stuttering?

[subtle_turtle]

Alright, I got XP up and running on my new computer (and updated to SP3), but now all of my Steam games have a REALLY annoying stuttering problem. It'll go along fine, then seemingly randomly (although it happen more if a lot is going on onscreen) the graphics will freeze and the sound will skip for 1-2 seconds, then it will continue fine.
I've done a million google searches, checked the steam support forums, and tryed a bunch of stuff, but nothing has worked.
The details:
ECS A740GM-m Mobo. All drivers up to date as of today.
2 GB pc800 ddr RAM
AMD athelon 64 x2 4200+
Asus Geforce 8600GT GPU 512mb.
I have tryed reloading directX, checked the PCI latency with PCI latency 3.0 (all were set to 64), installed the AMD drivers, tried lowering the graphics settings (didn't help at all), cut the audio hardware acceleration from full to standard, and verified the Steam files. I'm stumped. I read that flashing the BIOS may help, but I'm not eager to do that, as my tech skills aren't that great.
Any advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[MrQ]

Ive got the same problem. But I atributed mine to my power supply. But I hooked up another to the gfx card (I have an 8800 GTS) and it is still occuring. anyhelp would be appreciated.

 

[Ephyu]

Could it be a heat issue? Especially if it's only intermittent or when a lot's going on. Try opening up some ventilation on your computer, taking out fan filters, things like that. Get some airflow, especially over your hard drive and RAM. Those are overlooked on cooling, and a hot hard drive really causes problems.

 

[Ghola]

I've had this problem a few times in the past. Download this and run it in the background while gameing http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
When it hapens again alt tab out of the game and check the performance graph of each process. Report back with what you find. I'm thinking its probably a DPC problem, but check everything.

 

[trykael]

I notice you're running an NVIDIA GPU - are you running their software as well? I know that when i reinstalled the latest drivers for my card, it came with a utility that runs in the background and absolutely kills Steam games. If you head over to Steam's support page they have a great article about how to fix it ([link=hyperlink url]https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?s=32fc089bf273fd820abb41979ce40e9a&ref=9257-TUJL-7421[/link]) along with some other suggestions for performance.

Let us know if that works for you!

 

[subtle_turtle]

I was messing around in the BIOS yesterday, and I reset the RAM voltage from 1.9 to 1.95. That actually seemed to help the problem some. The stutters were a LOT shorter and I could play with only minimal interruption. So today I reset the RAM voltage to 2.0 and I'll see how that goes.

 

[subtle_turtle]

D'oh!!!!
I fixed the problem. As usual, in my case, the problem was user error. My MOBO has an onboard VGA port, but no onboard graphics card per se. However, when installing the drivers I saw VGA on one of them, so I thought "I don't need that one, I'm using a separate graphics card!" So I didn't install it. You probably see where this is going, but it's taken me three days of pulling my hair out to get it.
I hadn't installed the drivers for the AMD 740G northbridge. It's amazing that my games would run AT ALL!

 

[Lafinass]

On stock windows NB drivers? Wow. That's impressive.

 

[trykael]

>grin< good find subtle - glad you figured it out!

 

[MrQ]

I'm still having the problem but I still think it is associated with my PSU, a 500-watt Ultra V-series. I have removed my other gpu so I'm not in SLI anymore, but I am still getting errors. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[trykael]

MrQ - have you tried the other suggestions given so far? i.e. checking to see what else is running in the background, making sure the NVIDIA background software is configured correctly, checking heat problems, etc? Do you experience this problem with other programs and games, or only with TF2?