[Biggest Geekest]

Hi guys, I'm wondering if someone geekier than me could help me out please.

The Problem: Sometimes during normal operation my system starts stuttering, the whole system. So say I'm listening to some music and running an application. My mouse, application, and music will all start stuttering. I restart my computer and sometimes it won't boot. I will get a blank screen as if no signal is being sent to the monitor. The OS is installed on a RAID 0 (Two SP2004C 200GB). The array comes up healthy every time on boot. Besides the stutter the system runs fine.

Things I've Tried: I swapped out the RAM and the same problem happens with the other RAM. I have defragmented my hard drives as well. I have scanned for spyware with Spybot and AD Aware SE Personal. I've scanned for viruses with AVG. I had my processor set to 215Mhz from 200Mhz Core Clock in the BIOS. I'm thinking maybe I damaged the processor so I set it back to 200Mhz. But, the first power supply that came with this system was faulty. This one is better but maybe it's still not enough, I don't know. It's a 400Watt Power Supply. It could also be the processor or motherboard too I suppose. I don't think it's the hard drives because the booting with a blank screen is before the hard drives. This makes me think it's the processor or power supply.

Any ideas on what is causing the problem? I was thinking of getting a new processor but I thought I'd ask some second opinions before I do. Does this sound like a power supply or processor problem?

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Check the fan on the CPU, this could easily be a heat problem. Make sure it's running, just take of the side so you can check.

[Tyger]

Check the fan on the CPU, this could easily be a heat problem. Make sure it's running, just take of the side so you can check.

[Biggest Geekest]

Thanks for your help.

I have a Zalman TNN 500AF Fanless Case. The power supply is a built in 400watt supply.

Here's the link to the product manual:
http://www.zalman.co....N500AF_eng.pdf

And some information on the power supply I pulled from it:

High-Efficiency, Fanless Power Supply
The power supply uses high-efficiency FET
components and Heat Source Contact (HSC)
technology, eliminating the need for a fan, and
has a 10% higher power conversion efficiency
(80%) rating than conventional power supplies.
Heat from the power supply is transferred
directly to the high-capacity heatsink plates,
where it is dissipated by natural convection,
making the power supply free of noise and
vibration.
- High-capacity active PFC inductors, separate switching transformers for each power rail
(+12V, +5V, +3.3V), and 2-FET forward converter design all work to create a superior
level of stable power quality.
- Conventional power supplies tend to have lower output voltage due to line-dropping
phenomenon. The TNN Power Supply extends the output voltage sensors up to the
motherboard connection for +3.3V, +5V, and +12V rails to prevent this, enhancing
output voltage accuracy and assuring system stability.
􀂜 Data above were measured according to INTEL ATX v2.03/ATX12V power supply specs.
Measurement specifications : For each DC output, a bypass made up of one 0.1􀇺F
ceramic capacitor and one 10􀇺F electrolytic capacitor is connected and measured with
an oscilloscope (input impedance 1M􀊃) at a frequency bandwidth of 20MHz. The
waveforms may differ under different measurement conditions.
􀂥 Ripple and noise waveforms at DC output
a)+5VDC
(21.4mVp-p)
b)+3.3VDC
(42.2mVp-p)
c)+12V1DC
(80.8mVp-p)
d)+12V2DC
(88.4mVp-p)
e)-12VDC
(98.4mVp-p)
f)-5VDC
(56mVp-p)
g)+5VsdDC
(31.8mVp-p)

Lots of standard 12 Volt rails. A couple SATA, the ones for the motherboard, videocard, floppy, etc.

I've got the DVD drive, 3 hard drives, floppy, videocard, soundcard, motherboard, plugged in. I would suspect the videocard is the biggest power consumer, but I chose this card because it was supposedly efficient and used less power than most other comparable cards. Perhaps the power supply is not enough though. I've unplugged the DVD drive and floppy drive. It started up normal and I haven't had the stutter problem yet. If it was the processor, it would probably do this all the time right? I will keep it like this and see what happens. If I don't get the stutter I will talk to Zalman about possible replacement options.

The processor runs extremely cool. The heatpipes are very effective and keep it around 30C + or - a few degrees. Even when I had it overclocked it was around 30C.
__________________
Windows XP
Gigabyte GA-K8NE (rev. 2.0)
AMD Clawhammer 64 3200+ 2.0Ghz
1GB Kingston 3700 (2GB OCZ Platinum for swap on other system)
2 200GB Samsung SP2004C in RAID 0
1 500GB WD Caviar 16SE
eVGA nVidia 7950GT
Soundblaster XFi Platinum