i have the most frustrating problem. Any time i play any game or even when using windows media player (playing music) while it shows its visuals i get an extreme sound stutter along with a massive drop in frame rate. The mouse pointer also will be very twitchy while moving it. The weird thing ive noticed is if i minimize whatever game im playing, the sound will not stutter and play smoothly in the background. Also it has worked a total of two times where the system works and runs games smoothly but only for a matter of couple days then the problem arises again. I have done all of the following as different forums have led me to believe certain things were at fault:
-Installed latest sound drivers for realtek audio 97
-Installed latest Directx 9.0
-Installed latest ati drivers and also rolled back to multiple previous drivers.
-Checked +5V (of power supply) ensuring it does not dip under +4.75
-have latest nvidia chipset drivers installed.
-Ensured hdd are not stuck in PIO mode.
-Disabled onboard sound in MB BIOS.
-Cleaned system of "dust bunnies" (this originally helped and thus the system ran fine for a total of two days before faulting again)
-Have a desk fan blowing directly on cpu area and video card.
-Moved sound hardware accelration to basic settings
-Moved all visual hardware acceleration to basic settings.
At this point im out of things to do to fix it. I play games like EUDEMONS online or counter strike which are not really graphic intensive and my system was able to play counterstrike on medium settings and even doom 3 on lowest settings.
Here is what my system consist of:
Windows XP PRO SP2
Chaintech VNF-250 mb
512MB infineon pc3200
maxtor 120gb,western digital 160gb
Amd 64 3000
Zalman heatsink cpu fan
Generic 500 (claims 500w) P.S that came with case
ATI 9700 Radeon
