Interrupts CPU Usage Spike causes stuttering

remedy1419

Junior Member
Jun 18, 2008
7
0
0
Hey guys lately I've been getting cpu usage spikes every so often (it happens more frequently when I'm running an intensive game or something of the like). Process Explorer tells me that interrupts spikes to about 40-60% not 100%.

Whenever these spikes happen, my computer either: freezes (happens when im in an intesive application like a game); or everything freezes except the cursor which moves but is at a crawl (whenever i'm not in a full screen application).

I've tried seeing if one of my IDE controllers was in PIO mode, none of them were. Everything is in DMA mode. I'm at wits end with this issue, I'm close to reformatting which is such a pain.

I've ruled out overheating, as nothing on my computer at 100% gpu and cpu load goes over 56C which is perfectly adequate.

The spikes do NOT correspond with I/O port spikes.

I've done my best to rule out Ad-Aware / Spyware / Trojans / Rootkits etc. by running these scans:
Trend Micro Housecall
Nod32 Website scan as well as software scan (it's my AV)
F-Secure Blacklight (rootkit scanner)
Spybot S&D
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 08
Malwarebytes Anti Malware
SUPERAntiSpyware
Kaspersky online scan


All of those at this point come up clean. I think I COULD have a rootkit, since those are very hard to detect, but I'm really stingy on keeping my computer healthy. I defrag every day, run scans of everything above once a week (Nod32 has a daily scan I set up).

Aside from that, I've tried switching network card drivers, tried switching video card drivers, and tried switching sound card drivers. Nothing has helped.

Thanks in advance, if you need more information let me know I'll be glad to give you it.

System Specs:

Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit
MSI P7N Platinum 750i SLi LGA 775 Motherboard
Intel E4500 @ 3.0Ghz
2x MSI 9600GT @ 750/1800/1000 (Core/Memory/Shader)
2x 1GB Mushkin DDR2 800 @ DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15
D-Link DWA 552
Corsair 620HX 620W PSU (SeaSonic internals)
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude
 

Cutthroat

Golden Member
Apr 13, 2002
1,104
0
0
Welcome to Anandtech.:)

Here's what I would do. First get Acronis True Image Home (trial version available) and image your OS partition, save it to a different partition. Now reinstall your OS and test it out, if the stutters still occur you can recover from the image and you're right back where you are now and you know it's likely a hardware issue.

When you reinstall your OS don't just automatically install everything you think you need, install apps as you need them. This way it's easier to tell what app is causing you trouble.