PC Hiccups Starting to get Annoying

[The Napster]

Ok so i originally thought this was a software problem or virus but now im having second thoughts. I am getting system hiccups at regular intervals the curser/graphics lock up for approx one second every four seconds as I have counted. (1-2-3-4-Freeze-1-2-...etc) But not just the curser freezes, the whole system does if im listening to anything with sound it will jump Dum dum dum duh, duh, duh, dum. and if im typing whatever I type in that one second it doesnt register. It was doing this alot on my vista home premium 32 bit so I just thought well its time to reformat and try again. Now while im waiting for my new copy of x64 vista ultimate go get here i installed another version of 32bit vista ultimate that was laying around and have been using it, but to my big suprise I opened world of warcraft and about 5 min in it did the exact same lockups! After reformat and new OS! This happens at random times usually after playing wow for a little bit but not always, and once it starts it cant be stopped I have to shut it off and turn it back on (even a restart doesnt stop it) Im beginning to think this is somehow hardware related. Im wanting to build another computer but I dont have the cash at the moment. What is wrong???

 

[joeten]

hi there i would try updating my drivers from the mfr site and if you have a graphics card get them from the card mfr site and see how it goes as you dont say the make and model it is not possible to help much more for now but one last thing check in device manager for any yellow!

 

[The Napster]

Ok I have an ATI 850XT and i remember that there was a second display driver that was yellow. It was the mobo onboard graphics that was yellow in the DM. I just noticed last night that this is not just in the operating system but in the bios too and windows setup, so I have ripped out all components that are not necessary and putting them back in one at a time. So far I have 2/4 ram chips and just put the Graphics card in. I havnt fully tested it yet but so far the lag hasnt been gone.

 

[Nagasama]

i would have to suggest memory.

 

[The Napster]

It could be memory.....ive got pretty much everything back in place and have seen no hiccups yet. I did swap which slots the memory was in. I had (1g,512m,512m,1g) and switched to (1g,1g,512m,512m) which raised another question. It seemed to be a little more sluggish with the extra 2x512s so i took them out. Is it possible for it to run faster or smoother with the 512s gone since theyre different branded?

 

[joeten]

hi did you finish testing how has it panned out did you decide to leave out the2X512mb though i would have thought the brand would make little diference as long as they matched properly