Trying to figure out whnat is causing this problem

[demonix]

I've put this in here since I'm not sure if it's a motherboard or CPU issue since I'm considering that either could be the cause.

Asus H81M-K
Intel Celeron G1820
8GB (2x4GB) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600Mhz
Zotac GTX 1050Ti
Seagate Firecuda 1TB SSHD
Toshiba 2TB HDD
Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD

I purchased this (note that everything below the processor has been added afterwards as it originally only came with 2GB RAM (which was still crucial RAM) a 320GB 2.5" HDD that failed and a PSU that I think was only around 250W which has been changed for a 450W EVGA PSU) as a pet project to turn it into a gaming PC (upgrading the CPU, upgrading the RAM and adding a graphics card along with putting in a more powerful PSU), but now I'm not sure if I should continue with the project as it's developed a few issues which is making me wonder if I have a hardware issue as originally I just had an issue using PPSSPP where certain games would stutter (that was with the RAM and GPU upgrades) which I just put down to the celeron since a sandy bridge pentium with a bit more RAM and a GT610 could do better but now things are getting worse which includes the following (probably all of them, and I won't put them in this wall of text).

Audio in spotify would stutter when certain adverts were loading (it doesn't seem to affect what I would consider internal spotify adverts)
Downloading certain game using certain game clients (epic games launcher, wargamnig gamecenter and blizzard app/battle.net) cause the whole computer to lag with system interrupts using a large amount of the processor resources (which if what I've read is correct is not supposed to happen as it's only mean to use 20% at most)
Audio would cut out in some games intermittently (again, this is all on internet based games).

I was originally unsure as to what was causing the issue since it all started kicking off just after I put in the 3TB HDD in which I think was just a coincidence, but with almost all the issues being related to the network I'm not sure if the processor is starting to fail (considering I'm now getting framerate issues in world of warships that I never did have and the 1050Ti is pretty much falling asleep running the game) or if the problem is with the motherboard (which I can at least replace, although I'll most likely lose the windows license even though I obtained the original product key from the BIOS as this is a pre-built system).

Regardless of if this can be fixed, I've decided to build a new PC for my primary gaming needs and this one if it can be fixed will serve some other function.

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

Is the 3TB plugged into a SATA 2 or SATA 3 port? You only have two of each, according to the mobo specs. Might be worth updating your SATA and chipset drivers.
Perhaps get into network settings and enable QoS too.

I've also seen something (although I can't remember what) about high-cap HDDs not playing nice in some systems- might be worth seeing if there's a more recent BIOS as well.

 

[demonix]

Is the 3TB plugged into a SATA 2 or SATA 3 port? You only have two of each, according to the mobo specs. Might be worth updating your SATA and chipset drivers.
Perhaps get into network settings and enable QoS too.

I've also seen something (although I can't remember what) about high-cap HDDs not playing nice in some systems- might be worth seeing if there's a more recent BIOS as well.

The 3TB is on a SATA 2 port (as there was only one available), and I've already got the latest drivers installed (at least for the SATA chipset driver since it's the first thing I installed as the generic storAHCI driver that MS uses isn't what I would call reliable) including what was at the time the latest driver for the realtek network hardware since I thought originally that the original driver was the issue, and QoS does appear to be enabled.

One other thing I remembered is that the lag I get on downloads only happens during download and everything works as normal when there is hard drive activity (along with it going away after I installed the latest windows 10 feature update only to come back and end up in the state it currently is in which I think is the worst it has been) and for some unknown reason it never affects steam downloads.

I also googled the issue originally and found some info on how to geek which is why I ruled out the addition of the third hard drive as the actual issue since all of the issues (those that weren't already present) were network related, but I went back to read the full article and while it does state updating the BIOS might help (and I would have to do it anyway because most of the processor exploits have been patched in BIOS) I'm not sure if trying to flash a stock BIOS is going to affect anything else like the windows license key since this is a zoostorm PC and the original windows license key is embedded in the BIOS (the only thing I can do at the moment is to get a USB 3 network adapter to see if it really is the issue).

 

[demonix]

Small update:

I decided to check if there were any new drivers for the network hardware and there were (I think it was from last month), and after a bit of hassle I got everything back online and it appeared that the problem had gone away but after about a day I started seeing and hearing signs that the problem had not gone away so now I'm going towards the PSU being the culprit since as I said before that all started when I added a third hard drive which would mean more power being required from the PSU which would mean that the about 1 year old EVGA 450B PSU that is running this system (and I'm probably not going to be able to do an RMA on since I don't have any of the original packaging and the fault might not appear in testing) is more then likely not working as it should and will need replacing (which is a good thing since I'm going full modular with future PSU purchases).

 

[HoneyBadger]

A 450 watt PSU Should run all that ok. What’s your cooling like?

 

[Danny75]

(considering I'm now getting framerate issues in world of warships that I never did have and the 1050Ti is pretty much falling asleep running the game)

Reduce mem frequency to 1333MHz and test.

 

[demonix]

A 450 watt PSU Should run all that ok. What’s your cooling like?

Cooling isn't the issue here as I did have MSI afterburner running for the extra data it can provide and even during the hotter days both CPU and GPU were sitting at around 60 degrees when gaming (before then, I wouldn't know since I only decided to run MSI afterburner to rule out temperature issues) and a faulty PSU can be the cause of system interrupts using more CPU then it should (I've also been hearing what I think is the PSU fan ramping up and down in speed for brief periods over the previous week which is making my suspect that it has issues).

Reduce mem frequency to 1333MHz and test.

The celeron G1820 only supports a maximum RAM frequency of 1333Mhz, so anything that has a higher frequency is reduced to 1333Mhz (also this system came with a 2GB stick of 1600Mhz RAM which is why I stuck to the same frequency since the CPU was going to be upgraded and the core i processors do support 1600Mhz RAM).

 

[HoneyBadger]

Cooling isn't the issue here as I did have MSI afterburner running for the extra data it can provide and even during the hotter days both CPU and GPU were sitting at around 60 degrees when gaming (before then, I wouldn't know since I only decided to run MSI afterburner to rule out temperature issues) and a faulty PSU can be the cause of system interrupts using more CPU then it should (I've also been hearing what I think is the PSU fan ramping up and down in speed for brief periods over the previous week which is making my suspect that it has issues).

You cannot say that for sure, hence why you're asking for help. For example, if you're system was running hot and throttling, this could cause "Lag" - since you made no mention of temps in your original post, I felt the need to ask.

As you clearly know your stuff, I'll leave you to troubleshoot your issue as I play on my perfectly running PC

 

[demonix]

You cannot say that for sure, hence why you're asking for help. For example, if you're system was running hot and throttling, this could cause "Lag" - since you made no mention of temps in your original post, I felt the need to ask.

As you clearly know your stuff, I'll leave you to troubleshoot your issue as I play on my perfectly running PC

I hadn't felt the need to check temps before I posted this originally because the issues only occurred under certain conditions and before things went to hell in a handcart frame rate in world of warships was well within the norms (I think most of the time I was hitting the 75fps limit imposed by the game itself) until a few patches ago which only happened in one event and I put that down to it having to deal with a large amount of moving objects at one time with the CPU being a bottleneck to the GPU and when it spread to the general game modes and other operations I installed MSI afterburner after others thought it was down to thermal throttling, and while my runs mostly ruled out thermal throttling it did show that the G1820 was being a bottleneck to the 1050Ti as the CPU was pegged at 100% most of the time while the GPU was only going above 30% rarely, and I only mentioned the frame rate issue since world of warships is an online game and all the time I've had issues was during data transfers

Now I'm not even sure if the PSU is the issue and the problem is a lot deeper as yesterday after I started up the system and all looked to be fine until I'd noticed that not everything had loaded up, there was no network connection and apart from the network section in the settings app (which didn't really load correctly) nothing else would run and I had to do a forced power down since even trying a restart within windows didn't do anything (it looked like the hard drive was running, but nothing was happening) and even though it's now working properly I'm not even sure if I should keep on trying to sort out this systems problems and just scrap the motherboard and PSU just to be sure (after making sure that all the data I need is backed up from the hard drive before I nuke the lot (even tough I'm keeping them since crystal disk info shows that they are all OK) before gutting the system) since getting another H81M-K should be simple enough and I want to switch over to fully modular power supplies since I don't want a rats nest of cables hanging around in the case that aren't being used.

 

[lude1962]

Intel Celeron G1820 <--- thats your problem

 

[ubersonic]

If your monitor has speakers (or audio output) you could try disabling the sound card in BIOS and using the 1050ti for sound. As it sounds like the issue mostly arises when using sound and LAN together.

Intel Celeron G1820 <--- thats your problem

Try reading threads before posting in them, then in future you will avoid randomly posting incorrect information

 

[GWANGY]

Everything you are saying sounds likes its related to your network , that could either be your internal network or your internet connection. You should try running some stress tests on your PC with it disconnected from the internet. EG AIDA64 .. run it for 4 or 5 hours , if everything seems fine , then move on to something else.
try connecting via wired connections to your router, rather than using Wi-fi
PRime95 for 6 or seven hours will stress test your CPU, full load and higher temps
Firestrike/Furmark for an hour or two will stress your GPU
Memtest to test the memory

faulty PSU can be the cause of system interrupts using more CPU then it should

This statement is factually incorrect and makes no sense.. the fan on your PSU will speed up or down depending on thepower load, you case fans and CPU fan will also ramp up and down in response to CPU load/Temp.
A re-install of windows 10 with only your needed utilitys and games could work
Anti-virus and malware check too ..malwarebytes 8/10
The g1820 is fairly low end (2c/2t)... and you could try running some tests without the gfx card installed , just in case

 

[demonix]

Answering in order without quotes.

1. @ubersonic My monitor is an HP 22kd and only has VGA and DVI connections with no speakers plus (I didn't mention this since I thought it wasn't necessary) I use a steelseries siberia 150 USB headset which doesn't rely on the on board sound (I've also used a creative soundblasterx G1 USB sound card in combination with a steelseries arctis 3 headset and had the same issues).

2. @GWANGY I have a dell precision T1600 connected to the same network which doesn't have these issues so I can rule out anything external to the affected system, also this is where I found my information regarding what could be causing system interrupts to be using more of the CPU then it should be, and while it's description of how a faulty PSU would cause the issues isn't what I'm experiencing, there is still the fact that this manifested itself after I added a third hard drive (which was a new and sealed unit which had a manufacture date of around a month or so before I purchased it) which is why I'm considering the PSU to be the primary culprit (my original plan to rule out an issue with the on board network hardware (and I'm only using a wired connection) was to get a USB3 network adapter, but now I'm not even sure if that would get around the problems if it was an issue with the PSU or even the CPU since the on board network is PCIe and unless I'm mistaken PCIe is controlled in part or in full by the CPU even though I'm getting out of my depth thinking about ifs and whats) unless I'm still missing something like the CPU going bad.

My priority at the moment is to make sure that I have backups of all necessary data (including all my installed games from steam and the like) before I take any further action (although one of the plans was to drop the tactical formatting nuke on the whole system and start from scratch which is going to be one of the things I'll try), although I might just put any further major expense into building a system that is going to meet my needs from the get go instead of buying an OEM build PC from the bottom end of the processor pool for an upgrade project.