Computer stutter

davemartin01

davemartin01

davemartin01

Associate
Joined
15 Aug 2008
Posts
44
Well Ive had my computer for over 8 months and since day 1 Ive had a stutter problem. It happens on all games, video playback etc. Even just on a blank screen the computer will "stutter" and the mouse will jump and skip across the screen. It is not a constant thing and can start at anytime and last however long it wants and then go away and ill have x amount of mins of smooth computer time but then it ll start again. Its that random! It has made playing games impossible as when it starts it will wind me up sooo much I want to scream!! My spec is very very high as the pc cost me £1600 with vista 64 a 9550 quad and 4gb of ddr3 ram with a gtx280 and striker extreme II and 1200w PSU. All drivers are current. Ive noticed when the stutter happens the harddrive light on the top of my unit will flicker in time with the stutter but only at half the brightness of normal, if that makes sense.
 
I know what you mean re the stutter, if PC is under very heavy load installing stuff and doing stuff in background this can happen, though never heard of it in game b4, try defrag maybe? if you havent run it in a while, download auslogics one, much better and faster than default windows defrag which sucks. Pretty sure its caused by PC accessing your HDD, which you alluded to with your HDD light comment anyway. I take it your HDD isnt over 80% full? other than that just try general system clean up if you havent already, ccleaner is good/free
 
From you post it sounds as if you suspect the hard disk is involved - have you run something like hdtune or the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics tool to check it out?
A few other ideas:
Are there any events in the event logs that give any clues?
Does task manager show anything interesting when it stutters (e.g. a rise in CPU load)?
 
Well the hdd is virtually empty as ive never got to have the game experience i wanted as the stutter has driven me mad. I used to play WoW but gave up because a stutter when fighting is enough to make you want to throw your computer out the window! I should have mentioned that the stutter is audio also as well as visual. Ive even had the little windows jingle stutter on boot up! You know, the little windows symbol that fades in as the computer boots up! I want to cry that i bought this computer and never used it properly.
 
Could be dodgy hard drive. Run diagnostics on this.

Does system pass prime 95 blend, memtest, hd tune diagnostics? Have you tried reinstalling windows?

You dropped 1600 quid on this, have had it for 8 months and haven't bothered running any tests on it to determine the fault. That's very strange, but late is better than never. My system is similar and only stutters when I insist on running the os from a usb stick.

Finally 1200W is a bit worrying. Any reputable manufacturer or respectable forum would have told you that's comfortably twice what you need. Therefore I wonder if it is a budget 1200W model, which could also be the source of the problem. All still within warranty on the bright side.
 
Its a thermaltake tough 1200w so its a good PSU and Ive not run tests because I have no idea what im doing. Ive ingored it because Ive basically buried my head in the sand so angry that ive spent so much and cant play anything without getting annoyed at it. Apologies to people who find that shocking but i dont know what to do. Ill look into running HDD tests and ill see what happens. Months ago I put many questions about this on forums and got little or no helpful responses so Ive just shunned my computer. Its only recently when im trying to compile a movie in movie maker and feeling half proud of what ive done then it all getting ruined by a sound and video stutter on all my hard work that im now asking questions again.
 
Fair enough, I can see the frustration. Suggest you follow the suggestions so far and post what you find and we'll help if we can.
 
Friends don't let their friends buy thermaltake...

I assume you're only on windows. HD tune will scan your drive looking for errors. That might be the problem, the other option i a bad os install. Reinstall windows.
 
OK ive got the HDtune and to be honest im not sure what im doing on it. I ran a benchmark and whats interesting is that while it was running i was circling the mouse the whole time and 3 times during the test I got the "stutter" and the mouse skipped and each time there was a downward spike corresponding with the stutter. So maybe could be a HDD problem. But can anyone tell me what test to run in this program as Im not really any good with all this diagnostic programs.
 
OK - was the stuttering more frequent while doing the benchmark test than would normally happen? On the 'error scan' tab, do a full scan and see if there are any bad blocks. On the 'Health' tab, are there any attributes shown as having errors?

Edit: Oh, and on the info tab, what does hdtune say about supported and actual transfer modes?

Also have a look in the event log (in XP you right click on my computer, manage, event viewer, system - not too sure about vista) are there any warnings or errors?

What make/model of hard disk is it BTW?
 
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