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i7-3630qm usage spikes 100% across all cores causing slowdowns in games.

MMich17
Beginner
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When running any game I get major slowdowns. I noticed that my CPU usage is spiking to 100 across all cores, and it happens frequently sometimes in predicable patterns, sometimes randomly. It isn't a performance compatibility issue cause it happens in every game even 2d games or old games that the PC should be able to handle. Doing some research others are having similar issues but i haven't pinned down a common solution. Some say its a power management stream issue and recommended going into advanced Power settings and turning down the max cpu state from 100% to 99%. I tried this with no luck, i even went down to 90% with little effect. It actually changed the pattern of the slowdowns but didn't improve it. The CPU temp sometimes gets around 95-98 c which is a little too hot for my comfort as well. This is the only problem with this laptop, if I could solve it I'd have the perfect laptop for my use case.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Acer Aspire V3-771g-9441

Operating System

  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

CPU

  • Intel Core i7 3630QM @ 2.40GHz 65 °C
  • Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology

RAM

  • 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)

Motherboard

  • Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)

Graphics

  • Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1080@60Hz)
  • ELCFW328 (1366x768@60Hz)
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Acer Incorporated [ALI])
  • 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M (Acer Incorporated [ALI]) 51 °C
  • ForceWare version: 326.49
  • SLI Disabled

Storage

  • 256GB Crucial_CT275MX300SSD1 (SSD) 40 °C
  • 931GB Western Digital WDC WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 (SATA) 31 °C
  • 29GB SDHC Card (SCSI)

Optical Drives

  • MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8E1

Audio

  • Intel Display Audio
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idata
Employee
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Hello RenegadeMike,

 

 

I will be more than glad to work with your concern.

 

 

Before I can provide you further assistance, I would like to confirm:

 

 

-Which games are you playing?

 

-Are you only playing a game, or are you running multiple applications while you play?

 

-Could you please provide me an image of the results that you are seeing?

 

-Also if the issue it is related to one or more specific games; could you please provide me with an image of the setting that you are using while you run the game?

 

 

Hope I can hear from you soon.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Angie
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MMich17
Beginner
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-Which games are you playing?

Rise of the Tomb Raider, Mad Max, Galak-Z, Darksiders, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Hitman, Dragons Dogma, Stellaris, Rebel Galaxy, The Amazing Spiderman 2,

-Are you only playing a game, or are you running multiple applications while you play?

Only the game.

-Could you please provide me an image of the results that you are seeing?

These temps are not in sync with the screenshot above, they are about 45 secs behind.

-Also if the issue it is related to one or more specific games; could you please provide me with an image of the setting that you are using while you run the game?

This happens in any game using any settings configuration. it does not seem to depend on the game, older games or 2D games exhibit the same Slowdown/Stutter regardless of the graphical load being placed on the laptop.

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idata
Employee
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Hello RenegadeMike,

 

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

 

After an extensive research, I was able to find the technical specifications of your laptop.

 

 

https://www.acer-shop.sk/download/20-datasheet.pdf Acer Aspire V3-771g-9441

 

 

There you can confirm that your system came with 4GB RAM or 2GB RAM, and the games that you are running they require a minimum of 6GB RAM. This it is really a possible reason why you see this behavior.

 

 

I would like you to play this games on a similar device and confirm if you can see a similar behavior?

 

 

Also, I would like you to please run a diagnostic test in order to confirm more details. You can use our tool:

 

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool

 

 

I will wait for you to let me know the results.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Angie
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MMich17
Beginner
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After an extensive research, I was able to find the technical specifications of your laptop.

https://www.acer-shop.sk/download/20-datasheet.pdf Acer Aspire V3-771g-9441

There you can confirm that your system came with 4GB RAM or 2GB RAM, and the games that you are running they require a minimum of 6GB RAM. This it is really a possible reason why you see this behavior.

I would like you to play this games on a similar device and confirm if you can see a similar behavior?

Yes that is the model, but Ram is not the issue. I have a 64bit system that came with 8 GB of ram stock. I have since upgraded that to 16GB. This laptop has never had fewer than 8 GB of ram since purchase.

Also, I would like you to please run a diagnostic test in order to confirm more details. You can use our tool:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool

I will wait for you to let me know the results.

I used that tool before posting in this forum and passed all tests.

This slowdown problem stems from the processor. Every slowdown event corresponds to a spike in the Usage of the processor across all cores. I don't see the issue if only one core maxes out to 100, I only experience the issue when all cores max out 100%. The game runs normally once those spikes end. No other indicator corresponds to the slowdowns, only the processor usage.

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MMich17
Beginner
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I'm sorry, Angie. I completely forgot to answer part of your question.

There you can confirm that your system came with 4GB RAM or 2GB RAM, and the games that you are running they require a minimum of 6GB RAM. This it is really a possible reason why you see this behavior.

One of the worst offenders is The Amazing Spider-Man 2™

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM:

OS: Windows 7 or (Windows® XP (with Service Pack 3) and DirectX® 9.0c) or (Windows Vista® with Service Pack 2)

Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.6 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+

Memory: 3 GB RAM

Graphics: 512 MB 3D hardware accelerator card required – 100% DirectX® 9.0c with Shader Model 3 support. NVidia GeForce 8800 GT / AMD Radeon HD4770

DirectX: Version 9.0

Storage: 9 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 – compliant sound card

RECOMMENDED:

OS: Windows 7 or (Windows® XP (with Service Pack 3) and DirectX® 9.0c) or (Windows Vista® with Service Pack 2)

Processor: Intel Core® 2 Quad 2.4 Ghz / AMD Athlon II X4 2.6 Ghz

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: 512 MB 3D hardware accelerator card required – 100% DirectX® 9.0c with Shader Model 3 support. Nvidia GeForce 285 GTX / AMD Radeon HD4830

DirectX: Version 9.0

Storage: 9 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 – compliant sound card

Its been a week and I haven't gotten an update, i'm getting concerned. Is everything okay? Did I forget to provide information about something else? Please help, I can't afford a new laptop.

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idata
Employee
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Hello RenegadeMike,

 

 

I do apologize for the delay on my reply.

 

 

Thank you for every detail, all the information it is very appreciated.

 

 

I would like to confirm for the last time, 2 more details:

 

 

-Have you always seen this behavior before or it is recent?

 

-Have you made any update or any software/hardware changes, before you start to see this issue?

 

 

Please try to complete a manual install of the latest Intel driver for your Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor, and let me know if you were able to so any improvement on the performance:

 

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005629.html Manually Install an Intel® Graphics Driver in Windows® 10 and Windows 8*/8.1*

 

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25977/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-10-and-Windows-7-8-1-15-33-?product=81499 Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows® 10 and Windows 7*/8.1* [15.33]

 

Version: 15.33.43.4425 (Latest) Date: 5/13/2016

 

 

Also at the following link, you will be able to find the manufacturer drivers for your Acer Aspire V3-771g-9441:

 

 

http://www.driverscape.com/manufacturers/acer/laptops-desktops/aspire-v3-771g/33050 http://www.driverscape.com/manufacturers/acer/laptops-desktops/aspire-v3-771g/33050

 

 

Hope I can hear from you soon.

 

 

Regards,

 

Angie

 

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MMich17
Beginner
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I've always had this issue, Just getting around to troubleshooting it now.

After my first attempt the device manager would not let me update the drivers claiming the newest ones are already installed.

It claims the driver version 10.18.10.4252 is newer than 15.33.38.64.4252 and 15.33.43.4425

How do I resolve this?

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idata
Employee
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Hello RenegadeMike,

 

 

I am really sorry to hear that your issue still persists.

 

 

At this moment we confirm that you were not able to complete a software update, my recommendation, as it could be related to a hardware issue, please refer directly to:

 

 

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support Acer Technical Support

 

 

Please confirm with them the latest BIOS update available for your equipment, or if it is needed the warranty terms for your equipment.

 

 

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

 

 

Regards,

 

Angie.
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MMich17
Beginner
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Sorry for the delay in responding. I eventually figured out how to install the drivers. Unfortunately none of the drivers had any positive effect. in some cases it made the slowdowns more frequent, and worse, made them happen outside of a game. Also, none of the version numbers ever matched what the file claimed it to be once it was installed. For Example if the download said 15.33.38.xxx once the driver was installed windows claimed it was 10.18.10.4358.

I'm not sure if windows is downloading alternative drivers during the install process. People have had that issue before and have found a way to disable windows 10's automated driver updates but I have not decided to follow that process.

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idata
Employee
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Hello RenegadeMike,

 

 

At this point in regard to your concern, my recommendation is to install the driver provided by Acer to your Acer Aspire V3-771g-9441:

 

 

http://www.driverscape.com/manufacturers/acer/laptops-desktops/aspire-v3-771g/33050 Acer Aspire V3-771g-9441 Drivers

 

 

If the issue persists after the driver installation my suggestion is to contact the Support for Acer, in order to confirm if there is any BIOS update required that might solve your concern. Or for additional technical assistance you can refer to them.

 

 

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support Acer Technical Support

 

 

Also, for a better understanding of the driver version number you can go to; http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005654.html Understanding the Intel® Graphics Driver Version Number

 

 

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

 

 

Regards,

 

Angie
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