Computer stuttering

I've been having this unusual problem which I have been unable to correct for the past few months.

Basically what is happening is that after a few weeks of using a clean install of windows XP, running some applications (such as games) and watching movies and such will make my computer stutter.

Watching uncompressed movie files straight out of my video camera becomes impossible as both video, sound, and even the mouse cursor starts to stutter.



What I've been doing lately is reinstalling windows each time I encounter this problem, installing all my necessary programs (Graphics card drivers, sound card drivers, etc.) and then creating a backup of the registry.

Once I get the stutter problem again, i usually just restore the backup registry and that usually provides a quick fix for a few more days.



I've searched all over the net, reading up on many forums but all the solutions I've tried including cleaning the registry haven't exactly helped to eliminate the problem.


Anyone have any clues as to what the problem may be and how to fix it?

 

nope.

In fact, i've got that problem right now.



I'm browsing the net fine, chatting to people on msn fine... but then once i an uncompressed video file or a game or something, it will start to stutter or i'll get the FPS spikes.

 

Could be "disk thrashing" caused by too little ram, for example. Would make sure you have at least a GB. Maybe listing the specs for your PC may help us track this down.

 

I originally thought the problem was faulty memory.

I've replaced my RAM and reduced it down a 1GIG stick.




Comp specs are:

Windows XP SP2
ASUS P5SD2-X Motherboard
Pentium IV - 3.4GHz
1GB DDR2 Corsair RAM
Radeon X1900 XTX
WDC WD2000JD-22HBC0 (250 GB)
WDC WD5000AAKS-65TMA0 (500 GB)

 

Good specs. probably rule out a hardware problem. Would look at your security: firewall, antivirus, antispyware, etc.

Below is an idea of what that involves, but visit our security forum for more details and expert advice.

You should be running zonealarm or comodo firewall, avg or avast antivirus and several antispyware - spywareguard srpwareblaster and similar. All listed are free.

Run a free external scan such as kasperski or trend and let them fix what they find, download and run atf-cleaner (google it to find) and download, install, and run the free winpatrol.exe (also google) and rt-clk the taskbar icon and choose 'display startup info' and remove any unnecessary start-ups taking up cpu time.


Follow-up is important, so report back your results, please.

 

My machine is doing the same thing. It started about three weeks ago. I'll do the kasperski scan and see what happens. I'm using the avg free version anti virus.

 

After you install Windows, go to the Asus website and look for updated drivers for the chipset (it has a SiS 656 chipset), then install the drivers for the XTX graphics adapter (you may want to check at the XTX website for updates, but the original drivers should work fine). After that, install the drivers for the audio from the Asus drivers CD. You can then install any others you need.

Here is the Asus webpage for it:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=807&l1=3&l2=11&l3=240&l4=0
There is a download link on the left-hand side.

If SP3 is being installed, new drivers may only be available at the manufacturer's website (like SiS for the chipset drivers).

Don't get drivers by letting Windows "look for them on the internet ".

Matt