Sound stutter and erratic cursor

W2KPro (no SP), AOpen AX6B, Celeron 300A@374, SBLiveValue, Logitech NewTouch kb, 128Mb Mushkin mem, Zoom 2949L ext modem, 20GB IBM ATA100 drive: dual equal BootIt partitions.

From about 30-100 minutes after startup, sound becomes staccato and cursor "sticks" and get erratic automatically repeating text if typing(more text entry shortens period to problem)with multiple bell sounds which may run together into a continuous tone, windows closing...and latest: drag text scroll bar to top (begin of doc) drops back to bottom. The stick and stutter correspond with the hardisk light going out and stops spinning in 1-2 sec. on/off cycles.

Defragged hardisk, removed spyware, switched IRQ's, new SBLive driver: no help. AVG6 and HouseCall report no viruses. What now?

**Starman**






<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Virus is a favourite, but if you are convinced not there, then I'd suspect cooling.

One of your fans not working?

Not enough fans?

Next to heat source (radiator)?

Good luck!

Thanks for the response. I keep thinking maybe it's a worm or Trojan...but have no way to check (and no funds for anti-Trojan software). The cooling fans are running, air exiting case is barely warm, and case itself is cool to touch.

Is there some sort of keyboard buffer that could overflow, dumping last sentence typed onto the screen over and over?

Any other ideas?

Starman

kinda odd but i would check the device manager under ide/atapi controllers for both primary and secondary ide channels that they are set to use dma if available. If they aren't then the cpu utilization is alot higher and sound will skip. well, thats my best guess anyway

Weasel,

I don't find IDE Atapi controllers in Device Manager. What is it under? I poked around, and found a category called "Problem Devices". When I selected it, MS DirectMusic SW Synth was displayed, with an error code 32. What can I do about this? I'm a beginner. Thanks,

Starman

Because of the time it takes before your problem occurs this is probably not the issue but.....

Do you have a USB mouse? I've seen similar things down to the USB port. If so update your mobo drivers.

Sorry you haven't solved yet!

Re-reading your post, I would get SP1 at least and install. I still think overheating could be the problem, and I would try and get some AV for all viruses.

Are you networked?

Good luck!

If you are looking for a basic trojan scan go to <a href="http://www.hackyourself.com." target="_blank">www.hackyourself.com.</a>

Scutterboy: No USB mouse...have Kensington ExpertMouse Trackball.

Lowland: No network. AVG6 and HouseCall say no virus.

CinderElmo: Thanks for the Trojan link. I found one with several programs:

<a href="http://www.anti-trojan.com/" target="_blank">http://www.anti-trojan.com/</a>

After installing SP2, my connection speed to sites became so slow that I got those cannot-connect error screens for all sites again. (timed out immediately with a single click producing a click-click sound). ISP tech told me to restart, which fixed that problem--at least for the moment.

Starman

From another board:

OK...downloaded and installed SP2: 2 hours later, restart...and same error message box says ISP not found. My links file has been invaded...the start menu has somehow been modified--when I try to resize the vertical partitions: it splits into two horizontally. *grimace*

I did find a free Trojan program, and it reports no Trojan.

OK, I give up. *wry grin* Where is the DOS emulation driver? and how do I disable it? Where is my paging file, and how do I check it? How do I know if Winblows is tripping on itself with cache writes?

Starman