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Games stutter every few seconds

Last response: in Video Games
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Hello all,

I've been having issues with my PC for some time now; no matter what game I run, no matter how old it is,
it just stutters all the time, it happens in new games like Crysis, and in old games like Half-Life, Morrowind...everywhere.
For example in Half-Life I get like 200 frames and then suddenly it drops to 10 frames for 5 seconds, then the framerate is normal again, then after a few seconds it drops to 10 frames again, and that happens all the time. These games are supposed to run freakin' flawless, they're 10 years old.

I have a FRESH installed Windows XP Professional SP3 with all the updates and latest drivers on. It happened on my old XP installation, on my Vista installation, on every single one of them. It's simply stupid.

My config is:

AMD Athlon 64 3200 +
DFI LanParty nf4 Ultra-D
2x Kingmax DDR 2 GB in dual channel
Sapphire ATi X1800 XL FR 256 MB
WesternDigital 150GB

and that's about it yes. Nothing is overclocked, everything is bone stock.
I think it's the hard drive to be honest, for a couple of months I've been getting this nasty rattling noise when starting
the PC up, it only happens then, it varies in pitches and tone and as soon as it comes into windows it completely stops.
I have no idea what the hell that is.

But in any case I think this PC is dead and I need a new one. Any suggestions to endure another few weeks of play how could I fix this or what could it be?


Thanks a lot!

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yes it could be your hard drive, loud grinding and/or clicking coming from your HDD is a sign that it is failing.

However before you do that it could be a power supply issue please list it, in your next post.

Failing that try a different Graphics Card(lend one off a friend, an old spare? mabye)

on your hard disk run a chkdsk,

start - run - type cmd - type chkdsk c: /f

if it reports any Bad Sectors at all, get a new one.

It could very well be a bad video card. The more likely cause is a failing video card or a failing hard drive. If you have a spare that can run a game that does that very well, try that out. If it still does it, it's probably your hard drive.
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Run HDTune on your drive. Should start at about 50 Mb/s and slowly drop during benchmark. If it drops to low for significant time there is a problem. Run WD diagnostic program.. To test PSU, install Speedfan and graph the 12V line, see if it fluctuates. If that PSU is a couple of years old it may be struggling.

Mike.

61C is very hot, 71C is way too hot! :ouch:  You need much more airflow past that drive or it will fail soon. Does the Health tab on HDTune show any red bands?If the drive is at bottom front, can you fit a fan(s) to cool it?

Mike.

Yea 70C is a little insane for HDD temps. I left HWmonitor open and played some games to check temps on my GPU, it lists the max/min and current temps. It also neatly displayed my HDD temps on my old Raptor 74GB(my main gaming hdd) and it only hit about 31C. Ambient is between 75~80F

Use a Digital Multimeter to measure the +12V line, Speedfan is not always accurate. What is Speedfan showing for the +12V? -12V is only used for RS232 serial port and is not critical.

Mike.
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