winXP "hangs" 2secs every 5mins or so

[ekang123]

Hello, I'm new to the forums here and I was hoping that some of you experts out there could help me out with a bit of a problem I've run into in the past 2 days.

My computer was running fine up until about 2 days ago, when while listening to some music and playing a game, I noticed that the sound would seem to buzz out for a few seconds every so often.

It becomes really noticeable when I'm just listening to music in my room: the song will keep playing, and then for about 2 seconds, it will sort of trill, or 'vibrate' (i dunno really how to describe it, like.. electric distortion from some techno song) and the computer will hang, then everything resumes (happens like once every 5 mins or so, though its not always consistent).

This is not just a music related issue, while playing a game, the video completely freezes for the same length of time, and it's extremely annoying!

I have the latest Radeon and nVidia Nforce drivers installed, and it's been about two months since I reformatted my comp. This has never happened before either.

I can't really think of what might have caused this, so if anyone has an idea as to what the problem might be, please let me know. Thanks!
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incase this stuff matters:

AthlonXP 2600 on windows XP service pack 2
512 DDR RAM
Radeon 9500
250GB WesternDigital hard drive, 80GB Maxtor hard drive (operating system on this, pagefile goes to other)
Asus A7N8X motherboard

nothing here is overclocked or anything either, please let me know if theres anything else relevant

 

[meltdown75]

hey, Welcome to the forums. I'm no expert but we can get the ball rolling on your problem

Just for starters, do you remember specifically doing / changing anything audio related around the time your problem started?

Are you using the onboard sound? If it is the A7N8X like I have then the sound drivers are all from the nvidia site so sounds like you are all up to date there. What type of speakers do you have? Are they new / old? I'm assuming you have already checked all your connections. Lastly I would recommend making sure there isn't something interfering with your speakers - possibly another device / appliance in the room such as a TV or home stereo.

Also, ensure you have ran through the gamut of spyware / adware detection and removal. You'd be surprised at the amount of junk you can clean out.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Checked for viruses, spyware, other malware that might be periodically grabbing cpu cycles?

 

[ekang123]

-First, I do not believe this to be a hardware problem REGARDING the speakers, (though perhaps something else is screwed up inside, i dunno) as I doubt the speaker connections/interference could be causing the computer to freeze, both audio and video. (and yeah everythings plugged in fine, etc)

-Yes, I have run the latest versions of AdAware, Spybot, Stinger, and even scanned the computer using Symantec's online virus scan, and nothing was found. HijackThis shows no startup processes that seem out of place either.

-Currently my computer is about 50% or so fragmented so I'm going to try defragging and see whether this will specifically fix my sound/video freezing problem.

+The one strange thing that happened recently (as I dont think I installed / changed any settings really) was that I pulled out my one stick of RAM (512 DDR Micron) to check its type, so I could go buy some more RAM. After replacing it, the computer wouldn't reboot for a few times, then I noticed it wasn't plugged in all the way. After rebooting then, I received a strange error, like "CPU OVERSPEED" or some such, at the initial turn-on screen. After rebooting again, it runs fine with no hitch.

-> I am unsure if this is the cause of my problems, as it could be that the sound/video was freezing up to several days before this, and I just never listened to music / noticed it much.


Once again, thanks for your help.

 

[loup garou]

Run taskmgr and sort processes by cpu usage. When system hangs, see what process is eating up cpu cycles.

Run memtest86 to check out that funky stick of ram.

Could also be a dying hard drive.

 

[ekang123]

Found the problem: my next door neighbor recently enabled his wireless network, and my wireless modem (which i don't use while im at school) was constantly prompting me for connecting it or something periodically while detecting this new network. This caused the computer to stall for a few seconds every so often..... wow random

Anyhow thanks for all the help, out of all the forums I tried you guys were the most helpful with the responses!

 

[meltdown75]

Wow, that's pretty interesting. I never would have guessed that one.

Hey, on the bright side you found a new internet connection

 

[robtk3]

With 512Mb, you could turn off the pagefile. See if you notice a difference. It has smoothed out my machine a bit.

 

[lskoto]

ekang,

I had the exact same problem at the office (CPU spikes every 5 minutes, with the machine pausing) and after trying everything, our network tech reinstalled xp on my laptop which seemed to get rid of the problem...though that created a bit of a hassle.

If it starts up again, I'll make sure my WiFi is disabled. Thanks for posting the solution!

 

[montag451]

prob best to leave a working pagefile