strange pauses

[robwebb]

I recently aquired a Dell 8200 with a 1.8Ghz P4 and a 64MB NV20 video card. I formatted the hard drive and installed Windows 2000, including all of the updates.

The computer will randomly pause for anywhere between 5 and 45 seconds. During the pause the video will freeze - in addition the keyboard and mouse become unresponsive. Also the audio will loop, repeating about 1 - 2 seconds of audio repeatedly. After the episode completes the computer returns to normal for 5 - 10 minutes then it will pause again. The pausing seems to occur more frequently when the system is under load, for example playing HALO or other games.

I think the problem is with the CPU or the Video card - other thoughts would be welcome. I have run extensive perfmon reports on all of the subsystems while the pauses occur. What I have found is that all of the subsystems appear to be operating normally with the exception of the CPU. The CPU utilization drops to 0% during the pause, although the CPU queue still has work to be done. I am wondering if I have an overheating problem in either the CPU or the video card.

Has anyone run accross this or a similar problem? Any ideas on how to isolate it further?

Thanks in advance
Robert

 

[tech4hire]

Have you checked to see if the bios reports the cpu temp. Make sure fans are all running. You may want to check or reapply some thermal grease for the cpu. Also would take it down to minimal ram and try different sticks and slots. Possible ram issue. also if you have another vid card around try it. If you can try another OS like xp or 98 to try to recreate the issue. I know that maybe asking alot but could help rule out a hardware issue.

 

[Lostman]

Do you have any proggys running in the background?

Press ctrl + alt + del and see what process is usning your cpu load. I don't think it's a heat issue. Most mobo's will reboot you if your temp gets too high.

I'm willing to bet you have a bad stick of ram or something running in the background.

 

[Cherubimon_3.20]

you can try getting a faster CPU; at 1.8 GHz and Win2K, your computer may be freezinf because of that; well thats what I think.

 

[Lostman]

It's not the CPU. After I installed Halo (waste of money) I got the same problem. Which version of Direct X are you running? Halo put on 9b.

I reboot a few times and scandisk fixed whatever was causing the problem.

 

[Cherubimon_3.20]

Which version of Dx should it run on. Ver 8.0 or higher?

 

[Lostman]

yes. I stuck with 8 because my card doesn't support 9 anyway. M$ snuck it in on me with Halo.

 

[robwebb]

Thanks all, I appreciate the suggestions and comments. I also thought it was HALO, however I am running HALO without issue on another computer (1 GHz P3).

Robert

 

[Lostman]

reboot it a few times (cold cock it) till you get a scandisk messege at boot. Let it run through and see what it finds.

 

[Ken Masters]

I would check the temp in CMOS as tech4hire suggested. Normally when your PC halts for no reason and the mouse and keyboard stopping working at odd times has to do with a over heating problem or power supply problem.