboard: Corsair K65 TKL

Mouse: Razer Viper V2


Resource monitor during stutters:

Resource monitor when transitioning from stutters to smooth:

Latency Monitor 1 minute feedback:

 

[kerberos_20]

hi, i believe you have some rogue driver installed, can you post picture from drivers page in latencymon?

 

[Walzo]

hi, i believe you have some rogue driver installed, can you post picture from drivers page in latencymon?

Hi, thank you for the reply! Here's the drivers page.

 

[Walzo]

I used amdcleanup utility to remove the audio drivers, then uninstalled my amd motherboard chipset drivers in add/remove programs, rebooted, installed amd motherboard chipset drivers fresh from the website for the b650 tomahawk. Then I rebooted in safemode, used DDU to remove nvidia drivers, rebooted and installed the latest gpu drivers for my 1080ti using nvcleanstall. The problem is still persisting - I've attached both the drivers and cpu tab again.

The past few times i restarted my pc, it felt smooth for 15-30sec before the stuttering kicked in. It also became smooth for 15-30sec after a 10 minute period or so. Last night after my original post my pc went smooth (no lag/stutter) and I played games on it for an hour or so just fine before shutting it down and going to sleep. There were no system interrupts/the system interrupts disappear when it's running smooth.

 

[Walzo]

I'm currently experiencing a 'good' period (everything running smoothly) after leaving my pc on for a while, so I ran latencymonitor and attached the results for comparison. I have no idea why it would switch from running smoothly to poorly and vice versa, or if it could be a faulty hardware component that periodically malfunctions. I'm not sure if I should try to return my CPU+ram+motherboard combo before the free returns period expires (11th November).

Main tab:

Drivers tab:

CPUs tab:

 

[Walzo]

To add some more info before I go to bed, after a certain period of time the stuttering stopped. I used the computer to play games for 8-9 hours just fine, no problems. At this point standard I usually shut it down and go to sleep, and expect to deal with the issues again when I start it up the next day until it runs smoothly and then I'll keep using it to play some games. Instead I restarted and after about 15sec of being smooth it's expectedly stuttering again.

I saw that some people were using Windows Performance Recorder for similar issues. The program seems advanced and I don't know what I'm doing - I'm simply copying what other people did. I ran it for 1 minute with first level triage and cpu usage ticked then opened the exported file into Windows Performance Analyzer, dragged the cpu usage to produce an analysis graph and expanded the system drop down a bit. I have no idea if this will help identify the problem.

1 minute during stutters:

1 minute without stutters (I recorded this earlier for inevitable comparison):

I'm completely out of ideas, if anyone has any suggestions I'm ready to investigate them.

 

[kerberos_20]

To add some more info before I go to bed, after a certain period of time the stuttering stopped. I used the computer to play games for 8-9 hours just fine, no problems. At this point standard I usually shut it down and go to sleep, and expect to deal with the issues again when I start it up the next day until it runs smoothly and then I'll keep using it to play some games. Instead I restarted and after about 15sec of being smooth it's expectedly stuttering again.

I saw that some people were using Windows Performance Recorder for similar issues. The program seems advanced and I don't know what I'm doing - I'm simply copying what other people did. I ran it for 1 minute with first level triage and cpu usage ticked then opened the exported file into Windows Performance Analyzer, dragged the cpu usage to produce an analysis graph and expanded the system drop down a bit. I have no idea if this will help identify the problem.

1 minute during stutters:

1 minute without stutters (I recorded this earlier for inevitable comparison):

I'm completely out of ideas, if anyone has any suggestions I'm ready to investigate them.

drivers from latencymon just points to GPU and soundcard...those could be waiting for something else as those are low latency drivers

wpr is good idea, can you upload that etl file with stuttering?

 

[Order 66]

I would maybe try uninstalling chipset drivers. Also how old is the PSU?

 

[Walzo]

I would maybe try uninstalling chipset drivers. Also how old is the PSU?

I've tried uninstalling the chipset drivers (problem is present when they're uninstalled) and reinstalling (same issue). The PSU is around 7 years old (earlier version corsair RM750).

drivers from latencymon just points to GPU and soundcard...those could be waiting for something else as those are low latency drivers

wpr is good idea, can you upload that etl file with stuttering?

Yep, I'll message you the etl file. It feels like that, I switched the GPU and the root hub it's in to MSI mode and high priority but it didn't help. For now, if I leave my pc running for 20-30 minutes the problem corrects itself until system restart. Based on this, it seems like something is causing a system interrupt jam at startup that clears/'un-clogs' eventually for an unknown reason and then my system runs fine until it's powered down and turned on again..I don't know if this rules out some of my new hardware being the issue considering its capable of handling games on high settings just fine once it's 'working normally'.

I'm wondering whether it could be a combination of using an older GPU/case fans+cooler (old noctua NH-D15 with an offset bracket) plugged into the newer AM5 motherboard/cpu/ram combination. I guess the other options are still faulty drivers/something (usb/network card) causing the interrupt jam or just that I've bought a bricked cpu/mobo/ram.

My main priority is definitely narrowing down the culprit whether it's software or hardware.

 

[Order 66]

I've tried uninstalling the chipset drivers (problem is present when they're uninstalled) and reinstalling (same issue). The PSU is around 7 years old (earlier version corsair RM750).



Yep, I'll message you the etl file. It feels like that, I switched the GPU and the root hub it's in to MSI mode and high priority but it didn't help. For now, if I leave my pc running for 20-30 minutes the problem corrects itself until system restart. Based on this, it seems like something is causing a system interrupt jam at startup that clears/'un-clogs' eventually for an unknown reason and then my system runs fine until it's powered down and turned on again..I don't know if this rules out some of my new hardware being the issue considering its capable of handling games on high settings just fine once it's 'working normally'.

I'm wondering whether it could be a combination of using an older GPU/case fans+cooler (old noctua NH-D15 with an offset bracket) plugged into the newer AM5 motherboard/cpu/ram combination. I guess the other options are still faulty drivers/something (usb/network card) causing the interrupt jam or just that I've bought a bricked cpu/mobo/ram.

My main priority is definitely narrowing down the culprit whether it's software or hardware.

The PSU could be dying as it is 7 years old at this point, try sourcing a different quality PSU and see if the issue persists.

 

[Walzo]

The PSU could be dying as it is 7 years old at this point, try sourcing a different quality PSU and see if the issue persists.

What makes you think it might be the PSU? (considering the symptoms of it occurring at system restart, 20-30min period of stuttering, and this only happening with my new build). I can buy a new one but I don't have that much money spare (my budget went towards the cpu/mobo/ram upgrade) so I do want to be careful/go for high certainty if I purchase a new one.

To add some more general info I gathered - I put it into sleep mode last night and the PC didn't show stuttering for around 5 mins when I woke it up this afternoon. I then restarted my PC and the stuttering came back as expected.

I went into device manager and went to View->Resources by type->Interrupt request.
There's 7 pages of these IRQs, 5 of which are simply "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System" (55-511) - not sure if this is normal to have almost 500 IRQS be from this and identifies something. I've attached 3of7 (the rest in the middle, 55-511 are exactly the same Microsoft ACPI thing.

 

[Order 66]

What makes you think it might be the PSU? (considering the symptoms of it occurring at system restart, 20-30min period of stuttering, and this only happening with my new build). I can buy a new one but I don't have that much money spare (my budget went towards the cpu/mobo/ram upgrade) so I do want to be careful/go for high certainty if I purchase a new one.

To add some more general info I gathered - I put it into sleep mode last night and the PC didn't show stuttering for around 5 mins when I woke it up this afternoon. I then restarted my PC and the stuttering came back as expected.

I went into device manager and went to View->Resources by type->Interrupt request.
There's 7 pages of these IRQs, 5 of which are simply "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System" (55-511) - not sure if this is normal to have almost 500 IRQS be from this and identifies something. I've attached 3of7 (the rest in the middle, 55-511 are exactly the same Microsoft ACPI thing.

The PSU may not be able to supply enough power, hence the shutdown, so that could be part of it. As for stuttering, That looks more like a rogue task or driver.

 

[Order 66]

You could always try a reinstall and activation of Windows. I have a wild idea that the stutter could be related to rogue MS telemetry saying that Windows is not activated.