Random Computer Lag Spikes

Hello!

So, month or so ago I had to replace my old motherboard because it broke, once I changed my motherboard I started having these random lag spikes (whether I'm playing game, or watching movie and browsing internet) where my computer slows down.

My temperatures are completely fine - CPU 44, Motherboard 47, Graphics 43.
I tried reinstalling Windows couple times, drivers, nothing really works.

Was trying to find some useful information about this on internet but nothing really helped.

 

When you say your old motherboard broke was there a particular cause like a power cut for example, it's possible whatever happened with your old motherboard may have damaged some other hardware part, possibly the RAM or HDD.

Is it possible for you to try/borrow another HDD temporarily? And install Windows on that to see if the lag continues, after which you could try looking at the RAM, it looks like you have 2x2GB RAM sticks (a guess based on 4GB RAM listed in the text file you attached) try removing one RAM stick at a time and seeing if the lag continues.

Also could you tell us the Wattage rating of your power supply, I'll assume it's enough, but using a power supply with a wattage too low for the parts could possibly damage them eventually.

 

You are right it is 2x2GB sticks but I doubt that I get fps lags because HDD or RAM, however I'll try your suggestions. I attached image of my power supply, I suspect it might be the problem since it's pretty old but I have really no idea about that, maybe you will know better? Thanks!

 

It's pretty close, based on this PSU calculator - http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

It looks like something in the region of 350W tops for those hardware parts, pretty close but it should provide enough power.

I'll wait for you to try and reply back for the suggestions previously, then continue further.

 

Just a quick note on this when you use this PSU calculator one of the last things on the bottom right is called capacitor aging this is their blurb on it:-
Electrolytic capacitor aging. When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a power supply will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity. We recommend you add 10-20% if you plan to keep your PSU for more than 1 year, or 20-30% for 24/7 usage and 1+ years.

BUT you have to remember if the PSU is over 1yr old put it to 50%, and at 50% you would just be over 400W that is if you just have 1x HDD and 2x 120mm fans etc

better to be safe than sorry, Lag is normally caused by the CPU throttling, start task manager and keep an eye out on the CPU utilisation and if it hits 100% then that will be the cause of the lag

 

I tried switching my RAM stick around, also other HDD, nothing really fixed my problem. FPS lags still occur.

The thing is...it's completely random...sometimes I might get FPS lag with no background programs running and sometimes I MIGHT NOT get fps lag when I have many background programs running which actually requires some resources. Also, my CPU utilisation never really hits 100%, when I have these FPS lags it gets to like 80-90%.

 

You guys have any other suggestions? :/

 

If you re read Dalo's post, it appears that he is suggesting that the issue may well be with the PSU. I would strongly suggest that you try to find a substitute (borrowed if you can.) it may not be the issue but if it is no other suggestions are going to help.

Since none of his alternatives seemed to have worked, it is beginning to point more and more to an under performing PSU.

 

The only way to test it is to find substitute? You can't find out whether it's good or not by any other way?

 

You can test it using a Multi Meter Tester or a dedicated PSU tester. That being said, this is more an electrical issue than a computer issue. We have a number of members who I would rely on to give you instructions. While I am confident that I can do it, I feel very insecure about providing instructions. Someone will come along soon.

 

One more thing, if my PSU is the reason for not providing enough to power everything as it should be powered, wouldn't some of the PC parts (that lack the power) would be overheating or at least have higher temperature than usual? Because in my case, it doesn't seem that anything would be overheating :/

 

At this point I am relying on some general knowledge and not real expertise but it would seem that just the opposite would be the case. If something is underpowered it would give off less heat but also not be able to perform at peak performance.

 

Sadly, I'm not an expert on testing any electrical components, so in your position I would suggest trying a known to be good power supply unit (PSU). If you feel you have enough knowledge you could perhaps borrow a PSU from a friends computer (Just as BeeCeeBee has already suggested)... (At least 400W or maybe more)

If you are familiar with the cables and sockets on your motherboard, then testing in this way should not take more than ten minutes or so. Just take all the usual precautions when working inside the tower.

 

Hi,
there are ways of testing a power supply, however the problem needs to be looked at while the system is under load to see if relevant voltages are lower than they should be. That can be achieved by multimeter, but is a job for a trained and skilled person.
The voltages can be checked with the power supply disconnected from the rest of the computer, but that may not show up a faulty voltage or part of the power supply where the voltage dips too low when under load.

Now here is the interesting bit, some software can show us some of the voltages we need to be looking at without even opening the case. Granted, not all of the voltages coming from the power supply but certainly those relevant to the CPU and other important things.

Download and install Speccy from here =

http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download

Download the free version as it is all we need for the moment.
Once installed open it and choose "Motherboard" from the menu.

If possible a screen shot of that page during the time when the computer is giving you problems may show us enough information to go on.

Nev.

 

One thing to keep in mind that there is an actual PSU tester that may be more expensive than a new Power supply. Power supplies are just not all that expensive and by any standard yours is a bit old anyway.

 

Hey guys, I really really appreciate your help, thanks a lot for trying to help me! )
As requested I made (few) screenshots of Speccy stats when the lag occurs at couple different times. It isn't really that much different but I still thought I could upload all 4.

The thing that kills me is randomness of these lags...for example I was testing it today on Starcraft 2, I would try to overload as much as possible (placing many units, buildings in one place) and sometimes lags wouldn't occur, sometimes it would. 1 time when the lags occurred I alt tabbed to make a screenshot, when I tabbed back my FPS was good again, but it only happened once out of several times when I was testing it.

But as I said, it's not only with the games...sometimes I would get huge spikes while browsing on Firefox or Google Chrome.

I actually cleaned my PC with vacuum cleaner yesterday (I kinda cleaned it several weeks ago (not with vacuum) and it had no effect, thought I'd give it another try though) and it seemed a little better, less lag spikes occurred but they still occurred.

 

Are all of your problems related to on line activity or are there lags at other times? Could this be an ISP issue?

By the way cleaning with a vacuum is not a very good idea. A non static brush and some compressed air is far safer.

 

Are you able to, or have you already tried a known to be working correctly PSU?

 

I was careful doing that, lol. I highly highly doubt it could be ISP issue, however I think that all my problems are related to online activity, other activities I do not online doesn't really require many resources (word, power point and similar). But as I said I doubt it's ISP, never had similar problems with ISP and it's been really stable for quite some time. But if you have any suggestions that you think might help I'll try them out.

No, not yet. I might be able to try it out tomorrow if not I will most probably bring my PC who actually has equipment to test PSU and who knows what he's doing lol.

 

Doesn't look like much wrong in those readings from Speccy, if you have a friend who knows what he is doing, by all means see if he finds something. Plrease let us know if he does, and what it was as it can be of help to others with similar problems.