[SOLVED] Why is my PC running terribly?

[OGAlex4D]

PC Specs:
Dual 27" Monitors
Gigabyte Gaming 3 Z170X Motherboard
Intel Core i5 6600K, stock speed
Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB GPU
16GB DDR4 RAM 2400 speed
750W Modular Power Supply
250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
1TB WD Black NVME SSD
2TB Hitachi HDD (which just failed, read below)


A little over 2 years ago, in December of 2016 I built my first PC. I always had the know-how, just couldn't be bothered. The process was easy other than a small amount of thermal paste (a drop) that was dropped somewhere on the board itself.

Since I first built it I've always had a number of strange issues. From long boot times at first, and strange artifacting with videos, etc. Most of these issues have in one way or another managed to iron themselves out as I've never had much success with finding out why they were happening.

About a year ago, shortly after moving I noticed my PC was beginning to run like crap, and during bootup there would be a loud grinding noise. I would shut my computer down and reboot it anywhere from 3-15 times before the grinding sound would stop.

I tried blowing out my computer, reseating all the hardware, etc. I boiled down to it being a fan in my power supply or a case fun, rubbing up against something as all my temps were fine, and crystaldiskinfo was coming back clean with hard drive readings.

I should state aswell, I work at a small retail store in my town that fixes smaller computer issues so I have use of some minor testing equipment and software that I have used prior to no avail.

2 days ago I ran another hardware check using the aforementioned software, and finally I got a reading that my 2TB Hitachi HDD was dead. Upon pulling it from my system, the grinding sound stopped! This is what I had been assuming had been a fan issue of some sort.

Also, quick note, for some time Windows 10 task manager would tell me that my CPU usage was 95-100% doing basically nothing.

I also reformatted my SSD and reinstalled Windows 10. Did all available updates, and installed any additional drivers I could find (including updating my Gigabyte Motherboard Bios).

However, the fact remains my computer runs like GARBAGE. When I have more than one tab open in chrome, or one chrome tab open and another application open, everything slows down, videos desync from audio, games lag, etc. Heck, sometimes doing a single task like gaming means that game runs terribly.

The odd thing is, all hardware tests continue to come out fine, my temperatures seem to be fine, and even task manager seems to think my CPU and GPU usuage is fine.

This issue got really bad about 2 months ago, it was always a bit of an issue but its getting worse by the day. I'm having other weird small issues too like twice my computer would lose internet access (hardwired) but my other devices around me (both wired and wireless) were fine, and a simple reboot of my system got me back online. Also, RGB lighting on my keyboard/mouse (logitech gaming stuff) will flicker occasionally.

The only thing I can think is that my power supply isnt supplying enough power to my machine. But, I'm also concerned this is a motherboard (hense me mentioning the thermal paste in the intro) or CPU issue. Short of beginning to replace parts I'm at a loss.

This was a long post, but I figured if I gave backstory it may help.

TL;dr my PC runs like crap and software and hardware diagnostics seem to say its fine.

 

[Ralston18]

Take another look at Task Manager to see what all is running and the resources being used accordingly.

Likewise take a look at Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor for even more information.

Reliability History/Manager and Event Viewer may be capturing some error codes or warnings.

Overall, a wide range of varying problems would make the PSU my first suspect.

Do you have access to a multimeter? If so, you can do some testing on the PSU.

Reference:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

 

[OGAlex4D]

Take another look at Task Manager to see what all is running and the resources being used accordingly.

Likewise take a look at Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor for even more information.

Reliability History/Manager and Event Viewer may be capturing some error codes or warnings.

Overall, a wide range of varying problems would make the PSU my first suspect.

Do you have access to a multimeter? If so, you can do some testing on the PSU.

Reference:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

Microsoft Edge Web Platform errors are one thing that Reliability History tells me have been happening as of late. Kernal-Event Tracing (whatever that is) seems to be popping up quite a bit in event viewer.

PhysicalDisk idle time % is almost 100%, which Im unsure if thats a good thing or bad thing.

I am going to start with a new power supply tomorrow and see if that helps at all.

 

[jojesa]

That does not look like a PSU issue.
What's the PSU model?
Did you check the services that are using 95-100% of the CPU.
Try testing your RAM with Mentest86+ for 2 o 3 passes.
It could be your motherboard, since some thermal paste could be thermal and electric conductive.
Did you try cleaning the thermal paste?
If you were able to properly cleaned it then that might not have caused your issue. The motherboard could have been faulty from the beginning and that could be just a coincidence.

 

[OGAlex4D]

That does not look like a PSU issue.
What's the PSU model?
Did you check the services that are using 95-100% of the CPU.
Try testing your RAM with Mentest86+ for 2 o 3 passes.
It could be your motherboard, since some thermal paste could be thermal and electric conductive.
Did you try cleaning the thermal paste?
If you were able to properly cleaned it then that might not have caused your issue. The motherboard could have been faulty from the beginning and that could be just a coincidence.

When the thermal paste originally hit the motherboard I did my best to wipe as much as of it I could away and cleaned a little, however did not know the "proper" way to deal with that. The CPU services issues has gone away, the issue still remains however, if only worse, so now I cant even tell what is causing my CPU to run high (if thats even whats happening). Thinking it could have been a faulty board from the beginning, I will try RAM tests now thanks.

 

[Achaios]

I used to own a Core 2 Extreme QX 9650 rig. Because I was a novice with PC's back then (2007), I had the rig assembled by the techies at the computer shop.

Years later, when I learned more about PC's, I found out that the techies had done a lousy job.

1. They had put way too much TIM on the CPU die instead of a tiny blob and

2. They didn't install the CPU fan properly. This resulted into the CPU overheating when hitting 90ish% of use on all 4 cores.

When the CPU overheated, everything in my PC slowed down, including the cursor. It was like everything went into slow-mo. In games, my FPS would tank to below 30 FPS.

In the end, after much, much reading on the internet and research, I discovered the reason why my system sucked, but I also understood that it wasn't worth fixing (2013), and I just bought the components for a haswell-based system and just dismantled my rold ig and sold it off on e-bay.

I suspect that you haven't installed the CPU fan properly and that you have applied way too much TIM, thus your CPU overheats and you get all these slow downs.

In addition, you may have a virus or a miner trojan installed, that causes your CPU usage to go to 99% like it does with no reason.

So, what I would do:

1. Remove the CPU cooler, remove the TIM, re-apply TIM, reinstall cooler tightening all screws properly to ensure perfect contact.

2. Get PROJECT LASSO (free software), install it, and discover which process eats away CPU cycles and why.

3. Download a good anti-virus security program (I use AVG AV-Internet Security) and scan everything on my PC.

4. Download MALWAREBYTES and scan my PC.

 

[OGAlex4D]

I used to own a Core 2 Extreme QX 9650 rig. Because I was a novice with PC's back then (2007), I had the rig assembled by the techies at the computer shop.

Years later, when I learned more about PC's, I found out that the techies had done a lousy job.

1. They had put way too much TIM on the CPU die instead of a tiny blob and

2. They didn't install the CPU fan properly. This resulted into the CPU overheating when hitting 90ish% of use on all 4 cores.

When the CPU overheated, everything in my PC slowed down, including the cursor. It was like everything went into slow-mo. In games, my FPS would tank to below 30 FPS.

In the end, after much, much reading on the internet and research, I discovered the reason why my system sucked, but I also understood that it wasn't worth fixing (2013), and I just bought the components for a haswell-based system and just dismantled my rold ig and sold it off on e-bay.

I suspect that you haven't installed the CPU fan properly and that you have applied way too much TIM, thus your CPU overheats and you get all these slow downs.

In addition, you may have a virus or a miner trojan installed, that causes your CPU usage to go to 99% like it does with no reason.

So, what I would do:

1. Remove the CPU cooler, remove the TIM, re-apply TIM, reinstall cooler tightening all screws properly to ensure perfect contact.

2. Get PROJECT LASSO (free software), install it, and discover which process eats away CPU cycles and why.

3. Download a good anti-virus security program (I use AVG AV-Internet Security) and scan everything on my PC.

4. Download MALWAREBYTES and scan my PC.

I’m terms of possible malware/virus issues, since building the computer I’ve been using Kaspersky Total Security and premium malwarebytes both for protection, and I’ve ran scans multiple times of both so I can rule those both out in terms of being the issues.

I will definitely purchase some more thermal paste and try reapplying and reseating the cpu fan too. At the time I built it, that area was definitely something I wasn’t super confident on so I’ll give that a try, thanks!