# Sytem stutters/micro freezes randomly



## ballininthamix (Oct 24, 2008)

My Dell laptop started acting strange yesterday. I noticed it while playing music; a brief .5-1 second "buzz" in the audio and the mouse(and everything else) freezes. After that, it's back to normal for a few minutes until the next one. CPU usage spikes and then drops back down. I _think_ this still happens whether I'm playing any music or not as I have noticed the mouse hanging without any music playing.

I've done a system scan(came up clean) and updated the realtek audio drivers along with the intel drivers. I also ran Malwarebytes and that didn't turn anything up.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated. System details below:

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit(6.3, Build 9600)
Model: Dell System XPS L322X
BIOS: A03
CPU: Intel Core i5-3317U @ 1.70GHz(4 CPUs)
Memory: 4GB


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

The issue only arises from listening to music? What about daily internet browsing or online videos?

Are all of the drivers fully up-to-date?


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## ballininthamix (Oct 24, 2008)

No, it's just most noticeable when playing music whether streaming or playing local files. It also happens when streaming online video. I have also noticed it with no music/video playing at all. There's no buzzing, but the mouse still hangs for a second and then it's back to normal.

I updated the drivers mentioned above. The Windows driver update wizard says everything else has the most recent driver, but then I've never ever seen it say otherwise. Is there a better way to check for driver updates?


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Reinstalling the newest driver is the best way to do it. Windows is never right on drivers.


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## ballininthamix (Oct 24, 2008)

So I updated all the drivers and flashed the BIOS this morning, but the problem was still happening. I ended up doing a system restore to the date just before the issue started and things seem to be working normally now. It looks like it may have had something to do with the last automatic Windows update, but I can't be sure. Anyway, SOLVED for now. Thanks for the help!


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Good to hear. May be worth updating the drivers again, so your running the latest versions.


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