Hello all, my name is martin and i have a problem regarding my pc that i hope somebody can solve. Its hard to explain, but between 1hr-3hrs after starting up, my pc seems to be jittering and causing lag, both in games and on everything else. I can notice it in games because my fps is reduced greatly and does effect gameplay. As for anything else, many things jitter on my screen, its noticable when i scroll up and down quickly move my cursor over certain areas etc. I am also getting a small high-pitched buzzing/sqeeking noise that seems to be in-time with the jitters, especialy when scrolling. I can hear the noise comming from the pc tower and through my headset with all volumes on mute and the volume on my headset turned up full. This noise isnt a problem, but it may give clues as to what exactly is wrong. I've had this problem many times before. The first time it started lagging like this, i formatted, and the pc was fine for about a few monthes then it happened again. Seconed time i done the same thing and again it was fine for a few monthes. However the third time i formatted and made sure everything was fine, it happened only after 2 weeks later. Also the fan on my graphic card has been unusualy loud recently, might be related to the proble. My system specs are:

Manufacturer: MSI
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Hard Drive: 163GB and a 320GB External drive
Video Card: ATi RADEON 9600 SERIES
Monitor: Vision Master Pro 400
Sound Card: Realtek AC97 Audio
Speakers/Headphones: GAME: Gaming Headset
Keyboard: Zboard Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech MX518 Optical Mouse
Operating System: Windows XP Professional

Thats about it, my concern is that im certain its a hardware problem. Ive done loads of spyware/virus scans like Trendmicro, AVG, Xoftspy, Spydoctor, PCzone etc and they've picked up nothing.

Any suggestions to solving this would be greatly apreciated !

I suck at explaining things xD so ask me if you need more info in more detail.

Regards

-Martin.

Hi Martz,

This maybe a result of overheating.

CPU Temperature Check (|MG| Free Download - EVEREST Free Edition 2.20)
The Intel Penium 4 CPU's will reduce speed when they reach their maximum temperature threshold, which is normally between 64 - 78°C.


GPU Temperature Check (ATI Tray Tools)
Temperature of an ATI card should ideally be below 100c

ok, i manged to get the motherboard tempretures

on average they're at

Temp 1: 40.00
Temp 2: 37.00
Temp 3: 33.00

temp 2 spikes up to 50 occasionly

could the power supply be a problem?

Are these just the motherboard temp's, did you check using the ATI Tray tools, which will check the temp of the graphics card itself, during your problem.

I don't believe it's a PSU problem, as there are usually other symptoms assiociated with lack of power. Problems turning the PC on, or PC switching off by itself. You can check here: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator - What Power Supply Do I Need

Another possibility could be an application running in the background. Malware or a faulty application with a memory leak. When this happens, also check your memory usage. You can do this by accessing your Task Manager (CTRL + ALT + DEL). Click on the Performance tab, and look how much is available in the "Physical Memory" section. Also check your CPU usage.

You can only check these things when you are actually experiencing the problem.

yeh they are the motherboard tempretures, i couldnt find the graphic card ones, can you tell how i can get to them? and yeh i did do those checks while i was experiencing the problem, allthough it seems to "calm" down a bit after a while, which backs up your suggestion of overheating. as for the ctrl+alt+del, i diddnt notice anything unusual, there doesnt seem to be any processes that shouldnt be there or any that are using an irregular amount of memory or cpu usage. anyways i'll check again when the prob just starts happening again. thanks for the help so far, i'll post the results i get tomorrow.

-Martin

No prob's Marz. Did you manage to download and install: ATI Tray Tools

hello again, yes i installed both the programs you mentioned, i managed to find the motherboard tempreture from ati tools, how do i find the graphic card tempreture? also, today the lag started like 5-10mins after starting up.

heres the motherboard temps

temp1: 40
temp2: 24 - 47
temp3: 34