Sudden low performance

SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">in source games</div>It all began a few days ago when I accidentally formatted an external drive and then proceeded with several scans and rescue operations to save the content. As a scan took about 50hours this is what has been running for those few days, no gaming. Scanning and rescuing previously with "Rescue my files" I tried launching up a game of TF2. I see a immediate difference in FPS, it seems to be locked to 30, despite checking fpsmax and it's set to 61. I try another game, swat4, seems to run normally. Later I fire up L4D and it loads the menu terribly slow (same with tf2) and froze at the loading scene.

I've tried to defrag C: and D: (where all game related files are) even with the steam defragger.
Search for adware/virus with Nod32, adware, spybot, threatfire and some other scanner
Update video drivers
Clean the system/registry with CCleaner
Read some google results but it's mostly about some kids asking if their FPS is low considering their rigs.

Nothing. It's just the same. I can't recall doing anything which might interfere with CPU/Graphics/System. The last thing I did before it all started was scanning my formatted HDD and rescuing files to various other HDDs. :S

My specs:
Intel HT 3,6ghz
2gb ram
Nvidia 7800gtx
Two 250gb Sata HDDs

Software running constantly:
Digsby (IM client)
mIRC
Threatfire
Nod32

I'm in a great need of halp.
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Comments

  • FaskaliaFaskalia Wechsellichtzeichenanlage Join Date: 2004-09-12 Member: 31651Members, Constellation
    msconfig.exe

    go to system startup and just remove every single entry.

    Then slowly enable them again 1 by 1 till u find the auto-start app, that killed your performance.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    edited June 2009
    With everything deactivated I started steam and gave it a go, it was a bit better but still a good chunk of FPS is missing. Should I try disabling all services as well?

    Edit: The FPS isn't locked to thirty.
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  • Sub_zer0Sub_zer0 Join Date: 2004-05-09 Member: 28569Members
    I'm aware that general pc performance can some times be result in a large amount of dusk collected in fans check them though this won't help what ever but it will make you feel better.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    I actually did that sub_zero, it just feels like it should run better with less dust. Kind of like washing a car engine.

    I seem to have semi-solved it. Removing all non-microsoft services did the trick, now just to find out which of em acted up.
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  • SnappyCrunchSnappyCrunch Join Date: 2004-08-03 Member: 30328Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1714987:date=Jun 30 2009, 06:33 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Svenpa @ Jun 30 2009, 06:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1714987"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I actually did that sub_zero, it just feels like it should run better with less dust. Kind of like washing a car engine.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The reason is that the Pentium 4 and up will throttle down their speed when they get too hot, so that it's much harder to fry the CPU by overheating. If there's too much dust on the Heatsink and Fan Assemblies, not enough air can be moved across the heatsink to keep the CPU cool, and the CPU cuts it's own speed.
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  • WhiteZeroWhiteZero That Guy Join Date: 2004-06-24 Member: 29511Members, Constellation
    I was under the impression they simply shut down when they overheated, not slowed down.
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  • SnappyCrunchSnappyCrunch Join Date: 2004-08-03 Member: 30328Members, Constellation
    Pentium 3s and Athlons (Dunno about Athlon XPs) would simply shut down when overheated. CPUs newer than that will throttle. It's not graceful, though. They hit a certain temperature, and throttle to 50% or 25% of their normal speed until they drop far enough below the cutoff. If temps continue to rise, they will shut off completely.

    Also, if a power supply gets too much dust in it and overheats, it will just shut off, there's not much else it can do.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    *UPDATE*

    Some new info on the issue at hand. My CPU is a Hyperthreading thingy and my "logical" CPU is in constant 40+% use, which seems to cause the problem in most demanding games/programs. I made a format and started in safe mode and it still occurs, I even disabled Hyperthreading in bios but then the load is simply transferred to my other CPU. The task manager does not show any processes using the 40% load, it seems it's just queued up with something.

    Any suggestions?
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    Checked the voltages?
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  • juicejuice Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12886Members, Constellation
    edited July 2009
    That is seriously weird... since the reformat + start in safe mode didn't remove the problem, that would mean it is a hardware issue, right? To make sure it is hardware you could burn a linux cd like ubuntu or something which is supremely easy to load from and see what your cpus look like there.

    Another thing you could try is to reseat your cpu. But it doesn't seem like a thermal issue after the details you gave, so reseating it would only help if it's having some problem due to (from the arse) some weird combination of noncontacting/resistive pins (or maybe its just messed up voltage, like thaldarin say)

    Also, wiping the BIOS. Like totally by removing the little battery.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    edited July 2009
    I have not touched the voltages and CPUburn-in with error checking and memtest showed no errors.

    Reset the CPU? What exactly do you mean?

    I'll go for a bios wipe then a linux Live cd, should be enough to see right? Though I'm not sure how to check CPU specs and processes in ubuntu/linux.

    <a href="http://img23.imageshack.us/i/cpuf.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/298/cpuf.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

    Currently at the screenshot I have a burning process in the background so the first graph shows normal usage around 20%, it's the right one that's the culprit.
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1718155:date=Jul 19 2009, 11:43 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Svenpa @ Jul 19 2009, 11:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1718155"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Reset the CPU? What exactly do you mean?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    He said reseat. Means removing it and putting it back in place.
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  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    edited July 2009
    That constant usage is definitely wrong.

    If you click the processes tab which processes are using the CPU (ones that dont say "00" in the middle column)?

    My money would be on it being svchost or system idle process which would be a fudged up O/S.

    As I understand it you havent done a format just tried a disk recovery? If you don't mind backing up/losing everything I'd go for a complete HDD wipe and try again. I've had weird unexplainable crap similar to this and a format always ends up being less of a headache than the needle-in-a-haystack fix-it approach.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    edited July 2009
    That's the thing, no processes in task manager is using the CPU, even in safemode it shows up like this. System idle process always show the remainder of the CPU not taken up by other programs no? It's always on 99% when nothing else is running.

    I actually did a format but only on the windows partition, my first post might have made some confusion about this. However, I did restore all my drivers and some parts of the registry after formatting and I didn't know it was the logical CPU acting up back then.
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    Yeah, the "system idle process" will take up any processor power that's not being used by anything else. Think of it as a process that will take any processor power it can get, but has a lower priority than anything else. If it's showing 99% usage, that means nothing else is really doing much, and your processor(s) should be idle as well.
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  • RobRob Unknown Enemy Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 25Members, NS1 Playtester
    Is there any other tool besides task manager you can use to check CPU usage?
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    <a href="http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php" target="_blank">Speedfan</a> shows CPU usage, but I doubt it'll show anything different. And it doesn't graph or log it.
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  • TesseractTesseract Join Date: 2007-06-21 Member: 61328Members, Constellation
    edited July 2009
    <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx" target="_blank">Process Explorer</a>
    <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx" target="_blank">Autoruns</a>

    The latter is unlikely to be particularly useful to you, but Process Explorer is a better way of tracking what's going on with processes on your computer. With it open press Ctrl+I and check "show one graph per CPU" at the bottom, then hover over where the high usage is, and it should tell you what's using most of the CPU clock.

    edit: buggered up the URL
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    edited July 2009
    This is all I get.
    <a href="http://img403.imageshack.us/i/cpu.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/8375/cpu.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

    I/O Bytes graph only shows my IM and Firefox, nothing when neither is active. CSRSS shows up in high spikes when I do usual things such as opening new tabs, I can hear the fan speeding up for a few seconds but it isnt as constant as CPU #1 (they are named #0 and #1) is showing here.
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  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    You don't want to hear this but I think one of your CPU cores is fried?
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    It's not a dual core if that's what you are referring to. I also disabled Hyperthreading earlier and the 50% load just switched to CPU #0 instead of #1. Sounds like strange behavior if the one of em were fried.
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  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    Ah, true!
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  • juicejuice Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12886Members, Constellation
    Ah ha, so you didn't really do a full reformat. Well, that's what *I* would do, my friend. Then again, I have backups and things I can just throw here and there and not lose anything. I've installed 4 operating systems in the past month, lol.

    BUT, you need to verify first if that is necessary and that it's not hardware by just quick burning a linux and running it from the disk. Good luck.
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  • RobRob Unknown Enemy Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 25Members, NS1 Playtester
    <!--quoteo(post=1718308:date=Jul 20 2009, 06:21 PM:name=juice)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (juice @ Jul 20 2009, 06:21 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1718308"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Ah ha, so you didn't really do a full reformat. Well, that's what *I* would do, my friend. Then again, I have backups and things I can just throw here and there and not lose anything. I've installed 4 operating systems in the past month, lol.

    BUT, you need to verify first if that is necessary and that it's not hardware by just quick burning a linux and running it from the disk. Good luck.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Yeah, I've got a feeling it's some kinda virus...

    Course, I also had a "feeling" about that girl a few years ago. I don't need to tell you how that turned out.
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    I had a similar problem that was a virus that nothing but google could tell me it was a virus.

    It put CPU at 100% Ram usage at 75% and HDD usage at 100%.

    Ran 4 instances and lots and lots of SVCHost to use it all. It also burned out a hard drive so I'd watch your CPU about now.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    Currently in Ubuntu Live posting this.

    <a href="http://img401.imageshack.us/i/screenshottpf.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7803/screenshottpf.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

    It seems to be working fine, or at least not nearly as crappy as in XP. Side note, Ubuntu really gave a nice first impression.
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    If I were in your place, I'd just get it over with and reinstall the OS at this point.
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  • juicejuice Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12886Members, Constellation
    Yep, looks like it's wipe time. Glad to see you tried Ubuntu. It's super friendly.
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    Alright, so I did a new format (of C:) and this crap is still hogging CPU. I used nlite to burn a basic Window XP pro SP3 and the first thing I did was checking task manager before doing anything else and the problem persists.

    Guess it's scrapping time :/
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  • SvenpaSvenpa Wait, what? Join Date: 2004-01-03 Member: 25012Members, Constellation
    After some googling I found this: <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;241532" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;241532</a>

    Which is kind of strange, as non of my hardware identity programs do recognize my motherboard as one of those. Furthermore, this occured not after a repair/install/format of the OS, but just after a random restart. I wonder what will exactly happen if I choose the workaround, MPS Multiprocessor PC, instead of ACPI Multiprocessor PC. Loss of a cpu and/or performance? *sigh*
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