[SOLVED] What's causing PC stutter, audio lags and freezing ?

Sep 18, 2020
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My pc had freezing issues in the past and that was due to a failing PSU and a faulty surge protector, I have since replaced those and the freezing was gone for quite some time. Now my pc sometimes automatically restarts or freezes every now and then, sometimes it restarts or freeze there's this or it just doesn't have any error message one of the times it froze. There's this dump file.

I've updated bios, window and graphic driver to the latest version. CrystalDisk also shows all disk is in good condition. Any idea what is causing this?

Specs : http://speccy.piriform.com/results/hz2SVJjsihxXDsiY7gr2SFI (Windows on latest ver.)
PSU : MPY-5501-AFAAG, MWE GOLD 550 FULLY MODULAR (Brand new, less than 1 year)
 
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Solution
If you are going to get a new PSU please get at least a corsair CX or TX , or a Seasonic Focus gold. Depending on your build requirements and geographic location it can run a bit to get one but should be well worth it if nothing else for diagnostic purposes.

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSUs (old and new): Make, model, wattage, age, condition.

Look in Task Manager and Resource Monitor (use only one at a time) to observe system performance.

Determine what changes when stutters, lags, or freezing occurs.

= = = =

Try running "sfc /scannow".

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

= = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Double check by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place.
 
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My pc had freezing issues in the past and that was due to a failing PSU and a faulty surge protector, I have since replaced those and the freezing was gone for quite some time. Now my pc sometimes automatically restarts or freezes every now and then, sometimes it restarts or freeze there's this or it just doesn't have any error message one of the times it froze. There's this dump file.

I've updated bios, window and graphic driver to the latest version. CrystalDisk also shows all disk is in good condition. Any idea what is causing this?


Are you over clocking ? A whea error on core 0 is indicated as you pointed out.
 
Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSUs (old and new): Make, model, wattage, age, condition.

Look in Task Manager and Resource Monitor (use only one at a time) to observe system performance.

Determine what changes when stutters, lags, or freezing occurs.

= = = =

Try running "sfc /scannow".

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

= = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Double check by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place.
Updated the post, did the sfc and Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. Clean the dust and check all the power cables and sata cable and they're all connected, but my CPU fan screw did need a twist or so to fully tighten it. I can't see the task manager to see what change cause the freeze or auto restarts happen randomly and usually happen every once in a while.
 
I would recommend the following:

Use Ryzen Master to keep an eye on your temps for a while

Disable XMP for a few days and see if your ram is the source of the crash and restart issues.

Swap out the power supply for a known good spare. I know you stated the PSU isn't that old, but it's still possible to have issues even on a new supply.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Reference:

"I can't see the task manager to see what change cause the freeze or auto restarts happen randomly and usually happen every once in a while."

Look in Reliability History and double check Event Viewer - either one or both may be capturing some error codes, warnings, or even related informational events.

(Currently the errors listed in Event Viewer is from December 31, 2020 amd February 22, 2021.)

Reliability History is much more user friendly and the timeline format can prove very helpful.

The errors shown in Event Viewer vary in both type and occurrence. To me that is a sign of a faltering PSU.

Agree with @dorsai - swap in a known good spare.
 
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Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
Reference:

"I can't see the task manager to see what change cause the freeze or auto restarts happen randomly and usually happen every once in a while."

Look in Reliability History and double check Event Viewer - either one or both may be capturing some error codes, warnings, or even related informational events.

(Currently the errors listed in Event Viewer is from December 31, 2020 amd February 22, 2021.)

Reliability History is much more user friendly and the timeline format can prove very helpful.

The errors shown in Event Viewer vary in both type and occurrence. To me that is a sign of a faltering PSU.

Agree with @dorsai - swap in a known good spare.
It froze today while I was playing BF1, the game stutter a bit and it froze, this buzzing sound was there. I'll disable xmp and see if it reoccur. If it does I guess I'll buy a new psu, there's no spare PSU in my house and neither does my friends have. Other time when it froze or crash I only get these in event viewer and reliability history. I got these when it froze today as well. The other error you see in reliability history are all razer game manager service, it doesn't effect anything but it's there.

EDIT : I stress test my GPU & CPU with prime95 and furmark today for 15 minutes and recorded the results using hwinfo64, here's the result , is there anything wrong with the results? During stress test my pc didn't crash or freeze.
 
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Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
If the stress tests did not crash or freeze the computer then I would not suspect the GPU or CPU per se.

Games are different. They are more demanding overall and may cause varying peaks in power demand/system resources.

Open Resource Monitor and let your system stabilize. Leave the Resource Monitor window open and run the stress tests.

Then do the same while gaming.

Watch what changes in Resource Monitor. What resources are being used, to what extent (%), and what is using any given resource.

What happens, for example, when the buzzing starts?

As for Razer Game Manager the error is there. You may see it as not affecting anything but it is an error and probably a contributor to the problem in one way or another.

I truly do not know for sure if that is the case but as long a the error is there then there is doubt....

I still suspect the PSU. However, there may be other thoughts and ideas with regards to the PSU.
 
Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
If the stress tests did not crash or freeze the computer then I would not suspect the GPU or CPU per se.

Games are different. They are more demanding overall and may cause varying peaks in power demand/system resources.

Open Resource Monitor and let your system stabilize. Leave the Resource Monitor window open and run the stress tests.

Then do the same while gaming.

Watch what changes in Resource Monitor. What resources are being used, to what extent (%), and what is using any given resource.

What happens, for example, when the buzzing starts?

As for Razer Game Manager the error is there. You may see it as not affecting anything but it is an error and probably a contributor to the problem in one way or another.

I truly do not know for sure if that is the case but as long a the error is there then there is doubt....

I still suspect the PSU. However, there may be other thoughts and ideas with regards to the PSU.
Here's resource manager when I'm gaming, idle (with spotify and discord on), stress test.

Everything seems fine to me, did you see anything weird in the CSV file? Any idea how to fix the razer error, I tried google searching and people have the issue but no solution.

My pc stutters, froze and the buzzing sound starts, can't alt+tab, keyboard and mouse didn't respond and need to force shutdown.

When I ctrl windows shift b nothing happen, think it's worth mentioning that.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Look at what is using the disk while idle?

As for the csv - was that posted via File Dropper?

I could not get any information about the size of the file nor file type per se. (Seemed to indicate .pdf)

And "Download This File" was a blind button. No full path to the source shown.

So I do not click such links.
 
Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
Look at what is using the disk while idle?

As for the csv - was that posted via File Dropper?

I could not get any information about the size of the file nor file type per se. (Seemed to indicate .pdf)

And "Download This File" was a blind button. No full path to the source shown.

So I do not click such links.
Oh then I'll use drop box link, here's the CSV file. Here's the what's using the disk while idle, just system chrome and Spotify stuff. The resource monitor was not responding when I was checking it, think it's worth mentioning that.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Stress.csv

Without really knowing the overall design and protocols of the memory stress test I am not so sure about those results.

Virtual Memory Load % does not appear to have gone much beyond 33% and, likewise, Physical Memory Load begins around 29% then falls to the lower 20's % range.

I would expect that a stress test would strive to fill up memory and determine at what % the memory use falters.

And, unless there is some other data output, the stress test does not indicate what is actually using memory.

Resource Monitor:

Windows Search seems to be doing quite a bit of writing as does some $LogFile activity.

Likely a "false flag".

The Resource Monitor image is only presenting a small portion of the on-going disk activity. (Note the slider just to the right of the Response time column. Lots more to be seen further down.....)

Remember that you can select the Write column header area and you should see a small arrow that toggles the sort between ascending and descending order. Use descending order to ensure that the Images/Files doing the most writing are presented at the top of the columns.

You must also explore the other tabs in Resource Monitor. The stuttering/faltering issue could truly be with another resource or perhaps a conflict that is being created.

And sometimes you must simply sit and watch. Some processes and events may not start/launch until some other condition(s) are met: elapsed time, the launch of another process, or another process ends. Could be a trigger of some sort - look in Task Scheduler.

Also useful tool Process Explorer (free from Microsoft).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Sometimes it is easy to discover the problem. Maybe a corrupted or buggy app as noted by @helper800. Or you could discover some completely unknown and unwanted app (from who knows where) that is suddenly launching and running to the detriment of system performance.

For the most part, it may become a matter of elimination. Stop known identifiable processes one by one until the stuttering ends. As for processes that you cannot identify then google and search to find out what they are and their respective purposes. Do not randomly start disabling or killing processes.

May make things worse.
 
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Another extremely useful tool for finding stutters specifically is LatencyMon. This is a small utility program that will show what processes or services are causing stutters in a chart showing how much lag or stutter there is in milliseconds of duration.

I would download and run it if possible to determine what specifically is causing stutters.
 
Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
Another extremely useful tool for finding stutters specifically is LatencyMon. This is a small utility program that will show what processes or services are causing stutters in a chart showing how much lag or stutter there is in milliseconds of duration.

I would download and run it if possible to determine what specifically is causing stutters.
Did the latency test and this is what came out. I also included a analysis from whysoslow. How do I fix them? Bios already latest and am using a ethernet cable.
 
Last edited:
Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
Stress.csv

Without really knowing the overall design and protocols of the memory stress test I am not so sure about those results.

Virtual Memory Load % does not appear to have gone much beyond 33% and, likewise, Physical Memory Load begins around 29% then falls to the lower 20's % range.

I would expect that a stress test would strive to fill up memory and determine at what % the memory use falters.

And, unless there is some other data output, the stress test does not indicate what is actually using memory.

Resource Monitor:

Windows Search seems to be doing quite a bit of writing as does some $LogFile activity.

Likely a "false flag".

The Resource Monitor image is only presenting a small portion of the on-going disk activity. (Note the slider just to the right of the Response time column. Lots more to be seen further down.....)

Remember that you can select the Write column header area and you should see a small arrow that toggles the sort between ascending and descending order. Use descending order to ensure that the Images/Files doing the most writing are presented at the top of the columns.

You must also explore the other tabs in Resource Monitor. The stuttering/faltering issue could truly be with another resource or perhaps a conflict that is being created.

And sometimes you must simply sit and watch. Some processes and events may not start/launch until some other condition(s) are met: elapsed time, the launch of another process, or another process ends. Could be a trigger of some sort - look in Task Scheduler.

Also useful tool Process Explorer (free from Microsoft).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Sometimes it is easy to discover the problem. Maybe a corrupted or buggy app as noted by @helper800. Or you could discover some completely unknown and unwanted app (from who knows where) that is suddenly launching and running to the detriment of system performance.

For the most part, it may become a matter of elimination. Stop known identifiable processes one by one until the stuttering ends. As for processes that you cannot identify then google and search to find out what they are and their respective purposes. Do not randomly start disabling or killing processes.

May make things worse.
I'm gonna reinstall windows and if that still won't solve it, don't think it will but worth a shot. I'm highly suspecting it's the new psu I bought, btw the stress test is using furmark and prime95 and results are monitored with HWinfo64.

To add, my pc usually crashed during gaming and extremely rare when idle, only happen once but that was when I have my faulty surge protector.

It crashed today when I'm playing Rainbow 6, stuttered and freeze, buzzing noise was there too. Then there was this in reliability monitor and a dump file(drop box btw).

And I saw @helper800 replies and did memtest86 overnight it pass 44 or 48 test I forgot the exact number, without any errors so I do not think it's the ram (without XMP).

Anyways thanks for the help guys, such bad luck I had not one failling psu but 2. Even after warrantying the first one. Cheers!

Edit : My PSU just made some loud zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sounds for a couple sec, this happen back then when my surge protector was faulty so it might be ANOTHER failing surge protector or a PSU.
 
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Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Bad luck indeed.

Buzzing sound - again.....

Google words such as "why PSUs fail" etc..

Read through a few of the links just to get a broader view of the issues involved.

For example:

https://techwithtech.com/psu-too-weak/

Do read other links as well.

Best Power Supplies of 2021 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

Use the power calculators to assess your build's power demands. If a component has a wattage range - use the high end wattage value.

= = = =

Could be the surge protector is indeed faulty.

Do remember that surge protectors can take only so many "hits" before becoming ineffective.

What all else is plugged into the surge protector?
 
Sep 18, 2020
11
1
25
Bad luck indeed.

Buzzing sound - again.....

Google words such as "why PSUs fail" etc..

Read through a few of the links just to get a broader view of the issues involved.

For example:

https://techwithtech.com/psu-too-weak/

Do read other links as well.

Best Power Supplies of 2021 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

Use the power calculators to assess your build's power demands. If a component has a wattage range - use the high end wattage value.

= = = =

Could be the surge protector is indeed faulty.

Do remember that surge protectors can take only so many "hits" before becoming ineffective.

What all else is plugged into the surge protector?
Yea the old surge protectors took some hits and the led indicator was flashing and it made some buzzing noise so I warranty it and they gave me a new one. I've been using it for a couple months now and it haven't take any hits, it's connect to a monitor, a edifier speaker, wifi extender and my pc.
 
If you are going to get a new PSU please get at least a corsair CX or TX , or a Seasonic Focus gold. Depending on your build requirements and geographic location it can run a bit to get one but should be well worth it if nothing else for diagnostic purposes.
 
Solution