Computer hiccups/hesitates every 1s for a split second

Hi folks. I'm really hoping you can help me diagnoise and possibly fix this issue I'm having.

A month ago I formatted and did a clean install of windows 7 on my computer. An HP Pavillion a6530f. The only thing different from that model is that I installed a 9500 GT a couple years ago for gaming purposes.

I woke up a couple days ago and there is this slight ... hesistation every second or so. I wouldn't even notice it except when gaming and watching video. It's very regular and just seems to halt the game or video ever so slightly.

I thought the issue was with the internet connection, so I hardwired the computer and still had the problem. I then thought I might be having video card issues and I lowered the settings as low as I could. The problem did not go away. I also noticed that under the nvida control panel there is a graphic that turns. This graphic was hesitating as well.

I have scanned and re-scanned for malware and viruses. I have booted in safe mode (the problem went away as far as I could tell). I have done all the scans and hardware checks I can think of and everything seems to be running optimally according to the computer. Temps are low.

Help me. I implore you. I am out of ideas.
 
I only have one slot for the card, but I took it out and placed it back in securely. I had also dusted the insides yesterday with that canned air stuff.
 
Have you tried pulling up something like the built-in Windows7 Resource Monitor? You can watch the CPU/Memory/Disk usage and sort through to see if you have an offending program spiking on regular intervals... Launch it from the task manager, or Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools. Might be worth a glance, to see if your hiccup is showing there.

Also, just curious... If you completely disconnect it from any network and power up, do you still get the same hiccup?
 
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