[Space347]

I am at my wits end with this problem. My computer randomly stutters. This happens, usually after being on and used for a while and once it starts it does it quite frequently. This just happens when nothing is running. I have checked my cpu usage durring these times and they are normal. I have also check my computer temperatures and they are also normal. I have enough ram and done mem test86 or whatever. I have defragged, disk checked, checked for spyware, updated drivers on chipset, onboard audio card, video card, updated BIOs and cleaned out old registry, drivers and everything esle I can think of, nothing worked! This occurred after I resintalled windows. Could it be a bad install and I have to redo it? My mobo is getting on the old side, almost 4 years, do i need a new one? My PSU is fine, and I am pretty sure my HDDs are fine seeing as though one is brand new and the other is about a year old. I have a new DVD RW. Some other odd occurances though, occasionally my RAID controller says that is has lost and found my new DVD RW, this occrued before as but there never any stuttering. Also, after any stuttering occurs my audio settings are completely set back to defualt, this is also new. Here are my system spec, I really need help on this I am completely out of ideas here, thank you so much. Another thing, if I restart my computer the problem goes away, sometimes for hours even days but it does eventually come back, so it is kind of hard to see whether the problem is fixed or not.

Computer:
Computer Type ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name #####
User Name #######
Logon Domain #######
Date / Time 2007-02-13 / 02:04

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 540J, 3216 MHz (16 x 201)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo-A (2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 1 GEAR, 2 DDR DIMM, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Grantsdale i915P
System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Modular (06/09/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter RADEON X800 Series - Secondary (256 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON X800 Series - Secondary (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon X800 XL (R430)
Monitor Dell 2005FPW (Digital) [20" LCD] (T613063M3DWL)
Monitor Sony SDM-HS73 [17" LCD] (1107251)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter C-Media CMI9880 @ Intel 82801FB ICH6 - High Definition Audio Controller [B-1]

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel® 82801FB/FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 266F
SCSI/RAID Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller VIA VT6410 RAID Controller
Disk Drive ST3300831A (300 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive Memorex Mini TravelDrive USB Device (949 MB, USB)
Disk Drive ST3400633A (400 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive Memorex Mini TravelDrive USB Device
Optical Drive PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111D SCSI CdRom Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:8x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:40x/32x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive YU0611U BEL343W SCSI CdRom Device
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 286157 MB (233154 MB free)
G: (NTFS) 381551 MB (198583 MB free)
Total Size 652.1 GB (421.6 GB free)

Input:
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Mouse Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse

Network:
Primary IP Address 192.168.1.100
Primary MAC Address 00-0F-EA-38-FA-62
Network Adapter Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (192.168.1.100)

Edited by Space347, 13 February 2007 - 01:28 AM.

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That's quite a 'loaded' powerhouse you have there, needing a powerhouse of a PSU to make sure it all runs smoothly with each component getting enough 'juice'. You say "My PSU is fine" but how do you know that?
Is it capable of supplying enough wattage?
Do you know what the total wattage demand of your system is?

[pip22]

That's quite a 'loaded' powerhouse you have there, needing a powerhouse of a PSU to make sure it all runs smoothly with each component getting enough 'juice'. You say "My PSU is fine" but how do you know that?
Is it capable of supplying enough wattage?
Do you know what the total wattage demand of your system is?

[Space347]

I have a seasonic s12 500W power supply. Before I got it I found a nifty wattage calculator online, http://extreme.outer...ucalculator.jsp , to give me a basic range of what I would need. Using that guy I only get at most about 300W I wanted to get the larger PSU to be safe and when I upgrade I don't have to buy a new PSU. I hope it is enough...

[The Skeptic]

Before the reinstallation of xp did you have all this hardware working smoothly with the current psu?

[Space347]

yeah, everything was working fine. The only thing that has changed was one my HDD died and had to be replaced with a new one and I also replaced my old DVD RW with a new one, my old one's motor burnt out, so I got a one that was almost equivalent. I also removed an old hard-drive since it was just taking up space and too small to be useful anymore. Same mobo, vid card, CPU and everything else. Thanks for your guys so far.

[The Skeptic]

Download and run BurniTest from here. It's a good hardware testing software that is free for 30 days. Run it at least for an hour and see if it identifies any errors.

[Space347]

well I did that, but since it was the trial it was only able to run for 15 min , so I did that and it looks like everything passed. Here are the results:

BurnInTest results (Detail: Normal)
Item Description
BurnInTest Version V5.1 Std 1014
Licenced *** Unlicensed Shareware Version ***
Network Name DAVID
Date 02/13/07 10:50:47
Operating system Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 build 2600
Number of CPUs 1 (1 Core(s)/CPU, 2 Logical(s)/Core)
CPU manufacturer GenuineIntel
CPU type Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.20GHz
CPU1 speed 3215.6 MHz
CPU L2 Cache: 1 MB (L3 Cache: 0 KB)
CPU features MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 DEP PAE
RAM 2047 MB
Video card RADEON X800 Series - Secondary (Resolution: 1680x1050x32)
Disk drive Model ST3300831A (Size: 279.5GB)
Disk drive Model ST3400633A (Size: 372.6GB)
Disk drive Model Memorex Mini TravelDrive USB Device (Size: 0.9GB)
Optical drive Memorex Mini TravelDrive USB Device
Optical drive PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111D SCSI CdRom Device
Optical drive YU0611U BEL343W SCSI CdRom Device

Result summary
Test Start time Tue Feb 13 05:59:52 2007
Test Stop time Tue Feb 13 06:14:53 2007
Test Duration 000h 15m 01s
Test Cycles Operations Result Errors Last Error
CPU - Maths 397 38.043 Billion PASS 0 No errors
CPU - SIMD 159 46.628 Billion PASS 0 No errors
Memory (RAM) 2 3.527 Billion PASS 0 No errors
2D Graphics 9 9877 PASS 0 No errors
3D Graphics 483 1.546 Billion PASS 0 No errors
Disk (C: System Files) 0 1.010 Billion PASS 0 No errors
Disk (G: Music and Games) 0 1.106 Billion PASS 0 No errors
Network 1 17 138880 PASS 0 No errors
CD/DVD (D:) 1 1.468 Billion PASS 0 No errors
Sound 10 17.122 Million PASS 0 No errors
Printer 1 3353 PASS 0 No errors
Video Playback 70 851 PASS 0 No errors
TEST RUN PASSED
Notes

I am going to run prime95 while I am at class today. That might see something.

[The Skeptic]

BurninTest shows that your hardware is OK. Since the problem started after XP reinstallation this is can be the source. When you reinstalled windows did you format the system disk at the process or was it some sort of repair installation.

[Space347]

It was a format of an 300gb IDE that I was using in my old system. So it was a completely new install.

[The Skeptic]

Since you mentioned prime95, is your computer overclocked? Please enter BIOS and set to default values. Try the computer on these values.

[Space347]

no my computer is not overclocked, someone reccomendend prime95 as a hardware test on another forum, so I thought I might let it run for a bit to see if any errors came up in it.

[The Skeptic]

Since the problem looks random please run prime95 long enough, even for few hours, to narrow the possibility of missing an error. I am not familiar with this program and I don't know what it can do but no harm in trying. Please note, however, that all hardware test programs put stress on the tested component and if in marginal condition it may fail permanently.

[Space347]

alright so I ran prime95 for a few hours and came home to this:
[Tue Feb 13 11:52:58 2007]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

the stress.txt is just a faq on how to interpret results. So there was some kind of hardware error when I was gone, about an hour after I set it, but prime95 hasn't told me anything about the location of the error.

[The Skeptic]

From what I read in google the error is most commonly attributed to ram or cpu cache memory. (Looks strange to me trhat prime95 doesn't give a drtailed report. Other people that has the same error has to go to the forums to find an interpratation)

Have you tried setting the BIOS for fail safe (or default) values? Please try it and run the test again.

[Space347]

well I found a version of burnintest that didn't have the fifteen minute restriction and ran it for about 8 hours last night and there were no errors at all. So I still loaded failsafe options and will run prime95 to see if it gets another error and get some info back. Haven't really seen the error in a while though, but who knows could still be there.