My computer is pausing (stuttering) every 2 second

[goofything]

Hi. I hope someone can help me.

My computer stutters (that is, it just briefly pauses) every two seconds on graphics and sound. I first noticed it playing Americas Army online. But, as I tried to diagnose the problem, it seems to be doing it during any graphics and sound. I ran DXDiag and during the Direct 3D test, the "Direct X" cube comes up, spins around, then briefly pauses after 2 seconds, then spins again and repeats. It pauses about 4 times during this brief test. Then, I did the music test and during the Direct Music, again the music briefly pauses every two seconds.

I have cleaned up much of my computer. I now have nothing running in my system tray, I've rebooted after using MSCONFIG to disable all startup items except for the four that are necessary, I've deleted my temp files, emptied my trash can, etc. yet nothing works. Oh, I've also updated my video drivers. I even set my computer to operate as a server.

I'm running an AMD 1.4 Ghz with 256MB Ram, a 60GB hard drive, Windows 98; and have a DSL modem connected. My system resources show 80% free. When I run the DXDiag I have nothing else running, and I'm not using a virus protection program.

Please help with any suggestions. It's incredibly frustrating. I'd just like my fairly new computer to run right.

By the way, I have a GeForce2 ti w/64 MB onboard memory.

One guy suggested that I may have had bad RAM, so I got a new RAM chip and tried that, but no luck. Now, I have 512MB of RAM in my system.

This pausing is unnoticeable when running business applications (Word, Excel, Quicken, etc.), but is somewhere between mildly and extremely annoying for games.

Please help!

Thanks so much.

 

[Junkkyy]

I blame Canada

Damn surly hockey stick wielding drunkards

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway

 

[SammyBoy]

What's your motherboard chipset?

-SammyBoy

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Go into your BIOS, and increase your AGP apature size.
also make sure you have the latest graphics drivers and chipset drivers installed.

<b>I'm THE THGC Strumpet! Hear me Roar! *Squeak!* </b>

 

[tastim]

I wouln't be sure enough to tell you to go buy a new one...but the first thing that popped into my head when i read your title was "bad hard drive"

 

[shallowbaby]

i'm surprise nobody hasn't even suggested a bad graphics card yet.

<font color=green> there's more to life than increasing its speed -Ghandi</font color=green>

 

[goofything]

Follow up:

My motherboard is an ECS K7S5A and I'm running Windows 98. I've updated my graphics card drivers and checked my BIOS. The bus speed is running at 133Mhz. I couldn't figure out how to increase the AGP aperature size.

Any other suggestions?

By the way, is there any way to test whether my hard drive or my graphics card really is bad, like some have suggested may be the problem?

Thanks again for all suggestions.

 

[peter21]

it might be a thermal problem. My firend had a laptop that did the exact same thing it would pause when playing games or music. It turned out his system was over-heating. Try downloading motherboard monitor or check in your bios to see how hot your system and cpu are getting. Try opening the case and blowing one of those big house fans on it while its running to see if it helps the problem. If that is the problem you should look into getting/replacing case fans and or cpu fan.

--------
The only thing i know...

is that i know nothing at all.

 

[gr8mikey]

I've seen this problem before. If your CPU isn't running hot, I would suggest you try the following. Is the memory DDR? If it is make sure the DDR memory voltage is set to 2.5 in your CMOS setup. If that is ok, double check the CPU Vcore voltage. It should be at 1.75... If this checks out ok, try bumping up the Vcore a little to see if the problem gets worse or better. I came across a 1.4 T-bird one time that displayed the exact symptom you describe until I bumped the vCore up to 1.81 then it ran optimally. If your bios does not allow vCore adjustments, Go to the motherboard manufacturers website and get the latest BIOS update. Just a few suggestions... hopefully one of them holds the answer

Not a fanboy.... I hate everyone equally.

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

What the hell is your problem with Canada and what does Canada have to do with his problem...man theres so many ppl. on the board who have nothign better to do but blame Canada or Canadians or critisize us...we've done NOTHING wrong....and im sure im not the only fellow Canadian on this board who takes offence to such posts...

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[Guest]

Not sure if this is going to be much help, but I've encountered the exact same thing, on a nearly identical configuration (same MB, AThlon 1400, 512 MB DDR, GF2 GTS back then, etc..) It started after installing a bunch f software and updated drivers, but I couldnt get rid of it. I ended up formatting the harddisk, and installed winXP. It cured it. I suspect it was a driver issue, probably related to my SB Audigy..

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[jlbigguy]

Check your CPU usage level. I suggest using Norton utilities for this. System Monitor that is supplied with Windows often inflates this value.

At idle (only windows running) you should be in single digits. If utilization is high, you may have a virus at work in your system. If you don't already have anti-virus software, time to get one....

<font color=blue>This is a Forum, not a playground. Treat it with Respect.</font color=blue>

 

[Greeny]

Although this probably wont be an issue with 256mb RAM, check your had drive caching (pagefile.sys) in your system settings. Otherwise, if it doesn't look like the system is accessing the HD when it hangs, I'd just suggest upgrading to Windows 2000 or XP.

 

[Jusphil]

is your pc on a network besides the dsl? try disconnecting dsl and running dxdiag again. How does different resolutions show up? how long have you had the problem and how long have you had the motherboard etc.

check device conflicts. I've had problems with the K7S5A if you can reload windows try it. only way to find problem is process of elimination

 

[tastim]

Holy crap I completely forgot about this... my very first attempt at an Athlon system had the same exact problem..... I tried everything to fix it and finally gave up and wrote it off as a bad motherboard, as at the time, the motherboards for AMD DID suck..... and I went with a P3 and forgot about it...... I got money that says it is in fact a voltage problem.

 

[Guest]

You've not seen the southpark movie have you? believe it or not, it makes blaming Canada a damn funny thing.