CPU Issues And Micro Stuttering

[mjbdc07]

My CPU's utilization is capped at 22% maximum even when encoding and stress testing with Prime95. Just now my pc froze and restarted while encoding. The past month or so I have been experiencing micro stuttering while watching videos and while on YouTube. The micro stutters are random, I keep Task Monitor open and have not noticed any spikes on the graphs for CPU and MEMORY when the stutter occurs.

Here is what I've tried:

• I checked Power Management CPU min. is set at 0% and max at 100%.
• I've reset the BIOS factory defaults
• Reinstalled Windows 10
• Re-seated the RAM sticks
• Reinstalled GPU drivers

I am sure it's not the RAM, I thought it might have been so I bought new RAM but the issues still remained. I also don't think my GPU is to blame. I removed my GTX 970 and used the onboard GPU but the micro stutter still occurred. It's looking like it might be my CPU but I also have had an issue with my mobo and would like some more opinions/suggestions.

PC Specs:
CPU: i5 4690k
MB: MSI Gaming 7
GPU: GTX 970
RAM: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance
PSU: Corsair AX850
OS: Windows 10 64bit

 

[bignick277]

This could be an issue related to motherboard drivers. This kind of thing can be tricky to solve, but I doubt it's you're CPU. CPU issues tend to be far more sporadic and unpredictable. In other words, due to the nature of CPU issues (at least in my experience) they tend to be very difficult to recreate specific issues to specific scenarios. They're usually far more random, where what your describing has a pretty distinct pattern. I'm leaning towards this possibly being an issue with the motherboard or a specific hardware component installed that might be causing a conflict. I had a similar issue years ago that ended up being narrowed down to my SATA controller expansion card (Asus U3S6) causing a conflict with the secondary SATA controller chip on my motherboard (MSI Z68A-GD65) because they both used the same identical controller chip (Marvell (can't remember chip number)). When I got rid of the Asus controller card, the problem went away.

I would suggest updating all your motherboard drivers at this point. So update your intel INF drivers, any secondary SATA drivers for your motherboard such as those made by Marvell etc, onboard sound card etc. Just do a full update and test again. Also, to be on the safe side, please list any additional expansion cards you have installed that haven't already listed in your OP. If you don't have any, fair enough. I should just ask the question in either case. You'll find all of these on your motherboard manufacturer's website.

Another thing that can cause this issue is a faulty or failing hard drive. Maybe have a look at your event viewer in windows for hard disk related entries. Also see if you can get the diagnostic tools for your hard drives from the manufacturer and perform some integrity tests.

All of your other testing seems to be spot on. Although I would make one suggestion. Reseating the memory does nothing for eliminating the memory as an issue. To properly eliminate the memory as a possible source of the issue, you should run memtest86+ from a bootable flash drive. And buying new RAM modules also doesn't guarantee that the memory is not the issue. I've had instances in the past where the motherboard had issues with the specific RAM modules I was using. Meaning replacing them would have made no difference unless I bought new modules from a different manufacturer. I've had numerous issues with Asus boards in this regard. So, just for piece of mind, I would highly recommend running Memtest86+ to properly eliminate the memory as a possible source of the issue.

Hope this helps.

 

[MARSTG]

Youtube stuttering would point to the storage system, something might want to read/write to disk while the buffering happens or the storage is not keeping up the pace. Would explain your froze at the encode as well, reading/writing to disk. You might want to try while encoding to read from one disk and output to another, not different partitions but totally different disks.

 

[mjbdc07]

Thank you for your replies. I updated my BIOS to 7916v1B and after disabled Intel Speedstep but I still had the issue of my CPU being limited to 22% at 0.77GHz. So I went back in to my BIOS and manually set the multiplier. My i5 is now able to run at 100% at 3.5GHz while encoding. I am not sure if this fixed my micro stuttering problem. I am going to continue to use my PC as normal to see if it happens again. For your replies I used MSI's Live Update 6 to install the latest relevant drivers. I currently do not have any expansion cards installed on my system. Connected peripherals are my mouse and keyboard with mic and headset, an external bluray drive and a Logitech Unifying Receiver. I performed a quick test on my SSD and HD's using WD's Data Lifeguard. All drives passed. I also took a look at CrystalDiskInfo and the health status on all drives are listed as "Good" health. For some reason I can't boot to my USB so I will burn Memtest86+ on a CD and test my RAM.

I'm going to try and explain the micro stuttering issues I'm experiencing better. When my PC micro stutters it's always when I'm watching a video either on YouTube or local files using MPC. It lasts for maybe half a second and then the system goes back to normal. It's very random sometime I can go hours without stuttering. My mouse is still able to move but It's the audio that freezes for that half second. I have reinstalled the Realtek drivers and even tried it without installing audio drivers. My earbuds are connected to my Steelseries SHIFT keyboard then to the back of my Mobo. I have tried other earbuds and will try connecting it directly to my Mobo and finally the Front Audio connector. Hopefully it went away after fixing the CPU issue but we will see. Thanks again for replies.

 

[bignick277]

Does it happen when you watch videos using other players, such as VLC player or WMP (Non Classic)? Does it only affect audio or does it affect video as well? This issue could be software based. Maybe try updating your codecs using the K-Lite Mega Codecs pack. I have had a similar issue in the past regarding audio micro-stuttering (video seemed unaffected). In my case it tuned out AnyDVD doesn't really play nice with my Corsair Vengeance USB headset. When I shut down AnyDVD, the problem goes away. But even today, as soon as I turn on AnyDVD, the micro-stutter problem comes back. But since I only use AnyDVD to watch DVD's and Blu-Rays I've bought when I lived stateside, I don't really need it running all the time, so I considered the issue resolved for me. I should note that when I have AnyDVD running while using my traditional sound card (Asus Xonar D2X), there's no issue. It only seems to affect me when I'm running AnyDVD while using my Corsair USB headset. It is an odd one for me. My point is, start checking for any software that may be causing conflicts. No guarantee that that is the issue, but in my experience, it has been known to happen.

Hope this helps.

 

[clshades]

I've noticed that windows 10 handles overclocking a little differently than windows 7. I haven't really dove into the issue to figure it out as it hasn't been a problem. .

 

[mjbdc07]

I've upgraded to Klite Mega from standard. Only the audio is affected. I have not tried other video players only MPC but it stutters even when watching video in Chrome and Firefox. I'm going to try reinstalling the Realtek drivers again maybe even installing older versions. I'll also see if happens in safe mode. I will do more testing and update when I have some free time. Thanks.

 

[bignick277]

but it stutters even when watching video in Chrome and Firefox.

Does for me as well. For me, it affects videos playing through any player. Watching videos on netflix and youtube. And even effects playing music. Can even affect windows OS audio cues, but you have to be quick to catch it since Windows OS sounds are very short to begin with. For me it was a piece of software unrelated to audio that caused the issue. As long as I don't have AnyDVD running in the background, there's no problem for me. But I would like to see my issue fixed at some point in the future, because my parents still send me movies from the states and for some of them, AnyDVD is the only thing that allows me to watch them here. At least most Blu-Rays these days are good about being released region free.

 

[Shadowarez]

This I checked Power Management CPU min. is set at 0% and max at 100% has me thinking maybe I'm wrong set min and Max to 100% iv set y min to 5% before and it lowered my oc from 4.8Ghz down to 3.8ghz even though it's not supposed to change.

 

[mjbdc07]

bignick277 you were pretty much spot on. It starting to look like uTorrent was causing the stuttering. Now I just have to determine if it's my secondary drive which hosts my torrents, dowloads and Steam/Origin game files or the application itself. I will do more testing and update soon. Thank you! As for your your Blu-Ray region issue, you've probably already thought of/done this before but my solution is to create an ISO using DaemonTools and encode it using Handbrake. You can always skip the first step but me personally I like to create an ISO as a backup.