Computer pauses intermittently

Try running spyware and virus scans first. It could be heat related. I don't know the rest of the specs on your machine..so..

I've checked the temp and it's within the "safe" range, at least 5-10 C below max ranges. My specs are:

Nvidia ChainTech 6600GT 128MB PCI-16
GIGABYTE GA-8I915P DUO PRO 915P
SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY 2 ZS
Corsair 512MB DDR2-533 PC2-4200 x2 (1 gig total, running dual channel)
Western Digital WD Caviar 80GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer x2 (running RAID 0)
Intel Pentium® 4 540 Processor Prescott 3.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 775, 1MB Cache (HT enabled)
Stock Heatsink and fan w/ Artic Silver 5
Logisys CS888UVBL Assembled UV Blue Acrylic Case (Clear)
Antec 480 watt 120mm fan ATX 12V v2.0 power supply, Active PFC, Model "NeoPower"
4 case fans (one on front pulling air in, two on side pushing air out, one on back pushing air out)
2 PCI cards (firewire card and I can't remember the other one)

It's not overclocked, and the BIOS ranges are all set to "optimal". Any ideas?

Thanks,

How's your hard drive? Does it ever make clicking noises?

Try a little program called Speedfan - it lets you see what the hard drive thinks its condition is through SMART. Doesn't work on all hard drives, though.

Aside from that, maybe an overheating southbridge? Can cause intermittent pauses, especially when using a lot of PCI devices. How many do you have/use at the same time?

The hard drives never make a sound (at least anything out of the ordinary). I only have 2 PCI devices installed, one is a Firewire card that I rarely use, the other is a slot fan pushing more air on the video card. I've read several reviews that acrylic cases tend to run hotter, but my temps are still within the normal range. Is there a simple/convenient way to cool the southbridge? I'd rather not switch cases, but there is nothing more annoying than trying to play a game that freezes just often enough to get you killed...

Since I'm not OCing anything, I'lll pull the slot fan and see if that makes any difference. If you have any other ideas let me know and I'll make a list to try when I get home.

Thanks for all of your help!

I feel your pain. I really do....

Anyway, to be honest the southbridge thing is a long shot and if you're not using many PCI devices at the same time it shouldn't be a problem. The only way I am aware of to cool them is a thermal pad/epoxy and a heatsink, and that really isn't very convenient (God knows I'd never get round to it).

Just for (my) peace of mind, see what Speedfan says. I really would blame the hard drive, or something related to it (maybe an IDE controller? I'm so full of doom and gloom)

Would the fact that I'm running 2 SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration make a differnece? This is the first computer I've ever built with this config. and also the first time I've ever had this type of problem. I've tried doing a Google search, but I can't think of any search terms that'll give me accurate results. Either way, have you heard of SATA/RAID having this kind of effect?

Thanks,

It does sound like a hard drive issue... I'm thinking the pause is occurring when Windoze is paging through virtual memory... how is your swap file set up? If you have a small HD lying around somewhere taking up space, maybe you could toss it in there on a different channel and use it for the swap file, see if that helps any. With 1Gb of RAM, you'd want to reserve about 2.5G of space for the swap file.

could be...it does seem to occur more often when I'm playing a game then when I'm just farting around. Could I increase the pagefile, would that make a difference? Or would a new HDD all together be best? The other thing I was thinking was it was Norton AV checking every file.

The page file was set to 1.5G. I changed it to be between 3072 gigs and 4096 gigs (apparently this is the max). Hopefully this will straighten out everything...

Thanks,

I trust you have tried it with Norton disabled then?

As for the pagefile, it will help. It may not help with speed as such, but it helps to make things generally smoother which is what you're looking for

I haven't had a chance...I'm still at work. I IMed my wife through changing the page file. Apparently downloading music is more important than fixing the computer. I'll try it when I get home...

Thanks for all the help!

Well, I"m having the exact same problem.....I've gone through this thread and still no luck. Anyone have any other thoughts??

I first noticed this when I would play music, every couple minutes the music would stop for a second or two. Now I've noticed that the entire system pauses.....mouse and all. During online gaming, same thing (which sucks cuz i get killed alot).
I've check for virus', I alway keep my antivirus up todate, ran spybot and adaware.
I'm running a athlon 3400 64 w/1gig of RAM, winXP pro. Two hard drives, one SATA on ATA.

HELP!

Is the music on the SATA or the PATA drive? Maybe it could be a slightly loose cable if it's the SATA drive, sometimes briefly disconnecting and then reconnecting...

For me it turned out to be a heat issue w/ the video card. I replaced the stock fan and everything cleared up.

Its good to see that you solved your problem.