Single-Digit FPS - Started Last Night

jerred.webbb14_ESO

I was playing ESO on my normal settings - full screen, 1600x900, most things set to high - and running between 30-60 fps (usually high 50's) throughout the day yesterday without any trouble (and have been for weeks/months).

However, after turning the game off for awhile in late afternoon/early evening, I booted it back up last night and had single-digit fps (4-7) on the character loading screen and in-game as well. I then tried playing World of Warships, which again, normally runs 55-60 fps, but was now stuck between 4-8.

Thinking it might be my graphics card overheating, checked Precision XOC, but it said the card was only ~45 C, while my other monitors said the motherboard CPU was only 38 C.

I turned it all off for the night and decided to try again this morning, but had the same problems - temperatures are well-within normal levels, no settings have been changed on my end (unless Windows did an update I don't know about), but still - every game I try runs <10 fps: Warframe, World of Warships, Diablo III, Elder Scrolls Online... everything. Further, when I alt-tab out to check the temperatures, the stuttering remains - there's a lot of hitching when I move the mouse around, for example.

When I quit whatever game I'm in - the computer operation returns to normal.
According to Task Manager, there are no processes running that are using an inordinate amount of the CPU, which is nowhere near 100% even for the game I have open.

I've also made sure that all the games are being allowed through Windows Defender and likewise that all the xbox service *** is turned off too.

Any ideas on things I can try or settings I can play around with?
When I was trying settings in-game last night - the only one that made any difference on fps was the SubSampling Quality - when set to low it made a marginal improvement in FPS (brought it up to mid-20's) - no other setting changed anything with regards to the stuttering.

To me, it almost feels like the computer isn't offloading enough to the graphics card, but I have no clue if this is remotely accurate - and again, to the best of my knowledge nothing was changed on my end between when the games ran perfectly fine yesterday during the day and when they started all stuttering last night.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

I suppose I should add - when I logged off yesterday afternoon after playing the game as normal - the game didn't quit as normal, it brought up a black screen that I couldn't force-quit out of.

It's done this in the past, and the way I've handled it then was to ctrl+alt+del to bring up the option window, then restart the computer from there.

When I tried to play again a few hours later, that's when I noticed all of the fps issues.

bennysbeastb16_ESO2

jerred.webbb14_ESO wrote: »

I suppose I should add - when I logged off yesterday afternoon after playing the game as normal - the game didn't quit as normal, it brought up a black screen that I couldn't force-quit out of.

It's done this in the past, and the way I've handled it then was to ctrl+alt+del to bring up the option window, then restart the computer from there.

When I tried to play again a few hours later, that's when I noticed all of the fps issues.

Does sound like the card has an issue, if its doing same issues across different games, prob best to get some gfx stress software, FutureMark etc and see what results bring, or whether the tests totally fail

also if you get the black screen in future, when u Ctrl+Alt+delete - rather than shutting down, click log off, that will close all application instantly, and then you can re-enter windows stright away with one click ;D, without no hard resets or shutdowns.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

Thanks for the tip about the log-off instead of restart, if I can get the game working again I'll try that the next time it happens.

Here's an update - I went through my machine making sure all drivers for all devices were up to date, found that the mouse driver wasn't so I installed the latest from Logitech - which caused a looping BSOD crash-restart cycle until I was able to force a safe-mode start and delete the Logitech software, which caused the mouse to stop being recognized completely.

I had to turn on the ease-of-access option that lets the numpad control the cursor and was able to get the computer to revert back to a restore point from a couple of days ago, which fixed the mouse issue - but the fps issues remain.

I'll try the stress-test, see what happens.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

Tried the stress-test, cpu working normally. GPU isn't being utilized at all, except for a small portion of its video memory (and it's what I have my monitor cord plugged in to). I don't know if the card is fried or if the motherboard isn't accessing it properly.

I'm going to remove the card and re-install it.

Could this be at all related to the black-screen/refusal to close problem that ESO has?

jerred.webbb14_ESO

Update:
Backed up all my files and did a clean installation of windows, then installed the graphics card too.
I *do* have the monitor plugged into the graphics card, and it works.
Further, I installed the latest drivers and all that, and the fan on the card is working too.

As you can see from the screenshot though, running FurMark on the most basic settings and I'm averaging 3 fps, and in HWMonitor you can see that it's tracking 0% GPU utilization. I ran the same tests before the Windows reinstall for ~4 hours with the exact same results.

It appears that my card is being recognized and some parts of it work, but the computer isn't using it like it should be.
I'm guessing the my GPU is screwed? It can take the signal through the motherboard/PCI slot and transmit through the DVI port, but can't activate the actual processing it needs to do to render video.

For what it's worth, Device Manager shows it as "This device is working properly."

Does anyone have any suggestions on what's going on here, or thoughts on where else I can post this stuff to get an answer?

Thanks!

JasonSilverSpring

You might try forums.geforce.com or the forums for the GPU manufacturer. That is an odd one for sure.

EDIT: Do you have a spare PSU that you could test with? I wonder if the PSU is going bad and not providing enough power to the GPU.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

Probably final update -

The computer recognized the GPU is installed - says it's working properly in device manager
The monitor is hooked up to the dvi port on the GPU, and it's working normally too

This indicates, to me, that the PGIe slot is working.
CPU stress-test and RAM tests work normally.
For example, under full load, CPU temps don't break 60C, and I don't do any overclocking of the CPU.

Therefore; the motherboard, CPU, and RAM seem to all be okay.

I don't have another PSU, nor do I have another GPU to try and test with.
I tried OC'ing the GPU using both PrecisionX, and MSI Afterburner - but the card stays in an idle state. I *can* use those programs to manually change the fan speed - so the programs are working.

I tried calling EVGA support, but their conclusion was "huh, weird, good luck" (the card is 7 years old).

The conclusion, to me, is that the onboard controller for the GPU has stopped working - it can run the card in an idle state but can't initialize any of the higher functions. All nvidia control panel settings are pushed towards Quality over Performance and all defaults are set to the GPU rather than CPU (such as PhysX).

The PSU going bad could be the problem - if it doesn't have enough power to initialize the card - but there have been no other signs at all that the power supply is going bad; no brown outs, shorts, smoke, etc. No random reboots under load, or anything like that.

If anyone has any other suggestions on settings to try, let me know! Thank you all for the help that was offered! I'm frustrated, but appreciative.

I've just never heard of a GPU failing in this way, and after a fair amount of searching, I can't find anyone else who has either.

bennysbeastb16_ESO2

firstly if the gpu isnt getting enough power u would be recieving nvlddmkm errors (were screen will go black and the reactivate) and windows pop up would appear, or it ill simply bsod. Ive killed many power supplys over the years.

One thing you can try is to take the gfx card to a friend, as long as hes using nvidia too, simply switch in and out and see if it kicks full potential in.

and im sure you prob know this , but you shouldnt be running 2 different type of overclocking software, e.g. precision and afterburner, a good friend of mine had sort of issue that you are describing when using both software, he used precision for overclocking and msi for fan speeds; some reason soon as we started to play Gear war 4 it would limit his clock speeds to idle mode, which looking at your screen shot, i believe thats whats happening. core clock and memory clock are stuck at low idle. which would be the reason your not getting and fps, and why the computer doesnt crash.

try removing all overclocking software, and change the gfx card to maxium performance in nvidia setting, the card will then stick all clock speeds to max, even while sat on desktop. (now you wont be able to see that, but try running future mark again, or even loading the game

if they card was dying you would have recieved some sort of directx, or see some sort of artificing; error during the test.

**after searching nvidia forums etc, if you have onboard gfx, shutdown the computer, remove the gfx card, boot back up, and remove the nvidia drivers, few people stating that after using overclocking software, if youve attempted and overclock (even mistakenly, e.g not knowing what u did) which caused instability, the clock speeds are LIMITED to idle , regardless, some people state the only way to sort it, is remove all overclockign software, and remove the card, boot up in safe mode remove nvidia, reboot bk to dekstop, then shutdown again and install the card, boot back into windows and install the latest drivers for your card.**

Aionna

You can try setting PhysX configuration from auto-select to your gpu .

bennysbeastb16_ESO2

Anasion wrote: »

You can try setting PhysX configuration from auto-select to your gpu .

hes already tried that, post above mine - text mid way down..

Aionna

bennysbeastb16_ESO2 wrote: »

Anasion wrote: »

You can try setting PhysX configuration from auto-select to your gpu .

hes already tried that, post above mine - text mid way down..

Sorry, didn't see it.


I don't know if this is going to help, but if you are running Windows 10 creators edition have you tried reverting to the previous build? Many have been having issues with it and there is a thread in nvidia forums about it. Also if you are running it check if the new feature Game Mode is disabled.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

I'll try the uninstalling/reinstalling of the drivers Benny - but as far as Windows goes:

I backed up important files to an external HDD then unplugged that set it aside.
I shut down the comp, removed the GPU, then rebooted it.
Once the computer was in a stock hardware configuration I reinstalled Windows, choosing the wipe-everything option.
Computer booted back up, on-board stuff looked fine.

I reinstalled the GPU, seemed to reinstall correctly, downloaded the latest drivers again - but still had the same issue where the GPU is stuck in idle.

It was only *after* that, that I installed Precision X - tried to get it to do *something* with the card but I could only use it to control the fan speed.
Next, I downloaded MSI Afterburner to see if it was any different at all, it wasn't. I could use it for fan speed but again that's the only thing I could change with it.

I hadn't overclocked the card at all before these issues, it was only after I noticed the GPU was stuck in idle that I downloaded either program.

Here's a link to an imgur album with some pics of the set-up:
http://imgur.com/a/M6ALC

jerred.webbb14_ESO

Latest update, did as you suggested bennysbeastb16_ESO2,

I uninstalled all OC software, removed card, rebooted into safe mode and uninstalled all NVIDIA software, rebooted machine - it works fine, as expected - shut down and reinstalled card, booted back up and installed latest drivers, rebooted one last time, and ran FurMark and HWMonitor again - still 0% load on the GPU. Game Mode was off in windows options.

Just for satisfactions sake, I went through this process a *second* time, this time with Game Mode on in the options, but the exact same result - 0% load on GPU.

JasonSilverSpring

@jerred.webbb14_ESO, do you by chance have any friend that could loan you their graphics card to try testing a different card? That should rule out the GPU. Or, if you can buy one in a local store and try installing it. If it works, then you have a new GPU. If not, then return it. Maybe a GTX 1050, 1050Ti or 1060 if you budget could afford it.

The upgrade would be worth it if it resolved your current issue. Based on all of this it does really seem to be an issue with the GPU.

If you cannot afford a new one maybe you can get a nine-series card cheap on ebay.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

I was planning an upgrade to a 1060, just not quite this quick. My fear is buying one and then having the same problems because of some issue with the motherboard.

That said, I'm going to have to do something, every forum community I've talked with has no clue on what could be going on. I don't, unfortunately, have access to another PSU or GPU currently - the only old card I have floating around is for an AGP slot instead of PCIe.

I believe the closest store that would sell a card is ~2 hrs away. I'll likely just order the card I was planning on getting, and then upgrading other components if it ends up being necessary.

bennysbeastb16_ESO2

Been a while, sorry for lateness, busy with work etc..
ok so if youve totally reinstalled windows, and using fresh comp with just drivers, id say that something has definatly gone a miss with the card,
once youve reformatted, anything to do with OC software (configs left over etc) wouldnt be their, so the card itself should be running as normal.
Im completly out of ideas, only thing you could try is to take to a friend (if you have a pc gamer mate), all my mates are on those sh*ty consoles, which would do my head in when i needed to do test.

Also when you took the card out, did you by any chance have a look for any heat damage(usally see it where you connect the monitors too), or does it smell funny in anyway(electrical component do have a very distiguished smell, this is definatly irritating issue due to the reason that if something has gone with the VRAM usualy the card will show artificing or not work at all, if by chance the Vram had been damaged, it would possible explain why the card wont utilise any of the memory, again you should see some graphical corruption (even when booting into windows, if this was the case).

* ive cooked my fair share of cards over the years, and never have had this sort of limbo issue

Baffled... apologies i cant be any more of asistance

**idea, have you gota different pc-i slot you can plug the card into , just on the off chance theirs a problem with the slot** literally been searching google for past hour trying to troubleshoot, to no avail.

jerred.webbb14_ESO

I appreciate all the suggestions, at this stage I'm planning on getting a new card, seeing if that works. I just don't know anyone in the area who I could swap cards with.

My motherboard does have another PCIe slot, *but* with the way the -other- PCI slots are arranged on the board the card itself is too big to fit in that slot (it's two panels tall, and that second PCIe slot is only for single-panel-width devices). I've thought about taking an xacto knife to the card casing to make it fit, and I may try it, but no, there is no evidence of heat damage, or any artifacts on the screen or anything (and I've burned through a couple of cards myself in the past too )

jerred.webbb14_ESO

Quick update - got a new GPU finally and the FurMark test - previously running at 1-2 fps, now runs at 124 fps under the same settings.

So, it seems as if it was a non-critical failure on the part of the original GPU where I could still use it for a basic video signal but couldn't access any higher-functions on the device.

I'm currently reinstalling ESO, and if there is any further trouble I'll update again. Assume solved for now.