Looking for opinions on possible sources of my ongoing system issues.
I've been experiencing random crashes with this computer since I got it about three years ago (see my profile for specs). Lately (this summer) the crashes have become less frequent and I have also upgraded the PSU. Another problem arose about two months ago though--a performance lag issue. I noticed it first while playing a game at the beginning of the summer (San Andreas, which is not very graphics intensive, especially with the settings I played it on), which would "skip" every second or so. Nowadays I notice that the cursor skips, as do music and video files now and then. I replaced bad capcitors on my motherboard not long ago, and the lag issue still exists. Any opinions would be appreciated. Here is a more specific summary of the problem:
-cursor skipping seems to occur when CPU usage is up in the 90-100% range (which happens when launching an application or moving a large file)
-moving large files between hard drives (my system has two) takes a long time (longer than I remember it taking in the past and longer than it takes on comparable systems that I've used)
-I am almost positive this is a hardware issue, but I don't believe it is main memory related as I've tested that several times with software tests and also reseating of the sticks (I'm leaning towards a motherboard or processor problem)
-running the computer in Safe Mode does not get rid of the cursor problem, which occurs at the same time that it does in Normal Mode (ie app launching, file moving)
-DVD playback does not cause any performance problems--the video plays perfectly, just as it did when the system was newer
-the OS hard drive was defragmented just this week
Thanks.
Atrice
I've been experiencing random crashes with this computer since I got it about three years ago (see my profile for specs). Lately (this summer) the crashes have become less frequent and I have also upgraded the PSU. Another problem arose about two months ago though--a performance lag issue. I noticed it first while playing a game at the beginning of the summer (San Andreas, which is not very graphics intensive, especially with the settings I played it on), which would "skip" every second or so. Nowadays I notice that the cursor skips, as do music and video files now and then. I replaced bad capcitors on my motherboard not long ago, and the lag issue still exists. Any opinions would be appreciated. Here is a more specific summary of the problem:
-cursor skipping seems to occur when CPU usage is up in the 90-100% range (which happens when launching an application or moving a large file)
-moving large files between hard drives (my system has two) takes a long time (longer than I remember it taking in the past and longer than it takes on comparable systems that I've used)
-I am almost positive this is a hardware issue, but I don't believe it is main memory related as I've tested that several times with software tests and also reseating of the sticks (I'm leaning towards a motherboard or processor problem)
-running the computer in Safe Mode does not get rid of the cursor problem, which occurs at the same time that it does in Normal Mode (ie app launching, file moving)
-DVD playback does not cause any performance problems--the video plays perfectly, just as it did when the system was newer
-the OS hard drive was defragmented just this week
Thanks.
Atrice