I've tried to replace almost everything in my PC. I'm still having issues, so I think it must be EMI or EMF now.

Separate area for niche lag issues including unexpected causes and/or electromagnetic interference (ECC = retransmits = lag). Interference (EMI, EMF) of all kinds (wired, wireless, external, internal, environment, bad component) can cause error-correction latencies like a bad modem connection. Troubleshooting may require university degree. Your lag issue is likely not EMI. Please read this before entering sub-forum.
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This subforum is for advanced users only. This separate area is for niche or unexpected lag issues such as electromagnetic interference (EMI, EMF, electrical, radiofrequency, etc). Interference of all kinds (wired, wireless, external, internal, environment, bad component) can cause error-correction (ECC) latencies like a bad modem connection, except internally in a circuit. ECC = retransmits = lag. Troubleshooting may require university degree. Your lag issue is likely not EMI.
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Segundo
Posts: 14
Joined: 17 Jan 2023, 01:59

I've tried to replace almost everything in my PC. I'm still having issues, so I think it must be EMI or EMF now.

Post by Segundo » 22 Jan 2023, 01:47

This is my parts list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YtW2Dq

I built my PC last month, and I've been stuttering issues from the very start. I'd expect issues to start popping up after a few months or a year, but they definitely should not be happening as soon as I get my PC... maybe I'm being too pessimistic about a few months or a year though. Anyway, I'm beginning to wonder if I accidentally shocked a part or something. I didn't notice any static shocks, but I heard you can still shock parts even if you haven't noticed them. I'm pretty sure that just breaks the part, but is it possible that static shocks could be causing minor issues? I haven't noticed any major errors except for stuttering issues in games and sometimes in general use and browsing.

Some people said that my house's electricity might be a problem... I can't really do anything to fix my electricity 'cause my family is not willing to hire an electrician, but I guess I might have to convince them to do so if nothing else works... I don't even know how to diagnose that issue. How do I do that anyway? Frankly, if I know the problem's caused by my house's electricity, I think I'll just give up at that point. At least I'll know it's not a problem with my parts. I'll try to bring my PC to a friend's house or something to see if it works, but I don't think anyone wants me to do that haha. I don't think an electrician has come by my house for like 7-10 years and maybe even ever since we moved in 18 years ago, so it definitely could be an electricity issue.

I've been having stuttering issues, and I've replaced my RAM, SSD, motherboard, CPU with marginally better options (ie: 3200MHz CL16 -> 3600MHz CL18, PCIE 3.0 3000/3000 -> PCIE 4.0 6000/5000, 5700X -> 5800X). I also tried to disconnect my Wi-Fi card. I tried to buy both an internal and external sound card 'cause some people said it helped them somehow... it didn't help me though. I disconnected all my peripherals. I'm pretty sure my CPU cooler and case fans are fine since my temperatures are less than or equal to the recommended temps. I bought a 5-pack of 120 mm Arctic P12 fans though, and I'll see if that works. My case fits 7 120mm fans or 4 140mm fans. Which is generally the better option? I suppose that depends on a lot of variables like your case's airflow and all. Certainly, installing 4 140mm fans would be easier than installing 7, but fans haven't been too difficult to set up as of yet. Even though my temperatures seem fine, maybe they're not. I bought a RAM cooler which I'm pretty sure is completely unnecessary. It doesn't even fit in my new mobo, so I should've tried it out before I switched. Well, I think it'd fit if I removed one of my CPU cooler fans, but that's just stupid. I tried to buy Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut which is allegedly one of the best non-liquid metal thermal pastes out there. I think the Noctua NT-D1 that came with the Noctua NH-U12A is premium and a great brand, but I could try an even better one... though, again, I'm not having temp issues, so that probably won't help.

I've also been making software changes for a month now to stuff like Windows settings, services, fan curves, BIOS changes, RAM XMP profiles, and stuff like that. I made sure to set my XMP profile to 3600. I disabled fTPM. I set my minimum for my GPU to be 100 less than the maximum (currently, it's 2210 and 2310). I tried overclocking my 5700X and 5800X as well as my 6800XT, but this either caused more issues or didn't affect performance at all. I'd expect issues from too much overclocking though, obviously. I enabled PBO and manually overclocked my 6800XT. I set my fan curves with FanControl. I used a bunch of different programs like Process Lasso, LatencyMon, ICLS, Windows Ultimate Tweaker, HWinfo, HWMonitor, CoreTemp, Fan Control, and a few core unparking apps like QuickCPU and Disable Core Unparking Utility. Windows Ultimate Tweaker in particular might be causing more problems than it's worth. I disabled Fast Boot. I tried fiddling with my RAM timings, though that could lead to a complete failure to boot up; I think I'll avoid that from now on. I looked through probably like 100 pages worth of stuff at this point and implemented 99% of the changes I saw. My issues have definitely improved since the beginning, but they still shouldn't be happening.

Frankly, maybe I'm just pushing my 6800XT too hard. In the beginning, it was stuttering and microstuttering in Valorant at 1080p at 144FPS which seems like a major issue. That's been fixed, and now I can run it at a stable 144FPS at 4K except when I die and respawn and during loading screens. I think that's expected though. I think my max FPS at 4K was like 350 FPS. It's mostly a stable 144 FPS in Arkham Origins at 1440p upscaled to 4K with RSR, but it still stutters occasionally and always stutters everytime I turn off Detective Mode. It also stutters massively in the open world. It dips to like 110 FPS at times. That's why I thought a better SSD or RAM would help, but apparently not. Well, the RAM helped a little, but it wasn't a major boost in performance (maybe it was just a placebo too). I'm getting stuttering in Arkham Knight and Minecraft as well when I load in new areas in the open world, but those games are known to be poorly optimized, so I'll ignore those. I played a bunch of other games for a little bit, particularly 50% of the games with built-in benchmarks that I own. Stuff like the Arkham games, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, Alien: Isolation, Borderlands 3, Company of Heroes 1 and 2, DiRT 3, DiRT Rally, DiRT Showdown, F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R: Perseus Mandate, F1 2017, GTAV, GRID 2, Hard Reset, Hitman 1 and 2, Metro 2033 and Redux, Metro Last Light Redux, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, The Talos Principle, Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Wildlands (the trial editions so I don't know if that affects anything), Rainbow Six Extraction (trial) and Siege, Tomb Raider (2013), Total War Saga Troy; Rome II; Shogun 2; and Warhammer, Vermintide 2, World in Conflict, World War Z, and Xonotic. The benchmarks (that I could find) seemed consistent with those for the 6800XT for the most part. Rise of the Tomb Raider was noticeably worse for some reason. FEAR was also bad, but that game is like 20 years old, so it's probably just not optimized for modern systems. Company of Heroes and World in Conflict are two other super old games that performed badly. The Talos Principle was also much, much worse for whatever reason. I noticed some stuttering in these games but very little. I didn't really change my system much before these benchmarks, so I'd assume they'd be different now that I changed so many things.

Most of my benchmarks, stress tests, and stuff like that seem perfectly fine. I ran 3DMark Time Spy (free), LuxMark, Cinebench R23, PCMark, GFXBench, FurMark, AiDA64, AMD Adrenalin's stress test, and many more. My GPU benchmarks were consistently slightly better than or on par with other people's results. I noticed my CPU benchmarks seemed to be slightly worse for a lot of benchmarks; I replaced my CPU though and didn't notice any issues, so I don't know... my SSD benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark and Samsung Magician showed that my write and read speeds were like 1000 lower than they should've been, but that's apparently a known issue. The Crucial P5 Plus has speeds that are consistent with what they shoudl be, though that dind't help at all. My RAM benchmarks like MemTest64, HCI Memtest, and Windows Memory Diagnostic didn't cause any issues. I don't think there's any benchmarks for CPU coolers and case fans other than jsut checking temps, and the temps seem fine. I don't think there's a benchmark for mobos either but I wish there was somehow. Probably no benchmarks for PSUs, cases, sound cards, Wi-Fi cards (other than speed tests but in terms of its effects on performance), monitors, keyboards, headphones, and a variety of peripherals like a webcam, a Switch capture card, and more. The only PSU benchmark I saw was from... I don't remember the name actually. I forgot to run it before I disassembled my PC, but I should do that after I build it again.

I just wanted to go through everything I did so far to try to fix this issue to show that it probably is an EMI/EMF/interference issue. How can I diagnose this issue? Should I buy a voltimeter or equipment like that? I don't even know what they're all called and what I need. I will try to buy a relatively cheap power strip with a built-in battery or a power conditioner. I suppose it'd be best to go for the most expensive one possible though since since a cheap power strip might cause issues just because it's cheap. It wouldn't really be the most accurate comparison. I was considering putting an EMI shield around my PC, but I'm sure that'll cause thermal and airflow issues.

mortez123
Posts: 43
Joined: 05 Jan 2023, 11:28

Re: I've tried to replace almost everything in my PC. I'm still having issues, so I think it must be EMI or EMF now.

Post by mortez123 » 22 Jan 2023, 09:06

Hi bro, welcome to the EMI world, and congratulations u literally played every game.
Diagnosing? Yeah
Do u feel any difference between nights and days?
Do u feel your mouse is more sluggish or heavier in different times?
Do u have same feeling in windows environment when u r not connected to internet?
If u do, sure u r in the right place, if not, go to other sections.

Segundo
Posts: 14
Joined: 17 Jan 2023, 01:59

Re: I've tried to replace almost everything in my PC. I'm still having issues, so I think it must be EMI or EMF now.

Post by Segundo » 22 Jan 2023, 21:28

Hi bro, welcome to the EMI world, and congratulations u literally played every game.
Haha yeah, it does feel like that. I still have many more I need to test out though...
Do u feel any difference between nights and days?
I do not. It seems to be the same between nights and days. I haven't actually been looking into that though, so I'll try to focus on that now to see if it's better at any time.
Do u feel your mouse is more sluggish or heavier in different times?
There do seem to be times when my mouse randomly stops working for a second, moves a hair more than it should, or jitters or whatever it's called. I have a refurbished Corsair Harpoon though, so it could be because it's refurbished or because the mouse is relatively cheap ($50). Corsair iCue also causes issues whenever I open it or whenever it opens at startup. Since I've uninstalled iCue, I have been have been having less issues; however, I am still having some issues.
Do u have same feeling in windows environment when u r not connected to internet?
If u do, sure u r in the right place, if not, go to other sections.
Yes, I do have the same feeling in the Windows environment when I am not connected to the Internet. I even tried to remove my Wi-Fi card entirely and disabled and/or uninstalled all my network drivers like my Wi-Fi drivers and LAN drivers. Regardless of what I did, I had the same feeling.

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Re: I've tried to replace almost everything in my PC. I'm still having issues, so I think it must be EMI or EMF now.

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 29 Jan 2023, 18:46

I don't think this is EMI/EMF related.

Keep troubleshooting from a non-EMI/EMF perspective for now, but do not cheap out on your motherboard, and try a PCIe USB card to make sure your mouse is on its own dedicated USB chip. If 3 or 4 different brands of corded mice even fails/jitters on a PCIe USB card (give mouse its own dedicated USB chip), try a wireless gaming mouse instead.

If your jitters disappear, your mouse cord may be acting as an antenna to a nearby high-intensity interference source (e.g. giant dryer/washer room is next door to you in your apartment building on the same floor). Then yes, it could be a (very simple) cause of interference.

You could test gaming completely off a large uninterruptible power supply while on WiFi, so you have no wire to the real world. If your computer suddenly really feels better, consider investing $1K on the equivalent of a gigantic cellphone power bank that can power your gaming PC for 3 hours. (e.g. Jackery Power Station or all the generic clones).

Hit the common sense stuff that you easily can control yourself, avoid the tinfoilhattery.

Also, hold back the overclocks until you've troubleshooted. Overclocked systems are more interference-sensitive than non-overclocked systems, on average.
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Zodasaur
Posts: 90
Joined: 21 Jun 2021, 08:26

Re: I've tried to replace almost everything in my PC. I'm still having issues, so I think it must be EMI or EMF now.

Post by Zodasaur » 02 Feb 2023, 03:33

I'd recommend that you hold off on overclocking until you've fixed your stuttering problems. I've seen this happen so many times where after someone builds a new PC, they immediately overclock their system right out of the gate and end up thinking their hardware is faulty instead of the unstable overclock that they started with.

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