PC slow down fixed by unplugging Power

[RAJOD]

My sons windows 7 64 PC has some strange behavior.
Q9450 2.66 stock
6 gigs ram
win 7 pro 64
Xonar DX sound
Nvidia 560 Ti 449 core (stock)
Large corsair heatsink A70
New Corsair 650 watt PS

1. USB ports would enable disable at times making the windows sound. I fix this by unplugging a USB to Monitor external port. Not sure why as it was not being used.

2. Certain windows actions will slow a game or 3D map editor etc to a crawl. Even exiting the game will leave windows very sluggish. Looking at the task manager reveals no application eating the cycles.

3. Rebooting helps for about 15 min then slow down again.

4. Unplugging PC for 5 minutes seems to have fixed it for 2 hours so far.

I'm wondering if this is not from static build up. His PC sits on top of a plastic utility table (sold at Officemax) After using his mouse for sometime he would get up and if he touched the mouse the computer would restart. I fixed this by spraying anti static spray on his mouse mat.

So could a slow static build up cause this erratic behavior?

Also PC is not running hot nor is video card.

My guess is its video card or static. It seems to be hardware related.

Any ideas? Would it be better to put the computer on the floor so it could discharge any static to carpet?

I'm a bit stumped on this one.

 

[mfenn]

I'm thinking that this is a heat issue. Unplugging it doesn't help because it's unplugged, but because it's just off.

What did you use to make a the determination that the PC isn't running hot? Download HWMonitor and report back with the temps.

 

[RAJOD]

I'm thinking that this is a heat issue. Unplugging it doesn't help because it's unplugged, but because it's just off.

What did you use to make a the determination that the PC isn't running hot? Download HWMonitor and report back with the temps.

Bios temps, cpu temps, etc.

Plus its in a new corsair case with great air flow and huge corsair A70 HS and its running stock, not over clocked at all.

Video card runs super cool.

Unplugging does have a positive effect. Rebooting does not seem to have same effect as a physical unplugging unit.

No BSODs just slow, i mean much more than if cpu downclocked to 2 GHZ.

Both games and windows are sluggish.

Things that bring it on are

Alt tabbing from games.

So could be playing a game for 3 hours full speed 100fps then one alt tab to firefox and back into game and fps are like 15fps.

Programs it messes up on

3dsmax
company of heros
world of tanks
others.

So why would it suddenly over heat on a alt tab. that makes no sense.

 

[RAJOD]

It could be the new nvidia drivers. That system has a new win 7 install and I did upgrade to newer nvidia drivers. I see a ton of post on people complaining over alt tab slow downs. I go back to old and let ya know how it goes.

 

[RAJOD]

Yes the video card drivers seem to have fixed it. This is not good for Nvidia gtx 670/680 owners. I have read many threads of people returning the card or reinstalling entire OS to fix.

Alt Tabbling in a game or even a pop up ad while in game (ie. steam, avast etc) seems to start the endless slowdown cycle.

Drivers 296.10 and below seem fine but the 300 series I think are meant for the newer 600 series cards.

Those people either have to avoid alt tabbing ever or wait it out. It think many have blamed it on the hardware. I don't think the 296.10 drivers will work on the new gtx 670s so they have no options.