PC randomly pausing - very strange

[Yuriman]

I just put together a new PC for my stepbrother, because his old machine was misbehaving.

Old machine:
400w Fortron PSU
Opteron 165
DFI Lanparty
2gb DDR
2x 80gb drives, raid
750gb storage drive
X-Fi
X1800xt

New machine:
620W Seasonic PSU
1055T
Gigabyte w/890GX
4gb DDR3
G.Skill SSD
750gb storage drive (carried over)
X-Fi -> could not get PC to regognize it, took it out
HD4870


The Opteron rig was getting a little slow, but that's not the main reason for upgrading. The Opteron rig would randomly pause on desktop, like when you're typing, the text would not appear for a moment, and then appear really fast all at once. When the PC has "paused", videos and music continue to play, and the mouse pointer moves, but you can't click on or move anything until it unpauses. It seems to be getting progressively worse over time, too.

The only hardware shared between the new and old machine is the storage drive, mouse, keyboard, and monitor, and we have pulled the hard drive out since, and tried a new mouse, with no success.

Task manager shows nothing obvious using CPU, nothing hogging ram. Power supply is putting out proper power. CPU and video card temperatures are fine. We have tried keyboard and mouse on both USB controllers. Before installing windows, I set the SATA controller to AHCI mode, otherwise most bios settings are stock.


The only thing I can think of is that maybe either the keyboard is funky, or that a virus found its way from the old machine to the new, via the storage drive. Kaspersky and security essentials found nothing, though, and we'll be trying a new keyboard as soon as he is back from class.

Any ideas?

 

[Yuriman]

PC has AMD chipset drivers, video card drivers, windows updates, etc. Pausing occurred before and after installing these.

There might be some common software, but it's nothing that I don't use on my PC either, but we'll try a fresh format.

 

[crucibelle]

Yuriman -- Sorry I can't be of any help, but my computer does the exact 'pausing' thing you have mentioned. Please post back to say whether the fresh format works, or not. Hopefully someone else on the forum might have some ideas, as well.

 

[TemjinGold]

I had this problem in my rig for the longest time. Turned out to be my failing Ballistix ram and aging APC UPS. Yanked the bad ram and swapped to a decent UPS and problem solved.

 

[Yuriman]

Will try each stick of ram individually, then.

 

[z5500x3]

I am having the same issue. Bump.

 

[crucibelle]

I tested my RAM and it is fine. My issue must be different. It goes away when I restart, but gets progressively worse the longer I use my comp without a restart. Perhaps I just don't have enough RAM.

 

[Lanyap]

For the OP's problem. I'm guessing keyboard since it happens when you are typing and you have swapped most everything else. Try a known working keyboard.

 

[BTO]

I would suggest running something like MemTest+86. If I remember correctly I believe you can run it from the bios on that motherboard. If not the link is above. I suggest running it for a few hours at least. If there are any errors than you should check each stick of ram individually. I wouldn't think it would be the keyboard but I suppose anything is possible. You could also run MalwareBytes (free edition) if you think you may have a virus (sounds very possible). Be sure it upgrades to today's date. If it won't install or update than most likely you do have a virus.

 

[Swampster]

Did you mirror your old RAID boot drive into the new SSD drive, or is this a fresh installation?

Generally speaking, when the system pauses as you describe it is a matter of something else momentarily grabbing priority. In theory, each click of the clock the CPU gives priority to one of the devices or services that require its attention. On the next click it gives attention to the next function, etc.

In this way, it appears to be doing many things at once but in reality it is only doing one thing at a time . . . but very quickly.

Now, if something is momentarily grabbing proirity over every thing else, then the system seems to pause and then pick back up as you describe in a second or two. It is the same thing when it completely freezes and you have to reboot . . . something is demanding the full attention of the CPU and won't release it.

Try downloading ProcessMonitor and have it running in the background. It does exactly as its title indicates . . . it monitors all the processes so that you can see which one is grabbing 100% of the CPU and not letting go for a second or two. From there you will have a better idea of what needs to be patched/reinstalled/replaced. Let us know what you find.