Ok, folks, I've got a very weird problem, and my own pool of IT folks have drawn a blank.
My old system developed a stutter. It would freeze for a half-second at a time in short bursts. The stutter would appear off and on at random, and went on for a good year, coming and going. I couldn't locate the source, but it seemed to get worse when either the graphics card or the sound were called on heavily. Near the very end, the hard drive started getting corrupted, more and more swiftly. I had to replace my machine.
So I created new, a fresh, home-built system:
* Asus P8 Z68-V motherboard
* Intel i5-2500k
* 16 GB RAM
* Radeon 6850
* 465 GB WD platter hd
* 128 GB SSD with a fresh install of Windows 7
After completing the installation of Windows, I brought over my old DVD drive, my old wireless card, and my old hard drive. I copied my old data to the new drive, and was relieved that I was able to do so successfully. Almost immediately, I began to get the stutter again! I did some troubleshooting, and discovered that the stutter went away when I pulled out my wireless card. I tried switching it to a different PCI slot, but the same thing continued. When I was able to test the machine with an ethernet cable plugged directly into a router, the stutter was gone. I bought a fresh wireless card, but the same thing happened immediately.
What's the deal? This problem has followed me across two systems with almost entirely different hardware. If it's a virus, how do I ditch it? If not, what's causing it?
My old system developed a stutter. It would freeze for a half-second at a time in short bursts. The stutter would appear off and on at random, and went on for a good year, coming and going. I couldn't locate the source, but it seemed to get worse when either the graphics card or the sound were called on heavily. Near the very end, the hard drive started getting corrupted, more and more swiftly. I had to replace my machine.
So I created new, a fresh, home-built system:
* Asus P8 Z68-V motherboard
* Intel i5-2500k
* 16 GB RAM
* Radeon 6850
* 465 GB WD platter hd
* 128 GB SSD with a fresh install of Windows 7
After completing the installation of Windows, I brought over my old DVD drive, my old wireless card, and my old hard drive. I copied my old data to the new drive, and was relieved that I was able to do so successfully. Almost immediately, I began to get the stutter again! I did some troubleshooting, and discovered that the stutter went away when I pulled out my wireless card. I tried switching it to a different PCI slot, but the same thing continued. When I was able to test the machine with an ethernet cable plugged directly into a router, the stutter was gone. I bought a fresh wireless card, but the same thing happened immediately.
What's the deal? This problem has followed me across two systems with almost entirely different hardware. If it's a virus, how do I ditch it? If not, what's causing it?