Computer Trouble - Stuttering - With Fix!

[gstelmack]

We have so many of these "my computer is acting up" stories that I thought I'd give mine along with what it turned out to be in the hopes that in the future someone will be having similar issues, remember the thread, and try this as well. This can be filed under "is everything plugged in?" and "is the power supply dead?" as common issues that appear much more severe than they are and are some of the first things to check for.

I have been playing NBA 2k11 recently, and had started to notice some stuttering. Part way in to a game, all of a sudden the frame rate seemed to start skipping frames, and it made it weird to control the guy. I messed around with settings, but nothing worked, I was seeing frame rates either around 50 (stutters when you have a 60Hz LCD) or mid-20s (same). I was ready to chalk this up to a recent graphic driver update, but then Dungeon Defenders started doing the same thing at weird spots. It wouldn't last in Dungeon Defenders, but was annoying and had not been happening even a week or two ago. That ruled out graphic drivers as the culprit.

So, while drooling over the possibility of needing a new graphic card, I went through the checklist. From past experience I knew that if temperatures get too high, graphic cards will slow down the clock. With drivers ruled out, this seemed like a new likely candidate, since the game starts off fine, but stutters after it's been running for a bit. I went searching for a good temperature utility; I used to own a copy of Everest Ultimate, but then they got bought out. I came across SpeedFan, installed it, and ran it.

And noticed that sitting on Windows with CPU utilization under 1%, my CPU core temperatures were up over 80 degrees Celsius! They should be idling under 50 for the Core i7 920 I have, and really can be under 40 with aftermarket cooling systems. Now I have visions of needing to at least reseat the heatsink and fan, which involves scraping off the old thermal grease, something I've never successfully done. And I'm not good at putting it on in the first place, which is a key reason I suspected this had gone bad. Worst case here is a new CPU to go with it if it's been damaged by the heat.

But of course the first thing you do when you are going to work on your computer is take it outside and blow all the dust out of it. And man was there a TON in there. Blew it all out, made sure all the fans and vents were clear, then hooked the computer back up.

Temps back down in the 40s and stay there. NBA 2k11 back up to over 80 FPS (which plays like butter at 60Hz). Even after playing a game, temps never got up very high at all.

So the moral of the story is: remember to blow the dust out of your case occasionally, it may do wonders for your game performance...

[RendeR]

There is a resounding "DUUUHHH" hiding within this story somewhere

[MIJB#19]

Thanks for the reminder, I desperately need to undust my machines too.