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Gortarius
Jun 6, 2013

idiot
Problem description:

After upgrading some parts on my desktop (system memory, graphics card, motherboard and CPU) it now has this weird issue where youtube videos, games and even windows 7 Aero don't function properly. Videos lag then speed up to something like 3x the normal speed until they catch up, same with games. Windows Aero is off by default and you can't even turn it on. That is until I reboot my machine with a normal restart. Then everything works like normal and the machine performs very well overall. I don't care that it is a bit annoying having to restart my computer each time I want to do something with it, but I'm concerned that this is a symptom of something worse that will eventually break my computer.


Attempted fixes:

Tried switching out some of the system memory, tried swapping out my old graphics card, tried setting the number of active cores on the new quad core CPU to just two through msconfig, tried looking up BIOS for any culprit but there isn't anything that is obviously wrong. None of the above helped.


Recent changes:

Changed my old dual core CPU to a new quad core CPU, took out old 1GB memory blocks and put in some 4GB ones + one 2GB one, installed a new graphics card and then replaced it back to the old one in an attempt to fix the problem. Got the latest drivers I could find on the graphics card. Nothing else has really changed.


Operating system:

Windows 7 Home 64-bit


System specs:

Custom built POS, has following parts inside:

- AMD Quad core processor, 4 logic cores, 2 physical ones
- AMD Radeon HD 7700 series
- 10 gigs of system memory from 2x 4gig and 1x 2gig blocks
- 600w PSU (CX600M Corsair)
- Asrock 970 Pro3 R2.0 motherboard


Location: Finland

I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes

Gortarius fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Apr 9, 2015

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Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice
Note that using three DIMMs is not supported, they must be installed in pairs.* See if the system can complete at least one full pass of Memtest86+ without errors with the matching set, and if so, update the motherboard BIOS. What's the brand and model of your power supply?

*Many Intel CPUs support Flex Memory Access that allows unbalanced configurations, this is not the case on any AMD processors as far as I am aware. It doesn't even consistently not work in the same way, it breaks weirdly and in seemingly random ways depending on the system.

Gortarius
Jun 6, 2013

idiot
Power supply is a Corsair CX600M.

I'm looking at this Memtest86+ thing but won't be able to test it out until later. Will report my findings later.


Thanks for the help.

Gortarius
Jun 6, 2013

idiot
Not really sure how you use the Memtest, but I did try removing the lone 2gig memory and leaving in the 2x 4gig ones so as far as I know there shouldn't be any problems from that, but it didn't fix the problem.

A question I have is that there are two PCI-E slots on the motherboard I have and I had to pace the graphics card to the slower one because the wires for all the LEDS, PWR and reset are too short and thus I can't make tuck them into some corner which means they block the other PCI-E slot from being used.

Could this be the problem, using the slower PCI-E slot?

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice
Using the slower slot shouldn't cause stuff like this, it would just result in a loss of performance in games. Have you verified that the CPU isn't getting too hot? AMD CPU's shouldn't exceed 65C.

If you're still withing the return period on the motherboard, CPU, and RAM I'd recommend just doing that and getting some better quality parts, the Parts Picking Megathread can offer good advice. AMD CPUs are really years behind Intel, that's a difference you can really feel in normal usage. Lower-end motherboards and modular power supplies both cause issues due to their poor build quality.

Gortarius
Jun 6, 2013

idiot
CPU idles at around 20C and goes to 40+ during strain.

I guess I should swap in the old CPU since it's compatible with this new motherboard and check out if the new CPU is the problem.

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Gortarius
Jun 6, 2013

idiot
So now I did replace the old CPU back in (a dual core AMD) and the problem didn't appear. However the old CPU is a lot slower than the new one so I changed the new one back in. The problem returned s expected but at least the cause is now narrowed down to the CPU.

I'm hoping there is some way to get around this problem without having to get another CPU. The motherboard manufacturer didn't have any BIOS updates however so I might be out of luck.

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