Strange "slow-motion" effect in GUI and games

B

Bop

2[H]4U
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Oct 1, 2003
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Just recently I've encountered some strange bug that occurs randomly at boot up. In Windows 7, minimizing and maximizing windows occurs in what appears to be slow-motion. When this bug occurs the opening intro movies for DX:Human Revolution are also in slow-motion. I have to ctrl-alt-delete out because it'd take 4 minutes just for the intros to finish.

I have no idea what exactly is happening, but a reboot usually fixes it. Anyone ever encounter this before? I found a few people who had it while googling, but no one has found an answer.

EDIT: OK, this is getting very odd. I loaded up CS Source and I was getting 300fps and mouselook felt silky smooth, but the game was in slow-motion as well!
 
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I've only ever had this issue when the drivers were not updated. Do you have the latest drivers?
 
Failing hard drive can cause this. Check event viewer under control panel/administrative tools/event viewer and check for logged errors that may say hard disk or disk drive etc... In fact check for any errors and see what's reporting. Everything is time and date stamped so once it happens upon boot up write down the date and time and check around that time in all the logs. I'm sure something should be listed that may help explain what's going on.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Failing hard drive can cause this. Check event viewer under control panel/administrative tools/event viewer and check for logged errors that may say hard disk or disk drive etc... In fact check for any errors and see what's reporting. Everything is time and date stamped so once it happens upon boot up write down the date and time and check around that time in all the logs. I'm sure something should be listed that may help explain what's going on.
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I just swept through the logs and I didn't find anything related. :( This seems to happen on cold boots more, though.
 
Another update. I reformatted my system just in case it was some small software error, but that did not work.

I also tried each 6950 at a time and the same issue happened, so I can probably be sure the video cards are fine.

I am not any closer to narrowing down the problem here. :(
 
Bop said:
I just swept through the logs and I didn't find anything related. :( This seems to happen on cold boots more, though.
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I still think it's hard drive related. Just to be sure, you do have all drivers installed (check device manager) install the latest motherboard chipset drivers.

Run memtest just to be sure your ram isn't faulty as others have posted.

If you have a spare hard drive install windows on it and unplug your other hard drive fully. Use that drive to see if you get different behavior.

Finally check all your bios settings and make sure everything is set as it should be.
 
Try loading safe default values for your motherboard bios settings?
 
TheBuzzer said:
do a ram test
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I think it is the RAM now. I dropped all settings to stock and the problem seems to have disappeared. If I take the memory speed above 1066mhz and keep all other settings the same it happens again. Considering I had issues when I first bought the memory (the thread is around somewhere...) I would not be surprised if it is the problem. Luckily I have another set of RAM to try (though it isn't at my place :( ). I'll keep everyone informed.
 
Bop said:
I think it is the RAM now. I dropped all settings to stock and the problem seems to have disappeared. If I take the memory speed above 1066mhz and keep all other settings the same it happens again. Considering I had issues when I first bought the memory (the thread is around somewhere...) I would not be surprised if it is the problem. Luckily I have another set of RAM to try (though it isn't at my place :( ). I'll keep everyone informed.
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What voltage do you have your ram set to?
 
The memory checked out. This has to be either my CPU or motherboard. I'm suspecting that it's the CPU's memory controller since it happens whenever the memory speed is greater than 1066. It's odd though, this setup has been running fine for months 24+ hours Prime95 stable. :(
 
Okay, so I saw your thread again and it got me thinking, I've had this problem... yeaaars ago. There are 2 things that I remember can cause this type of behavior

1 Ram being installed in the wrong slot.

I downloaded and looked at your motherboard manual. It appears for 3 Dimms you need to have them installed specifically in the 2nd, 4th,and 6th slots. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th slots should be empty. Your sig says you have 12 GB I'm assuming 4GB x3 so please check that, nevernmind memtest passed it could still cause the slowdown if you populated the wrong slots.

The second thing that I believe hasn't been mentioned in this thread before is having 2 Antivirus software's installed at the same time. this I've never done but I've seen many times by people who brought me their computers. Make sure you only have one antivirus software installed.

Edit: Also update your bios to the newest version.
 
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Try enabling/disabling the CPU C-states in your bios.

I think this is cpu overclock related.
 
I tried the C-state setting and the RAM is in the correct slots. There is no AV software installed right now, this is from a fresh install of Win7.

The system is in "slow-mo" just about every boot now even at stock settings with the DRAM speed as low as 800mhz. I think this CPU is done for. I removed all other PCI-e cards and the second HDD to further isolate the potential problem. I just hope it isn't the board or the SSD(could an SSD even produce that effect?). I had everything within stock voltages (the CPU could actually run stable undervolted @ 3.8). I guess "shit happens."

EDIT: For some reason, when I boot up, Windows reports my CPU clock speed at ~15Ghz (CPU-Z identifies the correct speed). It's running so fast that it is slowing down reality which is why everything is in slow motion!
 
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bump, I tried an i7 950 in my board and the same problem is occurring. So I have tried a different set of RAM, a different CPU, and I tried testing each video card by itself. This is really starting to look like a motherboard problem...

List of parts positively known NOT to be the cause:
RAM
HDD
CPU
All the PCIe cards I removed. (Killer NIC, X-fi)

Possible, but highly unlikely:
Radeon 6950s (I tried one in at a time, so there is a very small chance that they're both defective)

Potential causes:
Motherboard
PSU? (would be odd)
__________________
 
I'm starting to think it's the SSD causing the problem here Bop, what makes you say you've ruled it out?

Also, can you clarify; has this problem absolutely always occurred, or is it something that's previously been occurring infrequently and has now been slowly getting worse?
 
spine said:
I'm starting to think it's the SSD causing the problem here Bop, what makes you say you've ruled it out?

Also, can you clarify; has this problem absolutely always occurred, or is it something that's previously been occurring infrequently and has now been slowly getting worse?
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I detached my SSD and I installed Win7 on my WD 2TB Green. That is what narrows it down a notch.

The issue previously occurred infrequently and is now getting worse. It's happening at just about every single boot-up. Some programs are still detecting the CPU speed at 13ghz.
 
I'm thinking it's probably the board. My 'if in doubt, it's the motherboard' strategy has paid off more times than I would like to admit.
 
samuelmorris said:
I'm thinking it's probably the board. My 'if in doubt, it's the motherboard' strategy has paid off more times than I would like to admit.
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Yep, it looks like that is the case. I popped in a third video card, a Radeon 5450 and it still happened. The process of elimination has left only the motherboard standing. Time to RMA it.
 
I don't believe it... I got the replacement board and it is STILL happening. How is this even possible? I've tried swapping out every part except the PSU. The only hint I have is Windows reports the CPU at 13Ghz. The BIOS still reports the correct speed.

I'm at a loss with what the hell to do... I doubt the PSU could cause this issue.
 
Korben Dallas said:
Have you updated the BIOS yet?
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Yep.

I installed Ubuntu to try a few things out. It reports the correct CPU speed and 3d games don't run in slow motion. I'm wondering if something is up with my copy of Windows since reformatting doesn't help.
 
This is some fucked up business. There's literally nothing else left to troubleshoot, unless you've got some deviant USB device plugged in that's haunted. I guess all that's left to do is replace the PSU but can't see how that could be at all related unless it's some truly bizarre vdroop issue.
 
Matrices said:
This is some fucked up business. There's literally nothing else left to troubleshoot, unless you've got some deviant USB device plugged in that's haunted. I guess all that's left to do is replace the PSU but can't see how that could be at all related unless it's some truly bizarre vdroop issue.
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Funny that you mention that. After all this time and effort (and money to ship the board) it turns out it was a $30 MOUSE! I can't believe it. I have never seen anything like this and I've been building PCs since '96. The mouse is a Zowie Mico if you want to avoid it like the plague. A damn shame, it has my favorite shape.
 
Hi guys! I just bought this Zowie Mico mouse and it got same slow motion effect in all games I tried, same as OP got. I think it happens with Asus motherboards. Maybe anyone got any ideas or solutions for this?
 
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