[SOLVED] Very weird and erratic CPU behavior.

[HackerMan2112]

Ok so I built my first rig about 8 months back and have been mostly happy with it. Every part's been working the way it should even though I was a bit paranoid about what good temps should be at first. That worry was mostly put to rest when I got an exhaust fan for the backside of the case however.



But recently my CPU's behavior has been very strange. On startup and even in a game it works perfectly fine and temps are the exact way they should be. But after a little while, whether I'm running idle or under load the CPU temp starts to steadily rise up, most often when I'm not directly monitoring the temps. This steady rise does not stop UNLESS I either open up task manager to try and find why it's doing so or if I open up some more detailed temperture monitoring app. At first I thought the problem was with cooling but that clearly doesn't seem to be the case since it instantly starts to revert back to normal after I do a specific thing. So what the hell could this be? I'm scared to really use the PC much because of these steady rises and I'd hate to have constant watch over my temps when I'm just trying to relax and play a game or something



CPU is a Ryzen 5 3600. If further details are needed then I can provide them if asked.
The monitoring apps I've used are Ryzen Master and Core Temp.

 

[hotaru.hino]

If this "specific thing" is closing the same app(s) every time with Task Manager, then what are you closing?

 

[drea.drechsler]

....
CPU is a Ryzen 5 3600. If further details are needed then I can provide them if asked.
The monitoring apps I've used are Ryzen Master and Core Temp.

System specs help: CPU cooler, case and case fan arrangement in particular.

An air cooler uses the air in the case to cool the CPU. When gaming the GPU will heat up the air in the case, so the CPU cooler will use that increasingly hot air and make it hotter still. Temps will start to rise, dramatically, if the case is poorly vented. The way to make the case well ventilated is to arrange fans blowing cool air in from the front, and drawing it out at top and back. Some cases make it hard, or even impossible, by severely blocking air entry in front.

 

[HackerMan2112]

System specs help: CPU cooler, case and case fan arrangement in particular.

An air cooler uses the air in the case to cool the CPU. When gaming the GPU will heat up the air in the case, so the CPU cooler will use that increasingly hot air and make it hotter still. Temps will start to rise, dramatically, if the case is poorly vented. The way to make the case well ventilated is to arrange fans blowing cool air in from the front, and drawing it out at top and back. Some cases make it hard, or even impossible, by severely blocking air entry in front.

CPU cooler is stock cooler, Then after that I got 2 fans in front and one in the back. Again I personally doubt that this is not a gaming or cooling related issue per say. Since it happens also while completely idle and starts going right back down after I check Task Manager for example. It doesn't stay up there for long if I do something about it. It also doesn't seem to be doing this if I'm only in the BIOS screen, there it stays on the same temps consistently.

 

[HackerMan2112]

If this "specific thing" is closing the same app(s) every time with Task Manager, then what are you closing?

I don't really close anything. All I need to do is open up Task Manager and the spiking temps come straight back down right away. My working theory for a while now is that it's some hidden background process that shuts itself off every time I open up task manager to see what it is to hide itself. But I don't know if that's too extreme.

 

[kurdtnz]

If you dont think it is your cooling and are worried that it maybe some kind of malware/software nasty, have you tried running something like malwarebytes?

 

[HackerMan2112]

If you dont think it is your cooling and are worried that it maybe some kind of malware/software nasty, have you tried running something like malwarebytes?

That's certainly next on the list. It seems that out of possibilities of what it might be. Some kind of faulty or nasty process makes the most sense. It's just strange that Windows Defender hasn't noticed anything. Nor have I really had any system problems other than the temperature. Feels like Malware would stand out more but then again it's not really an aspect of computers that I know a lot about.

 

[kurdtnz]

That's certainly next on the list. It seems that out of possibilities of what it might be. Some kind of faulty or nasty process makes the most sense. It's just strange that Windows Defender hasn't noticed anything. Nor have I really had any system problems other than the temperature. Feels like Malware would stand out more but then again it's not really an aspect of computers that I know a lot about.

The free version of malwarebytes is pretty good for rooting out any malware that maybe in your system.

 

[drea.drechsler]

... it's some hidden background process that shuts itself off every time I open up task manager to see what it is to hide itself. But I don't know if that's too extreme.

It's perfectly normal for Ryzen CPU's to spike temps and yes it does it with small processing loads.

You're right, though, about there being small processes running, although they're not so hidden. You can see them in task manager...just look at the list in the processes tab. You can also see the total number of them, as well as the number of threads registered, on the CPU performance screen. On my system there's over 150 processes, 1800 threads. At any time one of them might want to do something...obvious things are 'phone home' for updates, indexing files for quicker searches, checking file fragmention on HDD's but there are many more...and that's when a temp spike will happen.

 

[HackerMan2112]

It's perfectly normal for Ryzen CPU's to spike temps and yes it does it with small processing loads.

You're right, though, about there being small processes running, although they're not so hidden. You can see them in task manager...just look at the list in the processes tab. You can also see the total number of them, as well as the number of threads registered, on the CPU performance screen. On my system there's over 150 processes, 1800 threads. At any time one of them might want to do something...obvious things are 'phone home' for updates, indexing files for quicker searches, checking file fragmention on HDD's but there are many more...and that's when a temp spike will happen.

I am aware that tempearture spikes are normal. I've lived with my Ryzen for almost a year now so they've become a normality in the time I've used it. But what it's doing now is far from normal. My idle tempeartures used to be and continue to be at around 40-45 degrees celcius, usually during spikes it goes from 50 to maybe even 60 depending on what's going on. But what's happening right now is that whether I'm using the PC or not, somet process or something is making my CPU work way overtime because I've seen it go as high as 80 degrees on idle while I was took a quick toilet break. And I have looked meticilously through my Task Manager during these high temp moments to see what would be causing it and have even confirmed through Ryzen Master's tracking info that every time it occurs the CPU cores also start doing a lot more work for no reason at all. The problem is that I can't find the source. Every time I do open up Task Manager to look the situation goes back to normal, which would be fine. If it didn't do it again some 10 minutes later. It causes me endless paranoia and worry which is why I want to find the issue at hand.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I am aware that tempearture spikes are normal. I've lived with my Ryzen for almost a year now so they've become a normality in the time I've used it. But what it's doing now is far from normal. My idle tempeartures used to be and continue to be at around 40-45 degrees celcius, usually during spikes it goes from 50 to maybe even 60 depending on what's going on. But what's happening right now is that whether I'm using the PC or not, somet process or something is making my CPU work way overtime because I've seen it go as high as 80 degrees on idle while I was took a quick toilet break. And I have looked meticilously through my Task Manager during these high temp moments to see what would be causing it and have even confirmed through Ryzen Master's tracking info that every time it occurs the CPU cores also start doing a lot more work for no reason at all. The problem is that I can't find the source. Every time I do open up Task Manager to look the situation goes back to normal, which would be fine. If it didn't do it again some 10 minutes later. It causes me endless paranoia and worry which is why I want to find the issue at hand.

A possibility is that you've picked something like a mining trojan app that's smart enough to hide from Task Manager. You could get a better tool...one that's free is provided by Microsoft called Process Explorer, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer . There are a lot of others, many targeted at developers and coders. The common problem they have is they're most helpful when you're very familiar with what should be running as trojans most often disguise themselves with names that seem legit.

You can look for processes that are consuming a lot of resources then Google it's name, the problem with that is you get a lot of garbage help that try to sell you an app that will clear it up. That app is most likely just another Trojan so beware!

 

[dorsai]

"But what's happening right now is that whether I'm using the PC or not, somet process or something is making my CPU work way overtime because I've seen it go as high as 80 degrees on idle while I was took a quick toilet break. "

There's little doubt something is running in the back ground...as others have suggested I would start with malware and virus scanners. Also look at your installed apps list and see if anything shows up you don't remember installing...there's a possibility you picked up a coin miner without realizing it.