Latency Issues, Or?

[Stolm]

Hi guys, recently put together a budget build. (My first new build in about 8 years.)

- Intel G3258 @ 3.2GHz

- 8GB Kingson Hyper Fury X

- Asus Z97-A Motherboard

- XFX 8800 GTS 512MB ( carried over from old PC)

- 500W Corsair PSU

- Windows 8.1 x64

On first install of Windows, everything ran flawless, system was buttery smooth, but I was having trouble installing windows updates. (Windows would search endlessly for new updates). I hadn't done much, so I decided just to reformat and install windows again.

Awhile after installing again I noticed the system wasn't performing as smoothly as it was before, and I was getting some weird pop and crackly noises when adjusting volume or skipping through video content.

I used LatencyMon to check lantencies and they were pretty bad, I tried to trouble shoot by removing usb peripherals and disabling certain thing in device manager but could not find anything.

So here I am on my 3rd reformat, latencies seem fine now, I am not getting any notification in LatencyMon about any drops in performance. But the damn crackle pop noise still persists when changing volume in the volume mixer. Also when running LatencyMon, the crackling happens all the time if their is audio playing. Turning LatencyMon off and I only ever notice the crackling on volume change or skipping through video content again.

Not sure what to make of this, I can hear the crackle pop noises through my wireless headset as well, so it's not my speakers.

I should also note that LatencyMon is showing a ton of Hard Page Faults with very long resolution times.
After about 20 minutes.

Reported Hard Pagefault Count = 14393

Highest Reported Hard Pagefault Resolution Time = 3709682.106629

Running all mechanical drives btw.

Please HELP!

EDIT: All Drivers, BIOS, etc up to date.

 

[Dangman]

Which Corsair 500W PSU are you using?

Remove that 8800GTS 512MB and use the onboard video.

 

[Stolm]

The PSU is a CX Builder.

By onboard you mean the IGPU on the G3258? Don't know why I would use it, the 8800 still is quite a bit better.

 

[Liger88]

The PSU is a CX Builder.

By onboard you mean the IGPU on the G3258? Don't know why I would use it, the 8800 still is quite a bit better.

Trouble shooting man lol.

Either way you shouldn't be getting that many page faults. There is definitely something going on there, the problem isn't exactly clear though. I'd probably swap out parts and go through it the long way starting with the memory. Take out half and test the system then test the other half.

The audio glitching probably has a lot to do with the hardware instability. I've had it multiple times but it just kind of eventually went away somewhere during the troubleshooting process. My guess is that those horrible memory faults are causing sound to be distorted heavily.

 

[Stolm]

K thank you. I did take out the gpu just to check, and it didn't help. Going to test the memory next.

I did run the memory through multiple memtest passthroughs without incident. But I have yet to take any of it out.

 

[Dangman]

The PSU is a CX Builder.

By onboard you mean the IGPU on the G3258? Don't know why I would use it, the 8800 still is quite a bit better.

As liger88 said, it's part of basic troubleshooting process: Whittle down to the bare essentials to rule out as many causes as possible. There's always a possibility that your 8800 is causing the issues.

 

[Stolm]

Tested both sticks separately, and in other DIMM slots and no change. I also tested the OS on a separate drive.

Not sure what to try next, besides taking all the parts out including the motherboard, and reinstalling everything. Maybe something not connected properly, I really don't know what it could be.

The only thing Memory related I can think of is my motherboard can't use XMP mode with my current memory. Not sure why. It seems to be running everything at proper timings, speed, and voltage though.

 

[Liger88]

I just thought of something, not sure how much it'll help but worth a try. I'd go into Windows Power Settings and change the minimum and maximum CPU speed to 100%. I do this after every install or new build. Also go into the BIOS and try turning off all SpeedStep and power saving features relating to the CPU. I think there are a couple but I forget exactly what they're called in the BIOS.

IIRC that was how I fixed similar lag/latency issues a couple of times. The dynamic clocking of the CPU has never worked properly for me and always caused more headaches than help when you're a normal user.

 

[Stolm]

I actually did try turning off all power saving features before when I was first reading about their effect on latency.

I tried turning them all of again to double check, and it doesn't seem to help. LatencyMon is showing good latency at the moment, but still lots of reported Hard Page Faults with long Resolution Times.... and still lots of crackling and popping.

 

[Stolm]

Here's a picture of what LatencyMon shows after 20 minutes of the computer idling.

http://postimg.org/image/g5gz9m2yh/

If no one has any other suggestions, I think I will go ahead and reassemble the computer later today.

 

[Liger88]

Here's a picture of what LatencyMon shows after 20 minutes of the computer idling.

http://postimg.org/image/g5gz9m2yh/

If no one has any other suggestions, I think I will go ahead and reassemble the computer later today.

I would almost try another OS like Windows Vista or 7 just to rule out any OS issues being the culprit. Once you can separate whether its hardware or software that will make finding the issue much easier.

The only thing OS wise I can think being the issue would have been Windows 8/8.1 having very crappy Windows Updates that have been wrecking machines over the past couple of years. Because you reinstalled it again and before applying updates it did the same thing it makes me think it's something hardware wise.

 

[Stolm]

Tried Windows 7,

http://postimg.org/image/mt7bz8hy3/

Latency is actually way worse, hard faults about the same but with longer resolution times.

Going to reassemble.