Random glitches and lag on desktop

matm1234

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Nov 17, 2008
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I have 64 bit vista and for some reason i have a problem where it lags desktop. Its very strange but if im listening to songs it lags and skips the songs as well. Or if im just on the desktop i can spin my mouse around like a maniac and every like 2 or 3 seconds it stops and then goes again. I have tried many things to fix it. Im almost at the point of reformatin everything but i have alot of data which means hours of backup 🙁. Possible thought and causes of the problem.
- ipod wen plugged in. ( i find itunes has many glitches and maybe this is one of them)
- component problems (ram, harddrive psu)

Now i must finish by saying that this doesnt always happen but it seems that i sometimes get unlucky and it happens. It can happen during a game or just flying around on the desktop listeningt to tunes. And its deinatly not a cooling problem my vid card is the dual frozr it idles at less then 40 and cpu is in mid 30's with the hyper 212. I also have a fan on every major component aka hardrives, ram. Thanx for any help i can get. Heres specs

CPU: Q9550 (stock 2.83)
MEMORY: OCZ reaper @ 1066 4 gb
HARDRIVES: Seagate 250 baracudda and wd 500 caviar
MOBO: EVGA 750i ftw
GRAPHICS: MSI GTX 275 dual frozr
PSU: CM 1000 watt

 
I am not exactly sure but my first steps would be to make sure you have your video cards latest driver:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_190.62_whql.html
Next I would Scan for viruses, preferably with well rated and popular applications such as malwarebytes or a-squared.
-Defragment your Hard Drive
-Do a boot-time full file system error checking on your hard drive
-If all else fails, instead of doing a reformat and reinstall, I would a system repair, it basically rebuilds your core windows components and your registry, it does not delete any data or applications, but you will have to reinstall all the windows updates and it very well may save you.
-If nothing, then find your hammer and smash your OS and reinstall a new one.

-If you have any questions please ask.
 
@ OP: do you have any really large files sitting in your documents folder or desktop, ones that are more than 100MB in size? I wrote elsewhere in another thread that moving these files to another location on your hard drive, and creating shortcuts to them if you really need access to them at all times, can improve performance and free up some memory.

Your copy of Vista, is it a standalone one, or an upgrade from a previous version of XP? If its the latter, a driver re-install would probably help. If its not the case, you might as well just update all your drivers just in case. And do you have Service Pack 2 yet?
 
Well its def not drivers i have the latest nvidia driver its the one that came out in aug sometime i check every week or so for them. My vista 64 is sp2. I have all updates installed. As of this very moment i do not have any files larger then a couple hundred mb on my desktop and infact the only one thats over 100 mb is my collection of shortcuts which i put into that folder. Also i run AVG because i work with it everyday at work. This is also no work of a virus i scanned and checked with spybot, malawarebytes, and avg. Like i said its a strange glitch and it happens at the most random of times. As of this very second i am backng up all game files 🙁 <<HEADACHE but yes i will try 2 more things before my hardrive feels my wrath. I will defragg then i will lastly windows repair. After that i wont have the patience and ill just redo it. Good thing i got that extra 500 gb hdd sitting there with no more then a couple gigs of music :)
 
man why u bashing it. Wut do u run? I see lots of positive reviews from it.. i got it bout a year ago and yea k so its outdated but i see nuthing wrong with it. first build ever and it runs perfectly. its just this one little glitch i cant seem to work out. My temps on everything are never above 50 on the cpu and almost never above 60 on my graphics card. And dude ur in no position to talk. Read ur specs and they are way lower then mine so unless u got something useful to say just keep ur comments to urself
 
Do you have the latest BIOS on your m/b? It's a long time since I've seen a BIOS update stop glitches, and those were only glitches in the sound, but it's worth a check.

Has it had this problem since you first got this computer, or have you run other OSes on it previously?

Can you look at Processes in Task Manager to see if something is unexpectedly using a lot of CPU%?
 
@OP: do you have AVG, Malwarebytes, and Spybot as well as Windows Defender running scans at the same time? This could be a possible cause, because running all four at the same time or even at overlapping times will produce the lag you speak of.

Also, when I mentioned drivers, I'm not just talking about graphics drivers, I'm talking about everything. Motherboard chipset, network card, whatever. Check if updating those doesn't help as well.
 
Update: Firewall is down.. User account control off. Avg is the only thing running other then sound and wutnot.. spybot and malaware do not run in background or work like an antivirus u have to maualy scan them. Task manager shows im using between 0 and 3 % wen im just crusing like i am now. I have no overclocked, bios version does need to be flashed but i kno for a fact its not the bios. All drivers are working and graphics is up to date. Also a side note now. A few weeks ago a bad accident happened i dont feel like explainng the story but basically onboard sound is dead and the speakers with it. I replaced the speakers and bought another sound card. Not very high end card i mite add but it does the job.. I disabled onboard sound so i doubt thats it either. But could it b the sound card?
 


Dude, no need to turn the firewall off, you're risking getting shot by a drive-by virus or having your computer taken over and added to a zombie DDOS army!

If you could tell us in more detail what happened to your speakers and sound jacks, we might be able to link the lags to that if there was enough of a power surge to damage the sound jacks, and if correct would also mean that the rest of the motherboard could be affected as well. But first we'll wittle down the list of suspects.

Earlier someone mentioned running a disk check and repair of bad sectors, and this is a good start. You can run the check by using the Disk Management console and right-clicking on your main Windows drive. I cant remember where it is now, but the option to scan your drive for errors should be there in the properties window. Also, check that your RAM is running at the correct settings in the BIOS, and in Vista by using a program like Everest. Testing your RAM using Memtest86 would bring up any errors in RAM.

This would all be easier if I knew what version of Vista you are running. If its Business, Enterprise or Ultimate, then we will be able to use the Performance Console to find out what's happening to cause the lags.
 
Heres the answers to ur questions. My firewall isnt off thats my other computer thats old and crappy so no worries. For some reason i cant do the disk check and repair of bad sectors. it just tells me that it cant do it wen its in use so i assume that means it does it wen the computers booting or somthing. I wil run memtest asap. Lastly its 64 bit premium.
 


"bios version does need to be flashed but i kno for a fact its not the bios"

-And then comes the time when you flash your bios and its fixed...
-Prove that its not Bios
-You don't know for a fact its not bios...you ASSUME its not, but assumption is the mother of all Screw-ups
-Bios remains a prime suspect of your problem until its eliminated by solid evidence and testing :) Thats how troubleshooting works.
 
u kno why i "assume" its not the bios. Because the computer has run flawlessly for many months. and now a small glitch is about. and no other symptoms or problems have occured. I think if my bios was failing itd be doing alot worse then wut it is now. But im probobly wrong my days just not goin well so sorry if im harsh 🙁 just having a down day i suppose.. but yes i will flash it asap.. hopefully i dont screw it up even worse.
 
OK here we go.. I think ive finally found the culpret. I think its my ram. Basically i did some task manager investigating. The ram is ocz reaper @1066. Now you have to set the values wen u get the ram or else its simpily 800 instead of its "1066" which it was designed for. Heres so findings on the glitch

CLICK TO ENLARGE

This is before the glitch




Now During! (Wen i took this photo via cellphone the computer was skipping and wutnot)



Now if u look at the part that says physical memory youll notice the number under FREE jumped drastically during the glitch. Normally that number is at about 30-50 wen im listening to music and on the web. Also notice the jump in cpu usage and memory usage. I guess ill have to look into this a bit more. Im guessing either the ram voltage settings are too low. or i need to turn down the frequency from 1066 🙁
 


I don't believe it - that's probably Superfetch at work. Try turning it off and see if you still get the glitch. Also, its worth a look to see if your RAM is supported in the manual:

http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/123-YW-E175-A1.pdf

I can't seem to open it, maybe you'll have better lick than me.