This problem starts specious and gets more broad. Could be a simple solution.

World of Warcraft started experiencing cpu %100 usage and all video sound stutters. Having experienced this problem two years ago, I tested other games.

No matter what the game requirement, low to high, getting the same kind of full system usage every five minutes. Everything unplayable.

Formatted the computer.
Updated.
Msconfig - no startup files.
Webroot, ewido, hijackthis, registryfix - everything under the sun for viruses.
updated the sound card.
seemingly no driver issues.

Pulling My Hair Out.

Ask any questions you need. If you can help me even to run diagnostics! i'd be appreciative. ran dxdiag, unplugged the net, it only happens on game programs. It would happen with half-life or the pinball that comes with Windows.

Out of ideas,
Chalorn

It would probably work if you got some more RAM chips. or maybe it is just that you have to many programs. either get a new hard drive or delete some programs. Before You do that send me info about your computer. I will help you as much as I can.

Camcanr Is Relly helpfull and sometimes desprate

Would be nice if you posted your specs...you told us nothing except 512 syncDRAM, & even that doesn't tell us much. I assume you mean SDR-SDRAM (PC100/133) rather than DDR-SDRAM (PC2100/2700/3200)?

Asus A7N8X-X
1800+ @ 8.5 x 200MHz
768MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro

Awesome.

With a list of information you need I can supply you with everything you need to know.

Ok. Here's what I understand that I have. Any help you can give outside of suggesting an upgrade will help me figure out what's going on (I say that because these issues have happened suddenly and I've formatted my computer and left it pretty close to ground zero. If it only happened with big online games, I'd get the ram right now. but it's happening with anything I put it through, like 'realarcade' stuff or an emulator and it happens roughly with the same cycle)

Compaq Presario 5330US
Intel Pentium 4 Processor 1.7GHz
512MB SyncDRAM Total System Memory
80GB UltraDMA Hard Drive
12X Max DVD-ROM Drive
12X Max CD-RW Drive with Easy CD Creator Software
ATI Radeon9550 128mb video card
(disabled acceleration and the issue was still there, same with sound)
Cable Modem sb5101 surfboard w/ comcast network (for a long time now. if it's the modem it's indirect)
Windows XP

any other info, plz just tell me how to find it on here. I'll let you know.

I think it's some kind of problem with a cache of some sort. the sort of thing that doesn't get wiped by a format. the bios, maybe? the computer doesn't seem to know it's experiencing any problems. there are no visible error messages or system pop-ups, just the performance error.
That's why I'm out of my league. The closest to the nerve I've gotten is using registryfix. that cost me 50 dollars.

...

It did happen two years ago. Same problem. We took it to the shop and they listed no extra services. Just a wipe and an update.

If you could tell me how to test my ram and my hard drive for corruption, that's all I would need before I decide to take it back in.

Chalorn

First of all, it couldn't hurt to up the RAM to a full 1GB. But before you do that, how big is the page file on your hard disk, and how much free space to you have on the Hard disk?

AMD Athlon XP 1.8GHz
1GB RAM
120GB HDD SATA
GeForce 4 Ti4600 128MB
Nvidia nforce2 chipset w/ soundstorm
Pioneer DVD/RW
ABIT NF-7S Rev 2 Motherboard

my page file was set to 767-1024 or so by an HP technician.

I changed this to system default and the problem disappeared...for a day. It's back and bigger, more frequent.

I tried using no page file, I tried initial and max at the recommended 766.

All of the tinkering would hamper or help the usual game performance but not the big problem.

I have around 60gig free.

Chalorn

woah! never get rid of the page file! Set it yourself to minimum 800 and maximum 1500.

That should help things a little.

AMD Athlon XP 1.8GHz
1GB RAM
120GB HDD SATA
GeForce 4 Ti4600 128MB
Nvidia nforce2 chipset w/ soundstorm
Pioneer DVD/RW
ABIT NF-7S Rev 2 Motherboard