Shutters and Intermittent Freezing

[lifeisgood416]

i need some advice for anyone who has delt with computer hiccups and intermittent freezing. The computer specs are:

Biostar TF720 A2+
2GB Crucial Ballistix 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ( BL12864AA80A )
Maxtor SATA 200GB
EVGA 8800GT
Corsair 520 watt PSU
AMD athlon x2 5600+ 2.8GHZ
XP SP2 and SP3 - i've tried both
Samsung TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203B

anytime i try to play a game, music, or play a video on youtube or anywhere the computer shutters and freezes intermittently. In Left 4 Dead, the game catches up, but will eventually shutter again.

My initial thoughts were bad sectors on the hard drive...i've ruled that out, i was running a 300GB WD hard drive with the same issue and found some atapi errors in XP. I formatted and reinstalled XP on the Maxtor.

My next idea was the Crucial ram. When i inspected one of the ram modules i noticed some discoloration on the pins. I removed both sticks of ram, and used some identical ram from another computer. The problem was still there.

So then i proceeded to the audio. I know that sometimes on board audio coupled with bad drivers could cause shuttering and hiccups. I uninstalled all the on board audio drivers and used my x-fi from another computer. Once i updated the xfi to the newest drivers i still had the issue.

My final test was the 8800GT. I removed it, and used my room mates 8800gt, still the same issue.

I'm not giving up, i just want to see if anyone has had similar issues. i'm leaning towards a bad driver, but haven't singled it out yet. I'm currently running a fresh install of XP Sp2, with just the mobo, video, audio drivers. i don't have any anti virus installed nor do i have any other programs except steam installed.


disregard my signature.

 

[Melodis]

I've had similar issues before that almost always ended up being an incompatible/bad drivers.

I previously had an ECS mainboard that was built for XP. Well, when I upgraded to Vista, ECS released drivers but that damn machine never worked worth a damn. Stutters, blue screens, corrupt file system, etc. I ended up replacing the mainboard with a DFI and I don't have that issue anymore.