Problem, Screen microfreezes during gameplay

[Nitro_Fixxxer]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150, 3.06GHZ P4, 1 Gig 333mhz RAM, 60GB 7200 HD, 64mb NVIDIA 5200 GeForce FX GO Video Card, Win XP Home.
Up to this point, it's been a great performer, playing FarCry, BF1942, C&C Generals, MSFS 2002, without problems. But, suddenly, the following has started occuring;
During gameplay, about every 5-10 seconds, the action on the screen freezes for a half a second. It then unfreezes, goes 5-10 seconds, and freezes again. This causes crashes while flying, death in multiplayer, etc. All the action freezes, and then picks back up. If flying, the screen will freeze, then unfreeze, redrawing my relative position, usually about to crash. It has made all games unplayable. I am at a loss to explain. I've run antivirus, A2 Squared trojan scanner, AdAware 6, all to no avail. I can't tell if its writing to the HD, the HD light blinks like on a timer every second during gameplay, and the thing is so quiet writing I can't tell. I've updated the video drivers from NVidea, turned off processes using the info from BlackViper, and no change, still microfreezing. I'm thinking it has enough memory to handle any of the games I run, shouldn't be writing. My pagefile size is 1536 mb.
I'm thinking a bad memory bank? Bad memory on video card? I'm hoping someone would have any ideas. Does anyone know of any software that will scan my system memory for performance/errors? I ran a video test, it ran all modes without a reported problem. I'd rather fix it myself than have to take it in. And no, I'm not calling India to get Dell support, its off warranty as a refurbished anyways.
C'mon I know there is a ton of knowledge out there, help me troubleshoot so I can get Doom3 going and don't end up with a 2K$ paperweight.

 

[triple_s]

i dont know if it helps you, but when i had my Pocket PC, Microsoft Active Sync made my computer do the exact same thing. Was a real pain for games when it did that.

I just closed the PPC connection on the PPC before removing the PDA from the cradle, and that stopped al lthe lags.

Also When downloading with Flashget, the DropZone on the desktop did the same problem. disabled the dropzone and that fixed it that time.

 

[Nitro_Fixxxer]

Ok, I've come to the decision my laptop is a POS. Unbelievable, since when I bought it, it was the Sh*t, top rated, supposed to out-game the top Alienware mobile at the time. I bought it for my business, figured I'd get something that could play games well. Figured wrong, seems the GeForce GO5200 64mb card is the achilles heel. My bad. And I thought desktop technology had a short shelf life, geez. My only hope is if I can somehow upgrade the video, but I haven't been able to locate any good info on doing so. I still like it, it's got a great screen, does everything else I want it to do...except play games well.
Maybe I'll just upgrade my desktop, at least now I have an excuse.

 

[v3rt1g0]

You know, the problem you're having sounds like the exact same problem I'm having. I bet you it has everything to do with the speed throttling setting in your video card's bios/drivers.

This has been a huge issue for all 6800 series owners.
The most recent fix I've heard of is to sync your graphics card core speed for both 2D and 3D. Some people say turning off fastwrites fixes it, but not for me.

Try using riva tuner to force the same 2D and 3D performance levels and let me know if that helps.

It's almost definitely not the hardware if it's little micro freezes.
Since I get the same problem with my system w/a 6800GT@Ultra

 

[Nitro_Fixxxer]

You know, the problem you're having sounds like the exact same problem I'm having. I bet you it has everything to do with the speed throttling setting in your video card's bios/drivers.

This has been a huge issue for all 6800 series owners.
The most recent fix I've heard of is to sync your graphics card core speed for both 2D and 3D. Some people say turning off fastwrites fixes it, but not for me.

Try using riva tuner to force the same 2D and 3D performance levels and let me know if that helps.

It's almost definitely not the hardware if it's little micro freezes.
Since I get the same problem with my system w/a 6800GT@Ultra

v3rt1g0,
I installed riva tuner, nice program. Using it I turned off fastwrites, that had no effect. I've surfed around the utilities in riva, I cannot locate where I'm able to sync core speed for 2D and 3D. It will allow me to adjust core speed, as well as memory speed with the overclocking tab, but it does not specify 2D or 3D. If your familiar with the program, is there somewhere else I should be looking? If you know of the screen, can you post a shot of it so I know where to do it. Thanks for the info.

 

[Nitro_Fixxxer]

Well, after checking further into this problem, I've discovered its a CPU overheating problem with the Dell 5100 series computers. The P4 processor is overheating, stepping down to 1.6Ghz, cooling off, then bumping back up to 3Ghz, heating up, and starting the process all over again. This occurs every 5-10 seconds, causing freezing as the CPU throttles up and down. It's caused by a bad case design, which necessitates a remote type cooler, consisting of fins near the exhaust, which are connected to the cpu cooling block by two copper rods. The fan, which is notoriously loud because it is a very high speed unit to properly cool the remote fins, sucks in so much air that it accumulates dust on the thinly seperated fins.
I took my laptop apart, and discovered the fins blocked by a layer of dust at the fan. This was not cooling the fins, and recirculating heated air back into the case. The CPU quickly ran up to 70degC, as the low speed fan setting blew the heat from the cooling unit into the case, then the fan kicked on high, sensing the temp spike, which did nothing to cool the cpu, and the seesaw of speed stepping would then kick in.
I removed and cleaned the cooling block, fins, and fan, and put a new layer of good thermal gel on after cleaning the old stuff off. I then put it back together and installed I8kfanGUI to monitor my cpu temps. 30-35 degC steady, when playing games, no higher than 56degC. Problem solved. No more stuttering, runs like a champ, hasn't had to kick the fan on high yet.
Hope this "project" can help someone else out there having problems with the 5150 or P4.