PC is randomly bogging down every 15-20 minutes

[iammason]

Hello, my name is Mason.

I do not know if I came to the right board, but that is because I've tried so many things to figure out what is wrong with my computer and my mind is now boggled.

I bought this PC, built by my boss at work, just over a month ago. When it runs, it runs fine. However, after booting up, the machine will bog down every 20 minutes for about 2-5 minutes... then it will resume what ever it was doing at normal speed once it has overcome what ever hiccup it may be experiencing. I have bought new ram, updates BIOS, reset BIOS, check HDD for errors, start-up programs, different spyware and malware software installed and uninstalled, Kaspersky finds nothing as a threat.... I'm lost.

Some notable things that happen when I am using the computer, and it bogs down:
- No notable energy spikes
- When playing certain games (Witcher 2, Walking Dead, StarCraft II) they freeze up to a near hault, or move at one frame per second and the sounds skips like a scratched CD.
-When playing other games, the games continues to run smoothly, but audio cuts out sporadically and load times and accessing menus takes a very long time.
-When in iTunes, if the computer slows down, the music skips.
- When browsing the net on Chrome, I'll click on a link and then wait for the 5 minutes that the computer slows down before finally opening up.

I've read nearly 2 dozen different topic on this site alone, but now I am asking for help directly. Thanks in advance!

 

[iammason]

ASLO

Here are my specs:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)

Proccessor: 2.67 gigahertz Intel Core i5 750

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P7P55D LE

RAM: 12GB

 

[nao1120]

Reinstall the OS fresh, test. (if not done already)
If it still persists.... One totally out to lunch fix, sorry to say from experience from my mothers computer i was able to get from work. She constantly complained about it just not responding for several minutes at a time... I diagnosed it down to the motherboard which i think over time...Just goes bad...ie: years of operation by hours.

The cpu will still be good, usually never goes bad, or the other parts. Most likely it could be the hard drive, Even those those tools report ok.

Long story short, I got her a new computer, and it works 100%.

If its free, great, salvage what you can. That CPU is good. If you can re-use the ram great, and dvd drive etc etc.

Remove and reinstall the ram (sometimes dirt and dust can cause issues), turn on and test.
Check idle temperatures in the BIOS... If it spikes high ie: past 65+ then there's something wrong. Idle is around 25-45 C depending on the quality and air flow of the system. Then you would look into a new heatsink/fan combo.
Process of elimination.... Reinstall OS fresh (xp or windows 7) Update drivers and apps, test.
If you have a second hard drive available, test it again removing the bad one (same as above if you made an image) and reinstall again, and test.

Last but not least, replace the motherboard...perhaps in a new case, re-use parts as needed with the same socket type for that CPU as its still good.

Sometimes people sell us lemons and don't disclose stuff.

Good Luck!

 

[iammason]

Will re-installing windows wipe my hard drive? I don't have an external one to put files on, and there's only one hard drive in the computer.

 

[nao1120]

Yes, A complete reinstall formats the drive. You'll need to back up the items to a external source... Burn files to DVD (if available) USB stick, or external hard drive is the easiest. Its best to have this option anyways.