# Games freeze up every 4-5 seconds



## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

A few days ago, my games started to freeze up.
I am able to play them fine for about 2-3 minutes and then they will freeze up for 4-5 seconds, then unfreeze for 4-5 seconds and repeat. I thought this was just for World of Warcraft, but I tried it with Counterstrike and I was getting the same problem. I even ran Supreme Commander in campaign mode and it gave me the same problem as well.
All of my drivers are up to date, and I even dusted out my tower.
This is a recent problem and I have been looking around for answers, none of the other forum threads seemed to get me to my problem, so I decided to post this thread in search of answers to my problem.
Thanks for your time.

Power Supply: *Antec, TruePower 2.0, 550 watt, EPS 12*
Motherboard: *ASUS, A8R32-MVP Deluxe, Socket 939*
CPU: *AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 939, 3000 MHz*
RAM: *Corsair, DDR2, 2x512 MB, 400 MHz each*
Video Card: *Radeon, X1300/X1550 Series, PCI-Express, 256 MB, Crossfire*
Hard Drives: *Maxtor, IDE SATA, 122 Gb*
*Maxtor, IDE SATA, 122 Gb
Seagate, IDE SATA, 250 Gb*
OS: *Windows XP Professional*

(FYI, I don't know why my comp says it's "X1300/X1550", I only one video card and it's the X1300)


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Oh, just fyi, I HAVE ran through steps 1-9. That's why this thread is my last resort.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

have you changed any hardware when this started.also heat may be the issue try http://www.techsupportforum.com/art...es/122161-how-use-install-sensorsviewpro.html post back your temps,and voltage readings.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

No, I have not added any new hardware. All I did was update my drivers, which I thought might have been the problem, but I rolled them back and it did not fix the problem.

CPU: 0 C / 32 F
Sys: 41 C / 106 F
Aux: 35 C / 95 F
HD0: 35 C / 95 F
HD1: 37 C / 99 F
HD2: 37 C / 99 F

VCoreA : 1.39 V
VCoreB : 3.28 V
+3.3V : 1.36-3.30 V
+5V : 5.00 V
+12V : 12.20 V
+5VSB : 4.70 V
+VBAT : 3.22 V


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

try  speedfan i seriously doubt your cpu temp is 0c,or 32f.unless you are useing some exoctic cooling system.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

I thought that odd to, that seemed pretty dang low for a CPU temp, let alone mine.
The speedfan seems to give a better diagnostic of 42 Celsius.
Not sure what Temp3 is though.

Temp1: 41C
Temp2: 35C
Temp3: -128C
HD0: 36C
HD1: 37C
HD2: 38C
Core: 41-42C

Vcore1: 1.39V
Vcore2: 3.30V
+3.3V: 1.98V-3.03V
+5V: 5.00V
+12V: 12.16V


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Hmmmm....


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

if you know how to get into the bios?check your voltages in there.that 3.3v looks way out to me.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

The BIOS gave me 3.28-3.29, a much better report.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

an x1300 is kinda weak.have you tried reducing the resolution?i remember when i tried to play oblivion on a 1300.it did have a lag problem not total freezes like you have described.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

I've ran WoW and CS on worse video cards with no problems.
I've never had this happen to me within the last year or so of having this graphics card. The resolution is on medium - low for both games.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

ok so its a problem that just started.have you installed anything around the time it started?


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

I updated my drivers.
Yes, I thought that might have been the problem, but I rolled them back. And the problem persisted.

Updated Graphics driver, sound drivers, and AMD driver.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

roll backs alone can cause problems.just like system restore sometimes drivers get corrupted when ya do it.i would uninstall all of those drivers,and install fresh copies.for the 1300 when i had one the  omega drivers seemed to work the best.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them. As well as installed Omega Driver.

I did Dxdiag, and it seems that the Sound Card for the Soundblaster is not working properly, it was at first, but when I did a few tests over time, it started to be very screwy. Like it worked at first, but then doing it a couple more times, it seemed to get messed up.

So, the problem may the be sound card I guess?
Or something is really wrong because after the computer is started up for about 2-4 minutes, either WoW will start freezing, or the Directx sound test will go screwy.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

have you tried memtest yet.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Ok, I think we can say it's not my Soundblaster card, cause I uninstalled it and I ran on my HD RealTek onboard sound. It also is very screwy. It will play DirectSound properly (so would Soundblaster), but when I do a DirectMusic test, it will be ok, then it will get all screwy. It seems to be at weird intervals, because if I run it once, it may play good for a few seconds and then crash loop. If I test it right after the previous test, it will either do the previous thing, or it will just loop right off the bat. It's very irregular and yet seems like it could be regular intervals of screwups if it was able to test longer.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

wait a minute you said "I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them. As well as installed Omega Driver." so you installed 2 drivers for the video card?if so get rid of both and just install the omega drivers.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

pharoah said:


> wait a minute you said "I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them. As well as installed Omega Driver." so you installed 2 drivers for the video card?if so get rid of both and just install the omega drivers.


Well, not exactly, I had reinstalled the drivers previously before you posted about it.
Alright, I'll do what you said.

Also, how do I need to use memtest? Do I need to put it on a floppy or CD and run it? I've been reading through the info, and it's a little hard to understand exactly. I know how to run the command prompts in DOS a little, but I'm not sure what the memtest file wants me to do to activate it.
I'm guessing I need to burn it to a CD, cause I don't have a floppy drive and reboot and run the CD?


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

there are 2 versions of memtest.one for cd,and one for floppy.you make a floppy with those files on it,or cd.then stick it in the drive boot from it,and memtest will run.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Alright, just the Omega Driver is installed.
Also, I did the memtest twice, and it passed both times, no errors.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

so does the problem still exist?


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

pharoah said:


> so does the problem still exist?


Yes.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

have you scanned for viruses,and spyware.that stuff can definetly cause a pc to act up.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Yes, about 6-8 different types of spyware/virus/malware programs.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

do you run disk cleanup,and defragment on a regular basis?


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

try  prime 95 to test the stability of your cpu.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Yeah, i've done disk cleanup and Ultimate Defrag.

Alright, I'll test out prime 95 and tell you what I get.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

ok if it fails then you may need to back off your overclock.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

Ok.. well... what exactly do you want me to do?
Do I need to test PrimeNet or something else, cause the textfile was talking about things taking a few weeks to a month?


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

just run it for an hour,or so.do the stress test.


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## RTW (Jul 16, 2007)

pharoah said:


> just run it for an hour,or so.do the stress test.


I've passed with flying colors.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

well thats good news.why dont you post a copy of you dxdiag report.also have you tried a scandisk to check your hard drive.


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## Pineapple212 (May 14, 2008)

Ive had the same problem...recently my wow started freezing up out of nowhere. It usally freezes up when soemthing big happens and it freezes for about 1-2 seconds then unfreezes... I have been running my computer and playing games very often lately so i think its a heat problem. Help me out. My computer specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q800 @2.33GHz 2.33GHz
Memory(RAM): 4.00GB
System type: 64-bit Operating System (Vista)
Grahpics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS 

The heat measures off speedfan:
Gpu: 47C
Temp1: 44C
Temp2: 29C
Temp3: 25C
Core 0: 56C
Core 1: 56C
Core 2: 50C
Core 3: 50C

Fan1: 1296 RPM
Fan2: 1132 RPM
Fan3: 0 RPM


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## Karashi (Feb 16, 2009)

Try stressing your graphics card and checking for artifacts using AtiTool.

Also, open Task Manager, launch a game, play until it starts acting up and then check your memory usage history in the Performance tab.

The loaded temperature of your GPU/CPU would also be beneficial.


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## Sven2157 (Feb 10, 2009)

This is just a shot in the dark here.....

Does ATI have an equivalent to nTune? A *Dynamic BIOS* tool, where you can adjust you voltage, timings, etc, etc?

I had the same prolem with ALL my games, untill I got rid of nTune.

I also have a post here, that may help with the speed of your machine.

Sven2157


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