all graphics apps skip, please help

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hvymetal86

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hey everyone,
recently an annoying problem came up with all things graphical on my computer. everything from games, to video playback, to scrolling up and down in web pages skips. what ever it is will move normally, then stop for about a tenth of a second, and then jump ahead to where it should be. This happens constantly and makes it near impossible to play games of any sort, and video un-enjoyable. Since it started happening, I've used Darik's Boot and Nuke on the ultimate boot CD to wipe the HD, reinstalled windows, and flashed/reloaded the BIOS, and installed the newest video drivers. As far as I know, that takes care of any possible settings or software problems that might have caused this. my computer is still under warranty, but sending it back and there being nothing wrong with the video card or whatever else will get me charged $$$ for shipping and testing something with nothing wrong. If anyone has any idea how to fix this problem, or how to test my video card to make sure thats whats causing it and there is something wrong with it, or knows what else could have gone bad to cause this, help would be awesome.

I have my computer components in my profile, its computer #1

thanks again,
Bryan
 
already had the latest copy of ultimate boot CD burned, its running right now. when i left for work (where i am now) it was on its 4th pass with no errors. just had a question about memtest tho. As I have 2 sticks of 512MB RAM should I be running memtest twice, once with each stick of RAM in by itself? or should I only do that if it finds errors with both in to determine which stick has probs like I thought before?
 
Heat?

I'm only a newbie here, but many of my current GPU problems have been caused by Heat... is the machine clear of dust etc. inside? If crap gets in the vents and fan intakes, that might cause the GPU to heat up and start jumping?

Just a thought. :)
 
GPU temp is around 45C at near idle, yet i still have the skipping problem when scrolling in browser windows (while viewing this forum for example). there is some dust in the case, and such, but only a little and the temps reported by everest Ultimate edition are within safe limits. Thanks for the ideas tho!
 
As you've covered a lot of bases, let's try a few more things for tests.

1) Remove all things USB, parallel and serial. Any USB devices, joysticks, scanners, printers, etc.etc. This means leave your system down to just keyboard and mouse, preferrably ps2 style for both if you have these available for a test.

2) What cards/expansion slots are you using? If you have any PCI devices, these should be moved, especially if this is an AGP system. Make sure the first slot next to the AGP slot is free/open as well as the farthest slot.

3) Check in your BIOS for a setting of "PCI Latency". Adjust this value up first, then down from it's current value. I'd first try like 96-128, then lower such as 16-32. If you do not have such a setting, google/websearch for "PCI latency tool" as there are some 3rd party ones for download.
 
thanks for the help Sharkfood,

My mouse is USB and my keyboard plugs in with both USB and PS/2 at the same time to function (extra power for its own USB port i think). I tried removing everything but those and tried apps again, stick skipping.

It is an AGP system, and with the removal of the TV tuner card I was not keeping anyway, all of the PCI slots are open. Tried games and video again, still skips.

As all the PCI slots are now open I didn't think the PCI Latency settings would change anything, but I tried 96 (original value was 64) and 32 (lowest possible setting). Still no help, but on the PCI Latency topic, is it better to have it at the lowest setting as I think it is?

I also tried uninstalling the video card drivers (were newest 6.9 CCC and display drivers) and installing CCC 6.8 (last version that i didn't have the skipping problem with, i installed 6.9 to try to fix it and to just update.) haven't put 6.9 back on but will later tonight.
 
PCI Latency can effect things even if you have no PCI cards in any slots. Onboard IDE controllers, USB, parallel, serial, Firewire.. all your mainboard devices are PCI devices. This setting can help diagnose if there is a problematic device causing these pauses.

It's usually best in it's default which can vary from motherboard to motherboard. Most run about 64 to 96 PCI clocks by default.

Do you have a spare keyboard somewhere that is PS2 only? I've had a number of pause/stutter issues with a variety of fancy-schmancy keyboards and USB mice.

Lastly, if you can determine the make/model of your motherboard, we can back up a bit and try reversing things down to the "metal" then rebuild upwards with drivers. You can download CPU-Z or Everest Free editions to determine this if unsure. Is it a safe assumption that this pause issue doesn't exist in Safe Mode?

I know how annoying/frustrating this is as I've had to fix this issue for a variety of PC's. It's a real pain.
 
thanks for the extra info on PCI. I'll restore the setting from the lowered 32 to the default 64.

As to the PS/2 keyboard and mouse thing, no i don't have any but i might be able to borrow some by this weekend. but I'm gonna keep trying everything else until then. my keyboard is definitely in the "fancy" category, with a USB port on it for another device, and a multicolored lighting scroll bar. I think it might work without the USB part in but the port wouldn't work (not that it matters) so I'll give that a try when I get off work and back to my appartment.

I don't even have to look at the motherboard or anything else, its an
ASUS K8N-E DELUXE, socket 754, NVidia nForce3 250Gb chipset
more info here and the
manual here
Both links point to asus's site, first one is specs, second is the manual in PDF form.

I haven't tried this in safe mode seeing as when its most noticable is in games and since safe mode doesn't load things such as video drivers, I dunno whether running games or playing video would work too well, but I'll definitely give it a try, since if it doesn't happen there it narrows the possible problems by a huge amount.
 
Well, if it does it in web pages, you might want to save a big/beefy web page to a folder on your PC so you can view it in Safe Mode.

This will at least determine if it's hardware related or software (i.e. drivers/configuration). If it's still pausing when scrolling down big pages in safe mode, we can give up on driver/software issues and start testing individual hardware components (such as your keyboard, it's drivers, mem, cpu, other bios settings, etc.etc.).
 
saved a full webpage started in safe mode, and it lagged horribly, much more so than in normal mode, but it wasn't the same kind. you could see the page refresh vertically as i scrolled but it never skipped in its sluggish refreshing, it was just slow all along. Since i couldn't really tell what was going on with the pgae, I decided to use the original starcraft as a testbed, since even that graphically nonchallenging game exhibits the skipping in normal mode. All the symptoms normally apparent were gone. in normal mode, the moving main menu objects would skip, in safe mode they didn't. Same with units moving across the battlefield, skipped in normal mode, didn't in safe mode.

webpages: inconclusive
starcraft: no probs in safe mode, skipping in normal mode

hardware wise tho, earlier in this thread i ran memtest for 14 straight passes no errors, so its not memory, lol.
 
tried installing ATI CCC and drivers 6.5 (quite a bit back). It still skips at the same rate, every 1-3 secs, but each skip is a fair bit less... This is driving me nuts.
 
thats what my original thought was, but seeing how to use the warranty that my computer is still under, chances are I'll have to ship the dang thing back to the company (PA to OH) and as I'm currently in college, not having it won't work too well. Also, if i send it back, they test it and find that theres nothing permanently wrong with it (ie, its a setting or software problem), i then get charged money for sending back hardware thats not broken... So i kinda wanna make sure something is wrong. is there a program like memtest, but for video cards?
 
Well you have tested everything and you still have the same problem. I would say you've just about exhausted all possibilities other than the graphics card itself. The only thing left to you is to either borrow another graphics card and try it or to borrow use of another pc to test yours with!!!!
 
Borrowing a friend's video card today or tomorrow. Luckily he has an ATI as well, so no need to install the other company's drivers!
 
Yep it was the card. Even the card I put in to test (an ancient Radeon 7500) didn't skip in web browser windows or in starcraft. Thanks for all your help guys!
 
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