Question Weird stuttering with Task Manager. How to fix?

[Fire-Wire]

Hey, guys. This has been pretty hard to debug on my own, so basically after a while the task manager takes a sluggish moment to open and, when opened, behaves strangely (e.g. without icons appearing; blank spaces where programs should be). Sometimes opening the Task manager stutters heavily, crippling the whole system for a few seconds, including audios. When this begins to happen some apps also briefly stutter when being closed, such as the explorer itself, calculator, notepad ++ and some others, but not all of them. Note: rebooting the system solves it temporarily, as this issue only occurs when the system has been running for a while.

The issue itself doens't seem to impact overall performance, as I'm still able to play relatively taxing games without perceivable loss on fps or 1% lows. So, yeah, not a life threatening issue but I fear it may be foreshadowing something nastier down the line... So, does anyone has experienced something like this? Is there a fix?

Here are my specs:

RTX 4060 8Gb
i5-11600KF
RAM 2x16Gb 3200mhz w/ XMP
2x1Tb Kingstom SSD
Mobo: MSI B560M PRO-E (as requested below)

ps: my graphic drive is purposely outdated because I prefer it, but the issue is new (unless I never noticed it before), so I don't think that is the root of the problem.... right?

ps: temps are totally fine, nothing out of the ordinary shows in the task manager, like no high usage on components or anything.

 

[ram_rat]

certainly not a normal behavior.

Stress test your memory for at least 4 hours. I am unsure but I think this is a RAM issue.

 

[Fire-Wire]

certainly not a normal behavior.

Stress test your memory for at least 4 hours. I am unsure but I think this is a RAM issue.

Any program you recommend for doing that? Also, if RAM is the problem, what should I expect from this test?

 

[ram_rat]

Any program you recommend for doing that? Also, if RAM is the problem, what should I expect from this test?

Memtest86.

If there's a read/write error from your memory, it will throw errors. Since it writes large amounts of data to your memory, deletes it, re-writes it, reads it...etc it may actually crash your computer.

If that happens, your RAM has gone sour.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So, does anyone has experienced something like this? Is there a fix?
2x1Tb Kingstom SSD

I'd suspect those Kingston SSDs.
What model drives are those?

If any of them are A400 models, then I'd change it.

 

[Bob.B]

Hey, guys. This has been pretty hard to debug on my own, so basically after a while the task manager takes a sluggish moment to open and, when opened, behaves strangely (e.g. without icons appearing; blank spaces where programs should be). Sometimes opening the Task manager stutters heavily, crippling the whole system for a few seconds, including audios. When this begins to happen some apps also briefly stutter when being closed, such as the explorer itself, calculator, notepad ++ and some others, but not all of them. Note: rebooting the system solves it temporarily, as this issue only occurs when the system has been running for a while.

The issue itself doens't seem to impact overall performance, as I'm still able to play relatively taxing games without perceivable loss on fps or 1% lows. So, yeah, not a life threatening issue but I fear it may be foreshadowing something nastier down the line... So, does anyone has experienced something like this? Is there a fix?

Here are my specs:

RTX 4060 8Gb
i5-11600KF
RAM 2x16Gb 3200mhz w/ XMP
2x1Tb Kingstom SSD

ps: my graphic drive is purposely outdated because I prefer it, but the issue is new (unless I never noticed it before), so I don't think that is the root of the problem.... right?

ps: temps are totally fine, nothing out of the ordinary shows in the task manager, like no high usage on components or anything.

Run a pass of......crystal disk info.....post a screenshot for each disk.

 

[geofelt]

Is this a new problem?

Why do you prefer not to update your graphics driver?
That would be my first guess as to your issue.

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
What is your bios level?
CPU-Z will tell you.

Run memtest86+
It boots from a usb stick and does not use windows.
You can download it here:

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

memtest.org

Some motherboards have memtest in the bios.

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.
Probably not worth it unless you really suspect a ram issue.

 

[Fire-Wire]

All you guys suggested different things hahahahaha, I'll try looking at each one of them and I'll update as soon as I can!

 

[Fire-Wire]

Is this a new problem?

Why do you prefer not to update your graphics driver?
That would be my first guess as to your issue.

What is the make/model of your motherboard?

- It is, unless I never noticed it before, which is unlikely.

- Because my current nvidia driver is the most stable and delivers the best low 1% and 0,1% performance across most of my games.

- Sorry for not disclosing it before, it is a MSI B560M PRO-E

(I don't have CPU-Z as of right now, but can get to it asap)

 

[Fire-Wire]

Update on my case:

Through your suggestions and more research, I actually noticed there are several (and I mean, several) Rundll32 processes in the task manager that seem to multiply over time, which leads me to believe that is the culprit. They are all on System 32 and have almost the exact range of memory usage.

Adding the command line to the task manager, I found that all of them stem from Nvidia.
I wasn't able to insert the image, but you can check it here: https://ibb.co/1L9wMh0

Sadly, I don't really know how to proceed. So any suggestions would be most welcome

 

[geofelt]

Take a user systems checkpoint.
That way, you can revert to exactly where you are now.
Then try updating your nvidia driver to currency. do not install the nvidia experience.

Is your motherboard bios current?

 

[Fire-Wire]

Take a user systems checkpoint.
That way, you can revert to exactly where you are now.
Then try updating your nvidia driver to currency. do not install the nvidia experience.

Is your motherboard bios current?

Yes, it is. I bought it back in january.

I'll try unninstalling nvidia experience first, then I'll download the latest drive.

 

[Fire-Wire]

Update: uninstalling Nvidia Experience (which was not even opening anymore) seems to have fixed the whole problem. I'll keep monitoring to see if the issue is truly gone and then I'll try to reinstall it and see if the problem comes back or not.

So glad it seems to have nothing to do with hardware, that's a bullet dodged for sure. Thanks guys!

 

[johnbl]

Update on my case:

Through your suggestions and more research, I actually noticed there are several (and I mean, several) Rundll32 processes in the task manager that seem to multiply over time, which leads me to believe that is the culprit. They are all on System 32 and have almost the exact range of memory usage.

Adding the command line to the task manager, I found that all of them stem from Nvidia.
I wasn't able to insert the image, but you can check it here: https://ibb.co/1L9wMh0

Sadly, I don't really know how to proceed. So any suggestions would be most welcome

looks like
bug in nvidia shield stream
https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie/issues/1425
note: work around is listed in the discussion (block access to the dll) if you do not want to update