Windows 7 stuttering problem

[sesselpupser]

Hi guys,

I've been having a problem with my OS but never really thought to ask anyone about it. Essentially the problem is that every now and then the screen sort of locks up, but things still happen in the background, meaning if I'm moving the mouse around and the screen locks up, the cursor will jump to a different position when the screen unlocks again. Sound also loops while the screen locks, and it only locks for maybe one or two seconds.

Normally this isn't much of a problem, which is why I haven't asked, especially as it doesn't do it during most of my gaming (never had a lock up during BF3, for example), but I've been playing GT Legends and the rFactor demo lately and it shows up in that quite often, so I'll have a lock up while I'm racing and when it unlocks I will have teleported off the track and into a wall, which is hardly ideal.

I first noticed the problem after updating my graphics card drivers and installing a Xonar DX with the latest drivers, so I can't tell which is causing the problem. I can tell you that updating my graphics drivers again didn't solve the problem, and as the sound loops during a lock up I think it could be the Xonar DX.

Now, I don't really know anything about Windows so disabling drivers or uninstalling them is a mystery to me, but my basic plan for troubleshooting the thing is to disable the DX drivers (after working out how), reboot, try GT Legends (it will always, always lock up at least once in a lap so it's easy to test), if it still locks up I'll remove the DX card, try again, and if that still locks up I'll try safe mode... Does that sound like a sensible plan to you guys?

It seems odd that I've not found anything through Google about the DX causing issues like this except for an old, old thread from 2009 concerning Windows 7 beta and beta DX drivers. I tried closing some associated processes that that thread recommended, but it just made the lock ups much more frequent... There's also a third party driver for the card which I want to try out but I need to completely remove the ASUS driver before I do that just for system stability reasons, but I don't really know how to do that.

Given that I'm building a sim rig now I need to sort this out, I hope I don't have to get rid of the card because I can't get 5.1 output from my on-board audio. Maybe a Xonar DS or DG would be a better bet, though, as they're newer and therefore possibly more compatible...?

Also I've read about the Timeout Delay Recovery thing, but I'm not sure what that is or if it's what I'm experiencing. I applied a TDR fix anyway which involved editing something in the registry, but it had no effect... I don't know if that's because the fix didn't work or because it's just not the problem I've got!

My system:
Windows 7 64 bit
i5 2500K
P8Z68-V Pro motherboard
MSI GTX580 1.5GB (drivers unknown, possibly 270.93?)
2x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600MHz
Xonar DX w/latest official drivers
Crucial M4 128GB SSD
Hitachi Deskstar 2TB
D-link wifi card
Not sure what else is relevant.

Sorry, this has been a huge post. I'll update it when I'm home with a video of the problem if necessary, but I'm really just asking if my troubleshooting plan will be effective in concluding whether or not the DX is the problem, or if there's more to it than disabling the driver, testing it, removing the card, testing it then giving up.

Maybe there's a way to get a list of everything Safe Mode disables so I can go through them one by one, or something of that nature?

Cheers guys.

 

[Grayfox]

Could be spyware hogging CPU cycles.

Run Spybot S&D and malware megabytes also try combofix(from bleeping computers) if you do find anything and the PC still acts odd.
You can also try a SFC /Scannow in the CMD prompt with admin rights.

 

[bergauk]

^^... What the hell is "Malware Megabytes"? Do you mean MalwareBytes? From www.malwarebytes.org ? Also, if you run Spybot S&D you're just being redundant.. MalwareBytes does everthing Spybot does.. better.

Only try Combofix as a last ditch effort.

 

[sesselpupser]

Well, I think I might have found the problem. In fact no, I found two. The first is the Xonar audio center; I disabled the device in the device control panel which made the Xonar audio center crash. I tried a few very quiet laps in GTL, no problems at all. Then I enabled the device again, tried it, and it was still fine. Weird thing is that I relaunched the Xonar audio center and it still worked... So I don't know, that at least seems like a temporary fix.

That's fine by me, though, because the second thing I discovered is that I'm extremely lazy when it comes to fixing problems with my PC if they're not directly stopping me from playing a game. I'm not convinced it's definitely fixed, but in about half an hour of testing it I had no problems. I guess we'll see.

As an aside, if I have Microsoft Security Essentials and have scanned my computer lately, would that pick up on mal/spyware? I must admit I have no idea what does what and so on. Due to laziness on my part, of course.

 

[bergauk]

MSE will pick up viruses mostly. MalwareBytes will pick up adware/spyware/PUP's and other things.

What I would recommend doing is scanning with MalwareBytes either in quick or full scan mode, and seeing if that picks up anything. If it doesn't you should be fine on that front. I would suggest going through your drivers and updating them manually to the latest version and see if that helps you out at all.

 

[Grayfox]

^^... What the hell is "Malware Megabytes"? Do you mean MalwareBytes? From www.malwarebytes.org ? Also, if you run Spybot S&D you're just being redundant.. MalwareBytes does everthing Spybot does.. better.

Only try Combofix as a last ditch effort.

Yeah I meant Malware bytes I posted it at midnight so I never noticed the spelling error.

 

[sesselpupser]

MSE will pick up viruses mostly. MalwareBytes will pick up adware/spyware/PUP's and other things.

What I would recommend doing is scanning with MalwareBytes either in quick or full scan mode, and seeing if that picks up anything. If it doesn't you should be fine on that front. I would suggest going through your drivers and updating them manually to the latest version and see if that helps you out at all.

Thanks, but quitting the Xonar software when I boot the computer seems to have completely eliminated the problem. I don't understand how malware or spyware work, but I'm very careful to avoid downloading basically anything that isn't from Steam, Nvidia, Asus, Adobe or No Grip's downloads section. My quest to install GP Legends must be the first time I've hunted all over the internet for files... Basically, I don't think I have any bad software, but obviously that could easily be me being naive.

Anyway, as the problem seems to have gone away and I'm lazy AND a proponent of the 'if it works, leave it alone ffs' theory, I think I'll call it a success and enjoy it.

Thanks very much for your help and sorry to waste your time, though at least now I have the names of a few anti-badware software packages so it wasn't a complete waste of time, I guess.

 

[Grayfox]

You can get spyware just by opening Iexplore.exe(Internet Explorer).

If you want to make sure you never get any spyware get one that has a very good antivirus and a very good anti spyware capabilitys, keep flash up to date, keep java upto date, keep windows up to date, keep all software up to date.