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TLDR: CPU changes max clock speed of 4.2Ghz to 4Ghz, randomly will go to idle speeds and return back to 4Ghz after clicking in app or game
I have been having an issue for a while now ( first noticed it a year and a half ago I think) but it wasn't really a big deal but has been steadily becoming more annoying. Its is several issues and has a weird list of symptoms so I will try to describe them the best I can. With the current state of hardware availability/pricing I am trying to now find a solution as I don't know if the cause is hardware or software. So here is a wall of text to try and describe it.
The issue is that my CPU will randomly go from the currently set speed of 4.2GHZ and at some point during the day will decide to make 4 GHZ the max speed it wants to run at. When this happens another issues can occur, games and some software will also not want to run at the normal load speed of 4ghz and downclock to idle speeds but will return back to the 4Ghz load speed if I click within the app or game. This will happen occasionally through the day and it can happen several times an hour or I can go hours without it happening.
As an example, when this issue starts handbrake will be affected. It would be working on a video file and go from the 4Ghz to idle speeds (800Mhz as an example). If I click in handbrake or even the desktop the speed returns back to 4Ghz. This will happen on and off and might not even happen again. It is very inconsistent. Games will be similarly affected, clicking in the game will return the CPU speed back to 4Ghz.
What has been making this confusing to troubleshoot and something I could deal until recently is that I can go days where the issue doesn't happen. However this has become much more frequent in the last 6 months or so and it happens daily now but inconsistent with the timing. General system stability has been fine, no constant crashes or errors that would indicate to me some hardware is near failure.
I actually thought I had narrowed down the issue as I plugged my power cable directly into the wall from my UPS. I had thought maybe the UPS was having problems providing power but this turned out false. After about 5 hours of 'normal ' behavior it returned back to this issue. During this 5 hours I played several games and ran handbrake for about an hour to compress some videos so I had the PC running at high load. After about 5 hours I was watching a video it returned to the issue so I concluded the UPS probably wasn't causing it.
Looking at temps everything seems fine. VRM reported temp never reaches 60c and CPU temp is under 70c. My PSU EVGA brand 700w, doesn't have any way to report information so I can't verify it.
I had considered the PSU but with how random it is I just have no idea. If spending $100 for a new PSU would fix it that would be great but if it doesn't I have a PSU I don't need. I have also looked around settings and BIOS and didn't really see anything to cause this. I even restored default BIOS options and windows power settings. I just don't understand how I can go from the issue starting after a few minutes after boot to happening hours later.
Also to throw another curveball into this, sometimes the CPU will also clock to 4.4Ghz as reported by HWinfo and confirmed with task manager. After some time, it might go back to 4.2Ghz or the 4Ghz. The common thing is there is nothing consistent with this issue which has made it difficult to isolate.
If it something else, motherboard/BIOS or software I have no idea. Has anywhere seen anything like this?
Thanks for reading my wall of text, it was hard to describe this one...
I have been having an issue for a while now ( first noticed it a year and a half ago I think) but it wasn't really a big deal but has been steadily becoming more annoying. Its is several issues and has a weird list of symptoms so I will try to describe them the best I can. With the current state of hardware availability/pricing I am trying to now find a solution as I don't know if the cause is hardware or software. So here is a wall of text to try and describe it.
The issue is that my CPU will randomly go from the currently set speed of 4.2GHZ and at some point during the day will decide to make 4 GHZ the max speed it wants to run at. When this happens another issues can occur, games and some software will also not want to run at the normal load speed of 4ghz and downclock to idle speeds but will return back to the 4Ghz load speed if I click within the app or game. This will happen occasionally through the day and it can happen several times an hour or I can go hours without it happening.
As an example, when this issue starts handbrake will be affected. It would be working on a video file and go from the 4Ghz to idle speeds (800Mhz as an example). If I click in handbrake or even the desktop the speed returns back to 4Ghz. This will happen on and off and might not even happen again. It is very inconsistent. Games will be similarly affected, clicking in the game will return the CPU speed back to 4Ghz.
What has been making this confusing to troubleshoot and something I could deal until recently is that I can go days where the issue doesn't happen. However this has become much more frequent in the last 6 months or so and it happens daily now but inconsistent with the timing. General system stability has been fine, no constant crashes or errors that would indicate to me some hardware is near failure.
I actually thought I had narrowed down the issue as I plugged my power cable directly into the wall from my UPS. I had thought maybe the UPS was having problems providing power but this turned out false. After about 5 hours of 'normal ' behavior it returned back to this issue. During this 5 hours I played several games and ran handbrake for about an hour to compress some videos so I had the PC running at high load. After about 5 hours I was watching a video it returned to the issue so I concluded the UPS probably wasn't causing it.
Looking at temps everything seems fine. VRM reported temp never reaches 60c and CPU temp is under 70c. My PSU EVGA brand 700w, doesn't have any way to report information so I can't verify it.
I had considered the PSU but with how random it is I just have no idea. If spending $100 for a new PSU would fix it that would be great but if it doesn't I have a PSU I don't need. I have also looked around settings and BIOS and didn't really see anything to cause this. I even restored default BIOS options and windows power settings. I just don't understand how I can go from the issue starting after a few minutes after boot to happening hours later.
Also to throw another curveball into this, sometimes the CPU will also clock to 4.4Ghz as reported by HWinfo and confirmed with task manager. After some time, it might go back to 4.2Ghz or the 4Ghz. The common thing is there is nothing consistent with this issue which has made it difficult to isolate.
If it something else, motherboard/BIOS or software I have no idea. Has anywhere seen anything like this?
Thanks for reading my wall of text, it was hard to describe this one...
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