PC Stutters >:|

[LeftEyeNine]

Fellaz,

I have the following rig:

Intel Core i7 920
Gigabyte X58-UD3R
Corsair 2 GB DDR3
Powercolor 1 GB ATI Radeon HD5870
OCZ Stealth-X-treme 700W PSU
3 SATA HDDs at varying capacities

The problem started occuring a while ago.

At rates I couldn't specifically figure out, my PC stutters. It, I guess, generally happens when PC is playing a sound, but it may only be since there is generally something playing on my PC anyway.

The stutter makes PC to pause for 2-3 seconds, the sound, if present, repeats itself for the cached part (?). I hear "click" sound from inside the computer case and it all goes back to normal.

It may happen while I'm trying to get to Windows Explorer, even the mouse cursor freezes at such times, or while I'm playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 whereas the vision and the gameplay is not affected at all while only the sound comes stuttering.

The video card up there and one of the HDDs (Samsung 1.5 TB internal, IIRC) were bought a few months back, so I'm doubtful if it's anything related to them as well. I also tend to think it may have something to do with the on-board Azalia sound chip.

Do you have anything in mind to cure or diagnose please ?

Thanks in advance.

[LeftEyeNine]

Getting the harddisks scanned for any errors by some application called HD Tune on an advice.

[Beskar]

I checked that program out too. I had a weird error, and that might be able to sort it out. Thanks for link, LeftEyeNine.

I am presuming for your problem, you already got the latest drivers from the manufacture, etc. A possible cause might have been windows update installing a new driver for it, and that one wasn't as stable.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Is there anything in the Windows event log? What you mention is indicative of (choose your pick):
- a soft-lock in the kernel/driver subsystem (or at least it would be if this occurred on Linux),
- a frankly terrible harddisk controller, that locks up so there's no functional harddisk I/O for a while (this is a known issue with first generation SSD's based on JMicron controllers for instance),
- a power/heat issue which temporarily knocks out a device.

Now if you think it is the sound subsystem that is to blame, a quick and dirty workaround would be to see if routing all audio through the chip on your graphics card (required for HDMI with sound, which ATI cards support IIRC) makes the problems go away.
The set up would work like this:
(a) Connect your display via a HDMI cable and if you use external speakers connect them to the audio-out of your display.
(b) Configure windows (using the control panel) to route sound through the chip on the graphics card (probably represented like S/PDIF interface, i.e.: a box, rather than a speaker icon). You may have 2 or more of similar interfaces if your Azalia audio chip also supports a S/PDIF output (I'm guessing it does).

Alternatively fiddling with drivers (updating/roll-back) might help, too.

[LeftEyeNine]

Please direct me the way to get the Windows log. I'll look into it as soon as I get home, but what I should look for, I wonder. Now about the alternatives you suggest:

- Sounds too engineering-related. I don't really have an idea about how to diagnose this.
- I have 3 SATA HDDs. I scanned the new HDD with the thorough method of HD Tune Pro and it wasn't unable to detect any "damaged blocks". However the relieving of the computer after that slight "click" sound you hear from inside the case always looked intriguing.
- I remember of one lock-up where the PC restarted itself telling me that it has adjusted clock frequencies due to a lack of power issue. But that happened for only once. I got an OCZ 700W and I doubt it would not suffice for the necessary consumption. I am not sure if I have to adjust voltages though.

Assuming that ATI's HDMI sound may be the culprit, I had "uninstalled/removed" that hardware component from the Control Panel however I don't remember it having worked out.

My LCD display has a VGA output. Is it impossible for me to try the method you propose or are there any convertors/adapters to do it ?

Thanks for your insightful-as-always approach, Tellos.

Beskar, drivers are out of any concern here. Thanks.

[LeftEyeNine]

So weird.

Latest ATI Catalyst drivers ver. 10.4 have resolved the bugger.

Thanks for the input.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Aww. Sorry, I completely forgot about this thread. In any case it seems like the thing is fixed now. Knowing GPU drivers I would suggest you keep a backup of this driver available in case some future update messes things up.

[Beskar]

So weird.

Latest ATI Catalyst drivers ver. 10.4 have resolved the bugger.

Thanks for the input.

:laugh4:


Beskar, drivers are out of any concern here. Thanks.


Glad to know you are running fine now. Those drivers are pesky evil things.

[LeftEyeNine]

Well that's just right, Beskar. I was so sure that I was updated and some driver couldn't do this, I acted a bit cocky about it. :shame:

No problems, TA, we're done here. Thanks all. :bow: