Continued Stuttering Issues with Vortex 17"

[Seb.F]

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLURAY ROM, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

So, I've had this machine since around May or June 2013, it's had around 3 installations since then and it STILL has problems.

I'm not posting on it right now as it's in the middle of another windows wipe and install, but ever since I've owned it, it has had a most bizarre 'stuttering' problem. Well, that's the layman's term.

The more technical (after setting up a windows trace log) is that it's a problem with the DPC Latency. Something is taking up some of the clock cycles of the CPU. I have installed every driver known to man, including some very bizarre hard drive drop detection one, despite not even having a hard drive installed.

I am at my wit's end after not being able to play games on this thing for over a year and just cannot figure out what to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Once you've got it installed, well try a few things such as temperature monitor

 

[Seb.F]

Once you've got it installed, well try a few things such as temperature monitor

CoreTemp normally registers around 60 degrees for the CPU when doing mild tasks, MSI afterburner around 70ish on the GPU iirc.

If that helps.

To reiterate too, I'm a fairly big nut when it comes to hardware and I know quite a bit about it, but I have exhausted my options here. I cannot figure it out for the life of me.

 

[Seb.F]

http://imgur.com/a/dkLnq

Here's a gallery of what it does on a completely fresh install of windows.

Each of the red spikes will be a visible stutter in a game (complete freeze) or a stalling of the mouse, all audio will stop at this time as well. The yellow zones will be a sporadic stutter every couple of seconds.

 

[SpyderTracks]

CoreTemp normally registers around 60 degrees for the CPU when doing mild tasks, MSI afterburner around 70ish on the GPU iirc.

60 is quite high for normal operation I'd say... What are temps like in game?

 

[Seb.F]

That was in game with an FPS limit in place!

Max is usually around 65-70ish in game on the CPU. It's definitely not throttling.

 

[SpyderTracks]

That was in game with an FPS limit in place!

Max is usually around 65-70ish in game on the CPU. It's definitely not throttling.

Ah, ok, sorry, I thought you said those temps were when running general programs and browsing. No, that's fine in game, good temps. To be honest, I'm gonna be clutching at straws here and probably covering ground you've already been over, but I'll give it a go.

Found this thread with this response:

"I found the solution.I have a laptop with gtx 680m with exactly the same problem.After searching the net for days and days I came up with a solution.You must set vsync on from the intel hd 4000 control panel.That is because hd 4000 interferes with gtx 680m."

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...000-micro-stuttering-and-120hz-output-issues/

 

[Seb.F]

I will certainly give that a go and see how it works!

Thanks for the heads up!