Very odd problem with my PC

Andayle

Andayle

Andayle

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Joined
30 Jul 2010
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83
Location
Cornwall UK
Hi all,

Well this has me really baffled. My PC has started showing artifacts but only on pictures in websites etc. Gaming seems fine with no artifact etc. I'm running an i5 3570K with a Nvidia 670. Nothing is overclocked and I've even reset the bios to make sure. I've run memtest from a bootable usb stick for around 2 hours with no faults, I've run Prime95 for around 2 hours with no faults and temps don't go above 50c also have run 3d mark a couple of times to stress the GPU and no artifacts show.

It gets weird though. I thought maybe firefox was playing up as I only get the artifacts on still images like youtube thumnails and website backgrounds etc so I installed Chrome to try that. Chrome installed fine but most of the times the websites are not reachable such as youtube with an SSL auth error or sometimes the web pages load with just text and all squashed up to the left of the browser. My steam won't download for more than around 30 seconds and keeps pausing its self (this only started with the artifacting). Also in my bios and in CPUZ it's detecting my CPU as an i5 3170k. It confused me enough to actually log on to Overclockers store and check what I had bought a few years ago lol, I definitely did by an i5 3570k

I've stress tested everything I can think off and I'm not getting anywhere, So far its not crashing and I can play games for hours with no artifacts, but web browsing gets messy with artifacts.

Anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks.
 
Hi Andayle,

Just something easy to try while you wait for someone more knowledgeable to help you - have you tried web browsing while your 670 is stressed doing something else, and do the artifacts still occur then?
 
Yup artifacts are still there, Seems I have a new problem now though. My sound has started crackling quite loud and popping randomly when gaming etc. I really have no idea whats going on. I just wish I could make it fail while stressing it so I knew where the hardware was failing.
 
Well I may have found the problem, when I run prime95 using the torture test with the inplace large TFT's setting. Worker 3 stops instantly with a fatal error

FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.4986044873, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

Looks like my CPU might be dieing. Is this conclusive? I have no overclock so it's not that. Or is that test I'm performing not the correct one?
 
I had that with a Q9400 CPU back in 2009. Web sites were artifacting in Firefox, Windows Explorer crashing to desktop, yet games were running perfecto. Tried out different parts, new RAM, new GPU etc, turned out to be the Q9400. PC Check returned errors on one of the cores.
 
It's being detected as a 3170k? :o

Do you have anyone with an Ivy/Sandy CPU you could swap out and test with/put your GPU into someone elses rig and see if artifacts occur?
 
Shivy011 said:
It's being detected as a 3170k? :o

Do you have anyone with an Ivy/Sandy CPU you could swap out and test with/put your GPU into someone elses rig and see if artifacts occur?
Click to expand...

That's one of things that's made diagnosing this so hard. The closest anyone has near me to a PC is an old Core2Duo :( lol

@Monserrat Yep that is almost exactly the same symptoms as mine, apart from the crashing.

I'm tempted to just order up a new i7 4790k and a mobo to match.
 
Have you tried simply reseating the CPU?

Check the socket look A1 at the same time, not sure if that one has pins I am a noob.

It is unlucky of the CPU is on the fritz, they are usually very reliable.
Pod
 
list your parts

mb/psu/memory/hdd/ssd ect

tried a long cmos clear? battery left out a good 10-15 minutes then try
 
Gigabyte Sniper m3
Corsair Vengeance LP 4gb 1600 X2
i5 3570k
Samsung SSD 128gb
Samsung mechanical 1TB
Enermax 750w PSU
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

I've been fiddling again this morning, It's now pointing to a RAM issue. If I drop my RAM speed down to 1400 from 1600 the failure in Prime95 goes away. I've checked all my RAM timings and voltage and they are set at 9 9 9 24 and 1.5 volts as stated on the RAM sticks. So is it a RAM issue? or is the motherboard on the way out? I have no idea.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, its much appreciated :)
 
Updated the bios but still getting the same problem. System has been fine for around 2 years right up until about 2 weeks ago when I started noticing the artifacts. Also the crackly sound has stopped now I have under clocked the RAM.
 
you can try with 1.55v dram voltage it wont hurt it

cpu/vtt should be ok on stock 1.05v

try setting

vcore voltage response to fast
pwm phase control to extreme performance
manually set the cpu/pci bclk to 100

I do that whether stock or oc'd
 
Ok upped the voltage on the ram to 1.55

set vcore to fast
pwn to extreme
CPU/PCI bclk was already manually set at 100

Still get the artefacts, I'm still totaly puzzled as to why my CPU is detected wrong in he bios
 
Screenshot%202014-07-20%2013.19.56.png


Thats a screenshot of my CPUZ, as you can see its detecting the CPU completely wrong in 2 places.

EDIT: Hmm don't know why the screenshot is not working, but here is a direct link to it https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjqqbe24296wtu4/Screenshot 2014-07-20 13.19.56.png
 
Last edited:
it could be software bug with cpu-z

ive seen few issues with latest version

look in windows/system info does that say correct cpu?
 
Nope thats the odd thing, both the bios and windows are reporting I have an i5-3170K :(

I don't even think that processor exists does it? lol
 
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