Sudden slow down of PC (Nvidia card not being utilized?)

[connmal]

Got my laptop few months ago. I'm not at all sure what triggered this but games I have been playing before with no problems on high settings suddenly stuttered and lagged rather terribly almost unplayable. I noticed my Nvidia graphics card was barely being utilized barely passing 10-20% and it wasnt getting hot staying around 40-60 degrees Celsius, CPU is fine too, relatively low usage and low temperature. Unable to figure what was the problem I did a full reset of my laptop with a fresh install of windows 10. (Not 11 because Tongfang's control center still doesn't have a update for windows 11)
And now my whole computer is slow and my Nvidia card isn't being utilized at all. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, that did not work. I have also tried forcing my laptop to use only the nvidia card and not the intel graphics but that makes things worse.

Here is a recent benchmark and as you can see everything is running terrible and I have no idea why: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/49276702




Here are my specs:

Chassis & Display	Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte QHD 165Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1440)
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 11800H (2.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader	Integrated SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor	1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery	Recoil Series Integrated 94WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste	ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card	2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless	GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 M.2 GAMING + BLUETOOTH 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options	1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language	PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK MECHANICAL KEYBOARD

 

[barlew]

How did you reinstall windows?

When you tried uninstalling your GPU and reinstalling it did you use DDU?

Are you sure that your GPU is not hotter than that? I would expect it to be mid to High 70's when running properly.

 

[connmal]

According to Speccy it doesn't get that hot. It used to when it worked properly but ever since the sudden slow down it never really reached passed 65 degrees tops.

And I reset my PC and delete all other files from my PC.

I didn't use DDU, but I'll give that a go!

 

[barlew]

According to Speccy it doesn't get that hot. It used to when it worked properly but ever since the sudden slow down it never really reached passed 65 degrees tops.

And I reset my PC and delete all other files from my PC.

I didn't use DDU, but I'll give that a go!

No idea what Speccy is. Use HWMonitor.

Reseting is not a good way to reinstall Windows. You need to create a Windows installation USB using the Windows Media Creation tool and do a full clean install of Windows.

Once this is complete you need to run Windows update repeatedly untill all updates are installed (make sure to install optional updates too).

Download Windows 10

 

[connmal]

Okay I'll give that a go. Thank you so much for the advice. I'll keep you in the loop.
Gonna make a back up first.

 

[barlew]

Okay I'll give that a go. Thank you so much for the advice. I'll keep you in the loop.
Gonna make a back up first.

No worries, let us know how you get on.

 

[connmal]

Hello, so I've done a full fresh reinstall of windows 10 and allowed all the updates to occur and my computer is still running way slower than it should be as indicated by this new benchmark test: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/49298995

Though given it is running better than before I reinstalled windows 10.

I also downloaded HWmonitor. Should I give you the logs for HWmonitor when running idle and then when trying to run a video game. I've downloaded Witcher 3 that should suffice as a test?

 

[barlew]

Hello, so I've done a full fresh reinstall of windows 10 and allowed all the updates to occur and my computer is still running way slower than it should be as indicated by this new benchmark test: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/49298995

Though given it is running better than before I reinstalled windows 10.

I also downloaded HWmonitor. Should I give you the logs for HWmonitor when running idle and then when trying to run a video game. I've downloaded Witcher 3 that should suffice as a test?

So first of all userbenchmark is at best not particularly accurate.

Have you opened device manager and checked that everything is installed?

The Witcher 3 will be fine for testing.

What I would recommend first though is downloading 3DMarks fire strike and posting the results here.

Also run a stress test with Prime95 and take a screen shot of HWMonitor so we can see the CPU temps and post them here.

After that I would run either FurMark or Unigene heaven and again with HWMonitor open and take a screen shot so we can see the CPU and GPU temps.

 

[connmal]

I have opened the device manager, everything seems to be installed. Though I do have Driver fix that is telling me I have seven other drivers to install but I have to install them manually. But then when I try to do that by using device manager and directing the driver in my directory by using browse. Windows just says that the drivers are up to date.? So I'm not sure what is going on there.

Also I downloaded 3D marks and fire strike files are too big too attach for the fire strike 3D mark so here are the details: Overall score 2059. Graphics score: 12 665, physics score:836, combined score:405. I noticed graphics ran well but physics ran terrible with very low fps.

Detailed scores: Graphics test 1: 62.53 fps. Graphics test 2: 49.20 fps. Physics test: 2.66 fps. Combined test: 1.89 FPS.

I've added a screen shot of the HWmonitor when I was running a prime stress test and fur mark hopefully that is what you wanted? I wasn't sure how long to run them for so I just ran them both for like 5-10 minutes?

 

[barlew]

I have opened the device manager, everything seems to be installed. Though I do have Driver fix that is telling me I have seven other drivers to install but I have to install them manually. But then when I try to do that by using device manager and directing the driver in my directory by using browse. Windows just says that the drivers are up to date.? So I'm not sure what is going on there.

Also I downloaded 3D marks and fire strike files are too big too attach for the fire strike 3D mark so here are the details: Overall score 2059. Graphics score: 12 665, physics score:836, combined score:405. I noticed graphics ran well but physics ran terrible with very low fps.

Detailed scores: Graphics test 1: 62.53 fps. Graphics test 2: 49.20 fps. Physics test: 2.66 fps. Combined test: 1.89 FPS.

I've added a screen shot of the HWmonitor when I was running a prime stress test and fur mark hopefully that is what you wanted? I wasn't sure how long to run them for so I just ran them both for like 5-10 minutes?

A word of advice those driver fix programs are more often then not mallard at the worst or utterly rubbish at their best.

When you recieve your fire strike results you can click share and then it will give you a webpage with the detailed result. Can you post the result here?

I usually run Prime95 for 15 minutes.

I suspect your CPU is overheating. Are you comfortable with opening the laptop and repasting the processor and cleaning the cooling fans?

 

[connmal]

Oh, thanks for the advice. Noted for the future. Here is the link, hopefully it works :https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/70381070?

As for opening my laptop, never done that before but I assume I need thermal paste and maybe compressed air? I'm in Japan at the minute so getting someone else to do it might be difficult with my Japanese language ability not being the best but its feasible I think. Ball park how much would it cost do you think?

I've only ever cleaned a desktop PC, and I've never used thermal paste before.

 

[connmal]

Also if its not too difficult and there are useful tutorials for it I'd be open to doing it myself.

 

[barlew]

Oh, thanks for the advice. Noted for the future. Here is the link, hopefully it works :https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/70381070?

Sorry I just realised you ran FireStrike Extreme. You need to run fire strike. This won't make a huge difference but it will help me understand how far off the pace your laptop is with what I know it should be.

As for opening my laptop, never done that before but I assume I need thermal paste and maybe compressed air? I'm in Japan at the minute so getting someone else to do it might be difficult with my Japanese language ability not being the best but its feasible I think. Ball park how much would it cost do you think?

I've only ever cleaned a desktop PC, and I've never used thermal paste before.

Yeh all you need is thermal paste and compressed air. Maybe a little paint brush to get dust out of the fins of the cooling fans. I personally use MX-4 paste. There are better pastes out there but I find MX-4 does a decent job for a decent price.

Do not get someone else to do it as it will likely void your warranty.

7.10

Should you take any goods purchased from us to a 3rd party and have them attempt to diagnose or repair a fault on the computer, you may VOID all warranties on the order and we will not cover the costs of any onsite or call out charges as we do not provide or charge you for onsite warranties. If you have any problems with your order you must contact us for advice and if necessary obtain an RMA number and return the item to us through the specified returns procedure.

If you cannot do it yourself and cannot get it to PCS to do it then contact PCS and explain your situation. They will probably give you dispensation to get a professional shop to do it.

That being said it really isn't hard and there are plenty of videos online explaining how to do it.

That video is for a different laptop but the theory will be the same. Note that with some laptops the screws on the heat sync will be numbered to indicate the order they need tightening in.

Can you also download and run a multi-core benchmark CineBench r23 (you can find it in the microsoft store) and post the results of that plus the CPU temps on HWMonitor.

 

[connmal]

Hello! Here is the fire strike normal test! Sorry about that : https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/70386158

And so by what you're saying if I'm the one that does the opening and of my laptop and reapplying thermal paste and what not, it doesn't hurt my warranty?

 

[Martinr36]

And so by what you're saying if I'm the one that does the opening and of my laptop and reapplying thermal paste and what not, it doesn't hurt my warranty?

That's correct as long as you don't damage anything

 

[Scott]

As much as a repaste will definitely help, something else is wrong if you're only seeing 2.66fps on the physics test. That's miles off where it should be.

Can you run Firestrike again with HWMonitor running and open up the "Clocks" area of the CPU.

When you reinstalled Windows, did you install the TongFang chipset drivers? I have a sneaking suspicion that your method of installing the drivers is causing issues.

With a Laptop Chassis you want to wipe the drive properly, install Windows 10, install the Tong Fang chipset drivers, install the NVidia drivers and then run through the WIndows updates until no more remain.

After that, install 3Dmark and see how you run with Firestrike.

Any driver programs will just cause issues, doubly so where a laptop and custom chipsets are concerned.

 

[barlew]

Right that FireStrike score is better. Like @Scott said there is something hugely off here. If you look at your fire strike score your GPU is averaging 500MHz, so it not just your CPU. That is so far off the bat its untrue and would not be cause by a bad paste job.

This does point to your system not being configured properly as Scott has pointed out.

Can you take a print screen of your Device Manager and post it here.

 

[connmal]

I wont lie to you I have no idea what the tongfang chipset drivers are or where to find them. Do you just mean the drivers on the download area on pc specialist site for my laptop?

Also here is the HWmonitor screenshot from fire strike.

 

[barlew]

I wont lie to you I have no idea what the tongfang chipset drivers are or where to find them. Do you just mean the drivers on the download area on pc specialist site for my laptop?

Also here is the HWmonitor screenshot from fire strike.

Yeh they will be in there and labeled chipset driver.

Have you also installed your Control Center?

Your CPU is definitely thermal throttling.

 

[connmal]

I've installed control center yes.