Windows 10 Stuttering/Lagging with Graphical Glitches

I have installed Win 10 Pro and been using it for a while. I also have a ASUS STRIX GTX 960 OC with 2GB GDDR5 video memory, and 4GB ram. Lately I have been noticing a lag/stuttering after using the computer for a while. Mind that the problem doesn't come on as soon as the PC boots up (the boot up is quite fast). Instead it starts after an hour or so into the usage. The lagging/stuttering initially starts off as some graphical artefact (the text inside a window of an app starts refreshing - it basically vanishes and then comes back on). The problem is only limited to windows of the apps and Explorer itself. After a while the system starts lagging a lot. The stuttering and graphical anomalies appear periodically and the lag is also in sync with this period.

This is the lag at the most extreme
IDM Window


The lag in sync with the graphical stuttering


A notepad file


Task manager


An interesting thing that happened is that while I opened the Nvidia Control Panel to take a gif recording, the graphical stuttering immediately stopped. The lag however was still there, but very minute. This leads me to wonder whether the glitch/bug is caused due to a bad Nvidia driver.
The driver in question is 361.75
I know that the driver is problematic but I also read that the newer version 364.51 is also having a lot of problems.
This is the Task Manager after I opened and closed Nvidia Control Panel



However, after the problem still came back (in about 10-15 minutes), I tried the same method - opening and closing Control Panel. This time, the problem still persisted. So maybe something else caused the stuttering to go away. I am not sure of the chain of events that precisely led to this so I couldn't recreate it.

This PC is usually very fast, can run most games on ultra-high settings (albeit at my display resolution of 1366x768) and basically runs without a hitch. However, once this sets in, after a while its annoying enough that I restart it. Then the cycle continues.

I am pretty sure that the problem is software related (maybe bad Nvidia drivers?). The graphics card is pretty new (Nov 2015) so I can basically rule out any graphics card problem. The problem however does show up in COD MW 1 (Multiplayer). The entire screen flashes in sync with the same problem. Basically, if I'm playing the game once this flashing of windows starts, the entire screen goes black and comes back on - there is no lag, just the blacking out - completely in sync with the window flashing. The screen refreshing problem exists ONLY with this game, all others run without any problems

Any help? I am ready to roll back to previous graphics drivers but a clean Windows install is a no-no. I have way too much data to backup

These are the LatencyMon stats once the problem sets in









The problem didn't come in Safe Mode - although I only used it in Safe Mode for about 10 minutes.

*I usually only needed to input a PIN password to log into Windows. After booting into Safe Mode it started asking for my password (i.e. Microsoft Account password). It hasn't asked for the PIN since then. Is this normal? Maybe some kind of protection enabled by Windows itself?

This is the LatencyMon stat without the problem:







As you can see it says that my system has no latency issues.
Something weird I noticed is the difference in Measured and Reported CPU speeds - 1 Mhz and 3293 Mhz. How is that possible? I mean will the system even boot up if that's the actual speed?
There is also and Indepth Latency Test shortcut created by the program. Do I need to run it as well?

Also I just noticed that the problem doesn't always start off an hour or so into use as I mentioned in the first post. Instead its almost random. Sometimes it starts off immediately after bootup and sometimes way late.

Thank you for your help. Would just like to tell you that I have been running the PC since morning and haven't encountered any problems till now.

As for the LatencyMon stats, I think the ataport.sys and ndis.sys are the culprits. Googled around and found out that most of the DPC latencies are caused due to the same two, which I am pretty sure you already are aware of. The solutions almost always involve middling around the BIOS to change some settings (eg: I read something about changing some serial something to parallel, and something about IRQ1 - IRQ7. I didn't read any of the BIOS solutions completely because I am not going to be fiddling with the BIOS. Not so good with computers you see. :) ). Is there any other way around it? Something that doesn't involve BIOS at all?

I will be checking if any new drivers are present for the same. Will post updates later.
Also you mentioned a high pagefault resolution - which I think is caused due to the screen recorder I've been using to record the entire thing. Its called ScreenToGif and the stats mention the same.

Since the main latency issues are caused by the mentioned two, can I rule out the graphics card as a possible cause? Or should I revert back to an old and quite stable driver (The driver installation disk)?

Again, thanks for all you help!

I just enabled the high performance power plan. If I still get the problems, I'll try disabling the Network Adapter and/or installing the newer version.

Thanks again for the help! Much appreciated.

I have a dell Insperon 3543 and it has 8gig ram
i7 2.40
damn I7 means nothing anymore like it used too in power terms

anyways i find randomally that i get reallyy bad mouse lag also
not the flashing like u got but bad mouse lag/stutter
very frustrating
cannot pinpoint a precise time or uptime it just happens when it wants too happen.
very strange
a clean install never fixed the issues
itd come back in time
all drivers up to date , happens with numerous diffrent software upgrades n all the rest
this is what LatencyMon has to say below

edit just disabled the Nvidia video card and my laggings stopped for now
damn it.
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