older PC strange behavior with prime 95 and other apps ?

oldy

Weaksauce
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Dec 11, 2015
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i just bought gtx 1060 for my main PC and put my old hd 7970 to my old PC to use it as secondary PC for the living room instead of collecting dust

the older pc specs :
i5 750 (stock speed)
GA-P55A-UD3R
hd 7970 ghz
8 gb ram
Antec EarthWatts GREEN 650W
windows 10

i tried to stress the system with prime95 and after few minutes it stop stressing some of the cores or all of them even (it goes from full load to 1% to 20% something like that) that is happening always in the "blend test" and "large fft" but the "small fft" test do stress the system as long as i keep it running ( i tried +12 hours with no problem)

there is no heating issues at all even under full stress system never goes above 70c
also i tried the pc with other PSU in case it had something wrong (cx600) and it had the same behavior

there are other things i think worth mentioning

i tried to install few games to test it out with the hd 7970 doom works perfectly with 80 - 120 fps on high sittings but gta 5 works for few minuets then crash

there is no heating on the cpu or the gpu i tried two different copy of gta 5 and both have the same problem (crashing after few minuets of playing with good 40 to 80 fps with high sittings)

both of gta 5 copys works fine on my main pc (6700k - gtx 1060)

also when i try to install a game or unrar it (gta 5 on both cracked copy and doom ISO file) it says there are missing files or currpted files (something like that) which wont happen if i install it or unrar it on other PC so i have to unrar or install the game on other pc then copy it to this PC (some games install or unrar just fine)

what could be the problem ? i dont want to spend more on it unless i have to
 
get memtest86 and run it to check to see if your ram is ok check your hardrives smart values can use DiskCheckup to check that to rule both them out next option would be cpu or motherboard i would think.
 
get memtest86 and run it to check to see if your ram is ok check your hardrives smart values can use DiskCheckup to check that to rule both them out next option would be cpu or motherboard i would think.

for the ram test i left the system for few hours running memtest86 and just took this :

890771b19825dd8.jpg


for the DiskCheckup test i have 64 gb crucial ssd that have the OS and 500 gb 2.5" wd black as secondary drive
the SSD run the ckeckup test and smart test without any errors but the HDD says it cant run neither the long or short checkup test and says it does not support the smart test so i cant tell for sure is it ok or not

also here are a screenshot i took today for the system after first core droped the usage from 100% to 14% with blend prime95 test (as can you see there is no heating issue but somebody told me the voltage could be the problem) :

6c06d0e78b57ff3.png


00a84e2d84de74d.png
 
also here is the core (that droped the usage first) prime95 window text :

[Jan 24 21:01] Worker starting
[Jan 24 21:01] Setting affinity to run worker on logical CPU #4
[Jan 24 21:01] Beginning a continuous self-test on your computer.
[Jan 24 21:01] Please read stress.txt. Choose Test/Stop to end this test.
[Jan 24 21:01] Test 1, 6500 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M12451841 using Pentium4 type-2 FFT length 640K, Pass1=640, Pass2=1K.
[Jan 24 21:03] Test 2, 6500 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M12451839 using Pentium4 FFT length 640K, Pass1=640, Pass2=1K.
[Jan 24 21:04] FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
[Jan 24 21:04] Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Jan 24 21:04] Torture Test completed 1 tests in 2 minutes - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
[Jan 24 21:04] Worker stopped.
 
Test the RAM again with no drives plugged in. Looks like it is the issue. Drives may test fine once RAM issue resolved.
 
Ok, focus please:

With the pirated game, troubleshooting is pointless. We don't know if the archive wasn't purposefully tampered with.

CPU usage dropping may be evidence of throttling.
Throttling can happen at the motherboard level or the CPU level, and a program like Throttlestop will show you if the clocks and multiplier are maintained at 100% during your tests.

Throttling doesn't necessarily have to be caused by heat; I had a Gigabyte board that had a bad CPU VRM section and it would decide to throttle when I ran Core 2 Quads on it (Core 2 Duos worked fine).

Memory errors can be related to the memory or the memory controller on your CPU.

1. did this happen before you installed the 7970?
2. have you tried running just one stick of RAM? Try to mix and match your sticks (assuming you have 2x4GB)

Thoughts added a few minutes afterwards:
- the disks are probably irrelevant if you are experiencing memory errors
- focus on the memory. remove a stick, re-seat them, mix and match.
 
Ok, focus please:

With the pirated game, troubleshooting is pointless. We don't know if the archive wasn't purposefully tampered with.

CPU usage dropping may be evidence of throttling.
Throttling can happen at the motherboard level or the CPU level, and a program like Throttlestop will show you if the clocks and multiplier are maintained at 100% during your tests.

Throttling doesn't necessarily have to be caused by heat; I had a Gigabyte board that had a bad CPU VRM section and it would decide to throttle when I ran Core 2 Quads on it (Core 2 Duos worked fine).

Memory errors can be related to the memory or the memory controller on your CPU.

1. did this happen before you installed the 7970?
2. have you tried running just one stick of RAM? Try to mix and match your sticks (assuming you have 2x4GB)

Thoughts added a few minutes afterwards:
- the disks are probably irrelevant if you are experiencing memory errors
- focus on the memory. remove a stick, re-seat them, mix and match.

1. did this happen before you installed the 7970?

yes (i did not use this PC much though for few years)

2. have you tried running just one stick of RAM? Try to mix and match your sticks (assuming you have 2x4GB)

do you mean the stressing test with prime95 or memtest86 or both ? also i have 4*2GB sticks (every 2 sticks from different brand but with same speed) if that mades any deference
shoud i test the system with one ram stick at a time (four times) to spot the faulty stick (or sticks) ?
does the memtest86 tests i post indicates that i have a memory problem (what i mean should i pass the test with 0 errors to make sure there is no memory problem? or as long as it is less than some number i will be fine) ?

finally to make sure i get your answer :

1-i need to do Throttlestop test
2- the problem probably on on of three components one or more of the ram sticks or the motherborad or the memory controller on the cpu ? is that right ?

thanks
 
do you mean the stressing test with prime95 or memtest86 or both ? also i have 4*2GB sticks (every 2 sticks from different brand but with same speed) if that mades any deference
shoud i test the system with one ram stick at a time (four times) to spot the faulty stick (or sticks) ?
does the memtest86 tests i post indicates that i have a memory problem (what i mean should i pass the test with 0 errors to make sure there is no memory problem? or as long as it is less than some number i will be fine) ?

I think both prime95 and memtest are showing you different symptoms but the cause ought to be the same.
Both programs can show you problems with either the CPU or RAM.
Problem is, Lynnfield (your i5) has a memory controller that is integrated into the CPU.
So, you either have a problem with the CPU (its memory controller) or one of your RAM sticks.

shoud i test the system with one ram stick at a time (four times) to spot the faulty stick (or sticks)

Yeah, exactly, I think you should start with removing all but one, run tests (either prime95 or memtest, or both if you have the time) four times (each time with just one of your four sticks).
If your tests show errors with one particular stick, then you have a memory problem.
If there are no errors on any sticks, try adding more sticks.
If problems appear with more than one stick, then you probably have a CPU problem.

You can run throttlestop right now, with all four sticks, while prime95 is running. That way you will be able to immediately see if the drop in CPU usage is related to throttling.

If I'm explaining wrong - please feel free to ask :D

Edith: with throttlestop, just post a screenshot while prime95 is running and we'll be able to tell if something's up.
 
I think both prime95 and memtest are showing you different symptoms but the cause ought to be the same.
Both programs can show you problems with either the CPU or RAM.
Problem is, Lynnfield (your i5) has a memory controller that is integrated into the CPU.
So, you either have a problem with the CPU (its memory controller) or one of your RAM sticks.



Yeah, exactly, I think you should start with removing all but one, run tests (either prime95 or memtest, or both if you have the time) four times (each time with just one of your four sticks).
If your tests show errors with one particular stick, then you have a memory problem.
If there are no errors on any sticks, try adding more sticks.
If problems appear with more than one stick, then you probably have a CPU problem.

You can run throttlestop right now, with all four sticks, while prime95 is running. That way you will be able to immediately see if the drop in CPU usage is related to throttling.

If I'm explaining wrong - please feel free to ask :D

Edith: with throttlestop, just post a screenshot while prime95 is running and we'll be able to tell if something's up.

thanks for the detailed reply :) everything now looks clear
used cpu and ram can be found for cheap just hope there is no problem with the motherboard itself

will get back to you when i finish testing
 
I think both prime95 and memtest are showing you different symptoms but the cause ought to be the same.
Both programs can show you problems with either the CPU or RAM.
Problem is, Lynnfield (your i5) has a memory controller that is integrated into the CPU.
So, you either have a problem with the CPU (its memory controller) or one of your RAM sticks.



Yeah, exactly, I think you should start with removing all but one, run tests (either prime95 or memtest, or both if you have the time) four times (each time with just one of your four sticks).
If your tests show errors with one particular stick, then you have a memory problem.
If there are no errors on any sticks, try adding more sticks.
If problems appear with more than one stick, then you probably have a CPU problem.

You can run throttlestop right now, with all four sticks, while prime95 is running. That way you will be able to immediately see if the drop in CPU usage is related to throttling.

If I'm explaining wrong - please feel free to ask :D

Edith: with throttlestop, just post a screenshot while prime95 is running and we'll be able to tell if something's up.

this is after first core dropped usage "using prime95" (all 4 ram sticks are on) :



and this is when all cores dropped :


what does this mean ?

will come back with one by one ram testing results
 
Last edited:
this is after first core dropped usage "using prime95" (all 4 ram sticks are on) :


and this is when all cores dropped :

what does this mean ?

will come back with one by one ram testing results

In throttlestop, you can see C0% which is each core's usage. Cmod and Chip are chipset and clock modulators. 100 means - full speed ahead.
Now, when you have 4 threads of prime95 going, you should be seeing C0% at 100% across the board, and Cmod and Chip at 100. FID is your multiplier - should stay at 21.

Although, one of the cores (2 out of 4) is as you can see not stressed, but there is also no throttling. This is either some form of power saving, not stressing enough, a bug in prime.

Could you check if you can get all cores going to 100% utilization? Like a different mode in prime95 and make sure all 4 threads are running?

If your results with throttlestop are still inconclusive, forget about it and go on with prime95 and memtest - one stick at a time, then mode sticks.

Good luck
 
Could you check if you can get all cores going to 100% utilization? Like a different mode in prime95 and make sure all 4 threads are running?

yes the small fft test in prime95 can go on stressing all core as long as i let it
but the blend test and large fft test have a usage drop in few minuets
 
yes the small fft test in prime95 can go on stressing all core as long as i let it
but the blend test and large fft test have a usage drop in few minuets

Oh. Well alright then. My bad - focus on the tests.
If you don't already know, there's also IntelBurnTest, which is a stress test also but automatically loads all cores, stresses the memory something fierce.
It's so good you'll see 80 degrees were you're currently seeing 60. Be careful.
 
Oh. Well alright then. My bad - focus on the tests.
If you don't already know, there's also IntelBurnTest, which is a stress test also but automatically loads all cores, stresses the memory something fierce.
It's so good you'll see 80 degrees were you're currently seeing 60. Be careful.

sorry for the delayed replay i wasnt around yesterday

so i test all ram sticks one by one and found one faulty stick (ocz) which funny enough i have been warned about in 2010 by a friend says it has bad reputation just find out 7 years later :)

i stress the system back with the other 3 reaming sticks and i works fine for more than an hour then add a 4GB stick i took from a friend (so the total is 10GB) and ran gta 5 (the same copy) for about an hour with no problem

after that i ran both prime95 and furmark to test the whole system and more than 12 hours later still at 100% usage

i believe the problem has been solved

just want to say thank you and good luck
 
sorry for the delayed replay i wasnt around yesterday

so i test all ram sticks one by one and found one faulty stick (ocz) which funny enough i have been warned about in 2010 by a friend says it has bad reputation just find out 7 years later :)

i stress the system back with the other 3 reaming sticks and i works fine for more than an hour then add a 4GB stick i took from a friend (so the total is 10GB) and ran gta 5 (the same copy) for about an hour with no problem

after that i ran both prime95 and furmark to test the whole system and more than 12 hours later still at 100% usage

i believe the problem has been solved

just want to say thank you and good luck

My pleasure. Really glad you managed to find it.
 
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