Computer starts to "hiccup"

  • Thread starter Thread starter brassplyer
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brassplyer

I've begun noticing a glitch where the computer starts to hesitate -
for example you'll be playing an audio or video file and it pauses
intermittently and it's reflected in the audio with an obnoxious
intermittent buzzing. When you run the mouse across the screen it also
intermittently hangs.

Don't know if it's at all related but I first started noticing this a
little while ago some time after doing an OS reinstall - XP MCE and
doing long video editing/rendering projects, but now I find it doesn't
seem to have to be anything that intensive. It will also sometimes do
it just letting the computer sit for a period and coming back to it.
Other observations are that "Restart" doesn't seem to be as likely to
clear it as a complete shut down and reboot. I had run this machine
for several years before this with no such problem.

It doesn't seem to be related to any particular app, at least that I
can tell so far. I've run the updated Bitdefender A/V and it finds
nothing, have the latest security updates.

I do have 4 h/d's but there's a fair amount of cooling. Tower case and
besides the power supply fan there's a big puller fan in back, pusher
in front, and a side case fan. I can run my audio recording app for
hours and have no problem. Other times it suddenly appears with doing
not much of anything.

Soyo Dragon Mobo, P4 2.4 gig, 3 gigs ram, XP MCE, browser I use almost
exclusively is FF 3.5.3 except for Windows Updates.

About the only other change I can think of was I pulled the CPU heat
sink to give it and the fan a good cleaning, cleaned the contact
surfaces and applied some Radio Shack heat sink compound PN 276-1372
A. I've used it on other machines with no issue. Don't really recall
what the timing is of the symptoms relative to the CPU removal/
reinstall.

Thanks for all input!
 
brassplyer said:
I've begun noticing a glitch where the computer starts to hesitate -
for example you'll be playing an audio or video file and it pauses
intermittently and it's reflected in the audio with an obnoxious
intermittent buzzing. When you run the mouse across the screen it also
intermittently hangs.

Don't know if it's at all related but I first started noticing this a
little while ago some time after doing an OS reinstall - XP MCE and
doing long video editing/rendering projects, but now I find it doesn't
seem to have to be anything that intensive. It will also sometimes do
it just letting the computer sit for a period and coming back to it.
Other observations are that "Restart" doesn't seem to be as likely to
clear it as a complete shut down and reboot. I had run this machine
for several years before this with no such problem.

It doesn't seem to be related to any particular app, at least that I
can tell so far. I've run the updated Bitdefender A/V and it finds
nothing, have the latest security updates.

I do have 4 h/d's but there's a fair amount of cooling. Tower case and
besides the power supply fan there's a big puller fan in back, pusher
in front, and a side case fan. I can run my audio recording app for
hours and have no problem. Other times it suddenly appears with doing
not much of anything.

Soyo Dragon Mobo, P4 2.4 gig, 3 gigs ram, XP MCE, browser I use almost
exclusively is FF 3.5.3 except for Windows Updates.

About the only other change I can think of was I pulled the CPU heat
sink to give it and the fan a good cleaning, cleaned the contact
surfaces and applied some Radio Shack heat sink compound PN 276-1372
A. I've used it on other machines with no issue. Don't really recall
what the timing is of the symptoms relative to the CPU removal/
reinstall.

Thanks for all input!
Click to expand...

Try looking at your processor usage (in Task manager or Process
explorer), as Rick said there could be processes that sometimes burden
the processor maximally which would cause the symptoms you describe.

Also, as you suspect CPU overheating, to rule it out get a program to
display your CPU temperature (e.g. Speedfan) and have a look at it.
 
Try looking at your processor usage (in Task manager or Process
explorer), as Rick said
Click to expand...


I see no response from a RIck. I'm reading this in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics which is the first group in the
thread.
 
Try looking at your processor usage (in Task manager or Process
explorer), as Rick said there could be processes that sometimes burden
the processor maximally which would cause the symptoms you describe.
Click to expand...


During appearance of the symptoms it's around 20 - 25 % with no apps
running - obviously way too high. However, nothing in taskmanager
indicates that much usage, not even cumulatively. It's normally around
0 - 4% when just sitting.
 
brassplyer said:
I see no response from a RIck. I'm reading this in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics which is the first group in the
thread.
Click to expand...

His response was limited to alt.comp.os.windows-xp
 
brassplyer said:
During appearance of the symptoms it's around 20 - 25 % with no apps
running - obviously way too high. However, nothing in taskmanager
indicates that much usage, not even cumulatively. It's normally around
0 - 4% when just sitting.
Click to expand...

I think you could use Process Explorer to find the offending process. It
records per-process processor usage, however AFAIK there's no convenient
way to do it - you'd just have to go over each process and look at their
charts. There might be better programs for that purpose though, Google
might help you with that.
 
During appearance of the symptoms it's around 20 - 25 % with no apps
running - obviously way too high. However, nothing in taskmanager
indicates that much usage, not even cumulatively. It's normally around
0 - 4% when just sitting.
Click to expand...

Task Manager is okay, but Process Explorer will give you greater
granularity to see what is going on and help you narrow down any
problems. PE doesn't install anything - it just runs on demand. If
you need help with PE, we can help.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Another thing to verify is your HDD transfer mode:

If you are using IDE drives, use Device Manager to verify the transfer
mode of the IDE channels is set
to some kind of DMA mode (depends on your hardware) and not the slower
PIO mode.

PIO is the slowest, DMA is the fastest.

This is easy to check and generally easy to fix and the mode would not
have changed by itself,
so if it has changed to PIO, change it to DMA and then figure out why
it changed and fix it.

To launch the Device Manger console, click Start, Run and in the box
enter:

%SystemRoot%\system32\devmgmt.msc

Click OK.

Expand the IDE/ATA controller section to see your IDE channels. Right
click each, choose Properties,
and for each channel that has an Advanced Settings tab, determine the
Transfer Mode. There are
usually 4 channels to check in a desktop, maybe fewer for laptops.

The fastest selection will be some kind of DMA (usually DMA if
available). If it is PIO, change it
to DMA and figure out why it changed later.

If you are not sure about what you see post back for help and advice.

Follow this up with a reboot to make sure any changes stick and then
run chkdsk.
 
Joe said:
BTW, next time you cross-post, please set the headers to send replies
to the same group, rather than all. I've corrected it for this post,
Click to expand...

Bullshite. Reply to all the groups in the OP.
but my newsreader (Pan) complains if I don't.
Click to expand...

Then, get a better newsreader.
 
Dave said:
Not taking sides, but it's tough to beat Pan. -Dave
Click to expand...

If it nags because you don't use Followups, and you can't disable that, I
vote that it's worse than OE.
 
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