My computer has a hiccup. Acts like it lags out. I have MSI board with AMD2600+ processor, 2 harddrives, cdrw and dvd player. I`ve done disk scan, disk cleanup, and defrag, still has a pause when trying to do anything.
* Exactly which OS are you running?
* Are your hard drives set to power down after a time (in BIOS or Windows settings)?
* Are your IDE DMA settings correct in the BIOS?
* Is your hard drive encrypted?
* Have you run a virus
and spyware scan? If so, are your data files current?
* Are you running
AC '97 on-board sound? This can sometimes cause lagging due to interrupt/IRQ switching (admittedly, rarely--but I have seen it). A decent PCI sound card helps here.
* Go into the BIOS and turn
S.M.A.R.T. on, then download a free utility like
HDD Health from
http://www.panterasoft.com to test the hard drive (there are others, as well).
S.M.A.R.T. is a self-monitor feature built into current hard drives. It can report hardware problems, including impending failure. There is some system overhead involved, which is why it is turned
off by default--but it
is useful in a case like this.