[instro2]

Hi everyone,

I apologize if this has been answered in the past but I did a quick search and couldn't find any threads. (Not for Vista anyway)

Recently I've been getting a 2-3 second sutter when playing video/music. My computer is a Dell 32 bit Vista Home Premium.

My computer has been working fine except for the past couple days. The only thing that could of remotely offset the system is when I was screwing around with my d-link wireless network drivers, however that has nothing to do with music or video.

I've searched around the net and found people having the same problem. Some believe svchost.exe is causing spikes. I came across this forum, so I'm hoping someone can help me.

My geforce 8600gt and other drivers are all updated aswell.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know alot about this kind of stuff, so I'd appreciate your help! Thanks.

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I am having this problem as well. My computer makes a clicking noise like it is restarting, and it pauses for about 1-2 seconds then operates again as normal. It does this randomly and seems to happen mostly when I am listening to music. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

[seanholmz]

I am having this problem as well. My computer makes a clicking noise like it is restarting, and it pauses for about 1-2 seconds then operates again as normal. It does this randomly and seems to happen mostly when I am listening to music. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

[Troy]

Hi there instro2 and seanholmz. This does sound like an interesting problem... and I'm going to take a stab in the dark. I used to have a similar problem under XP, and believe it or not, it was a HDD error.

• Click the Start Orb and type "Device Manager", press Enter. If UAC is enabled, you will need to click Continue.
• Click on the [+] next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
• Right-click on the channel to which your main HDD is connected and select Properties. (You may have to check a few to find it)
• Select the Advanced Settings tab.

If your HDD is set to PIO mode (not on Ultra DMA mode), then this is the cause of the problem. If not, then don't continue with the steps below!

To reset it, you need to:

• Check the box that says "Enable DMA" and then click OK.
• Click on the [+] next to Disk Drives.
• Right-click on the main HDD (the one Vista is installed on) and select Uninstall. Confirm OK.

You should then restart your computer, Vista will load just fine and will re-install the HDD itself. If your computer eventually continues with the same problems and returns to PIO mode, then there is a hardware error either with your HDD, the motherboard, or the data cable between the two.

Let me know if this helps (or not).

Cheers

Troy

[seanholmz]

Hi Troy and thanks for the reply,

I have run into another problem trying to execute the instructions you have provided. There are no channels to select from when I expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers". My only options are "NVIDIA nForce4 Parallel ATA Controller" and two "NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controllers". When I open the properties on any of these options there are no advanced settings tabs. However, there is a tab that says "primary channel" and "secondary channel". I found the primary channel, but there are no advanced settings or any items to select which match the description you provided above. Again, thanks for you help.

[Troy]

Unfortunately I don't have a motherboard with an nForce chipset, so I can't help you further on this one. You may be able to make some ground yourself researching on HDD transfer speeds and your motherboard.

Perhaps someone else may be able to assist in finding this information. As I said, it is a stab in the dark...

Cheers

Troy

[Troy]

I've been thinking about this thread, I can't believe I didn't think of this before! Two things:

1) I wouldn't be surprised if there's an nForce Control Panel Applet that has all the information you need...

2) All you need to do is uninstall the hard drive anyway and reboot your computer, Vista will just re-install it on the reboot. If you notice a change after this, then my guess was the problem anyway

Troy

[seanholmz]

Thanks troy for the help.

I think uninstalling it worked. I have not experienced the stutter yet today.

[Troy]

Oh wow, that's cool! Glad to hear it's working better for you, keep us posted on it.

Of course, we still need to find out why there were errors in the first place that caused Vista to slow down the transfer speeds to the HDD...

I truly believe the problem for me (when I had XP - on my last computer) was the motherboard, I changed HDD's, data cables, SATA ports, it still happened. My new computer hasn't had this problem.

Here is the link to my thread if you want a bit of interesting reading! It's a bit old now, but relevant just the same.

Cheers

Troy