PC becomes randomly err....sick

Hi,

Randomly my comp does this weird pausing thing. It affects the movement of the mouse as I move it across the screen and if it's making any noise (even when it's making the shutting down music) this stutters at the same time. It's a repeating pattern every second or so.

Even though the PC is doing no work and the system idle is at 99% in the task manager the cpu usage is locked at 5%.

The only error I can find happening at the same time is this:

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5...ror1ny6.th.jpg

The errors continues above and below the pic and lasts from when the stuttering starts until I restart the PC.

I've done virus checks (norton, panda online and a few others online) and checked task manager and can account for all the processes.

I think my dvdrw is causing my computer to sputter?

The dvdrw is working normally and it reads disks and burns fine?
I tried to roll back and to update the drivers but it makes no difference.

I'm using Nero 7 on the burner.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

unplug the drive and see if its any better.

Have you tried the usual treatments? Like calpol and system restore?

Thanks for the suggestions (ahem ...calpol:))

But it doesn't happen often enough to unplug the drive and I have had it for so long about 4 months that I wouldn't know what point to pick (ok maybe one 5 months ago).

Has anyone heard of this before or know what it's called?

It only happens about once every 2 weeks but normally when I'm in the middle of doing something so it's getting annoying.

Cheers.

Damn that's wierd stuffs... although I've seen it before.. can't think where though - and - LOL @ calpol jk

~Bex

You haven't got Starforce (or simiilar) on your system have you?

No I don't think so.

I was pretty careful and checked games on the starforce list before I installed them...thats one reason I don't have colin mcrae DIRT (kinda want that game too).

So it happened again today.

I went to the device manager and clicked on the dvdrw and clicked scan for hardware changes....the dvdrw disappeared and the stuttering stopped.

It the first time I've been able to stop it without a restart.

I have since rebooted the PC and the drive is back (was just checking as I typed) and working playing DVD.

I can't be sure if the problem is gone as it was random but at no stage has the drive not been working over the duration of the problem.......

:(:)

I just came across this thread and it reminded me that I have a similar stuttering issue. It happens quite rarely so I just left it since I wasn't sure what to google, and a reboot normally sorted it out.

It didn't occur to me at the time to check the event logs but sure enough I managed to find a load of cdrom errors just like in your picture. After some digging around I found a few clues and ideas. In my case it could be related to my JMicron pata controller (Abit IP35 Pro).

At the possibly of dodgy drivers I've just updated them so I'll see what happens in the next month. If that doesn't work then I might consider disabling the controller altogether and try a sata optical drive.

I don't know if the above applies to you but I hope it helps anyway.

Have you tried another drive mate to see if it happeneds?

Since my last post it still hasn't happened again ...fingers crossed.


No joke but just as I was typing that it happened again.

Again I went to the device manager and scanned for hardware changes and it "fixed" it..... I can't see the dvdrw but it's not jerky/stuttery.

As you have suggested I will download the latest driver update - just found them.

I would try another drive but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the drive itself. I recently reinstalled COD4 to a different partition and yesterday I burned out the new NIN album Ghosts part I - tis free:) (must buy the other parts)

I'll put on the new drivers when I have restarted the PC ...just incase there is something most insideous with the stuttering thing.

At least I know the stuttering is caused by the comp looking for the lost connection/detection to the drive.
Now I just have to find out why it's sometimes losing connection/detection:(

Cheers guys.

Its the drive.
The Jmicron controller isnt the best and newer boards, although having an IDE channel, simply arent meant to use them.

Updated the mobo drivers and all is OK for the last few day.....but then it is random so who knows?

If it starts happening again I may just get a sata dvdrw.

This one is from my last PC and needs to go back anyway.

Still this is the only real problem I've had and this was my first build (not tempting fate).

Thanks all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blitzen

Its the drive

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I reckon your right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blitzen

The Jmicron controller isnt the best and newer boards, although having an IDE channel, simply arent meant to use them.

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The JMicron controller has been fine for me using IDE DVD-Burners, no problems at all.

tony oh: Optical drives are ten-a-penny these days, alot of them don't last as long as they should. It's probably the most replaced hardware component in a modern PC.

I would probably test the drive in another machine to be sure but really its not such a biggie for you to pickup a new SATA DVD-Burner.

P.S: I have had problems with the data cables sometimes, may be worth checking that just in case its gone bad.

This is one of the issues with IDE - it has the power to totally lock up the system if it wants.
Heck, it can lock all 4 cores on a quad should it really want to wind you up!

I'm putting money on the drive too, although do you have any disks in when it happens?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Agent

Heck, it can lock all 4 cores on a quad should it really want to wind you up!

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LOL...I'm using a quad and it completely locks it up:(

St. paddy's day was a full weekend affair here in ireland so I'm just about getting sober today:)

New drive as soon as it happens again, I was pricing them, only £20 or so:)

Thanks everyone:)