I have a very wierd problem, it only started today and i have effectively wiped out all the stuff i done today trying to fix it. I have run anti virus and system mechanic to optimise all my settings.

It started when was playing a game which is quite heavy on graphics (X3:Reunion) It worked fine for ages but then started lagging really badly. I quit the game but found that my pc kept lagging, even on the desktop.

It seems totally random, it happens even with low amounts of work being done...infact it does it just moving the mouse cursor on the desktop. Basically the whole pc goes jerky, if i move the mouse across the screen it does so in a series of small jumpy movements.

I have no idea what is causing this, i have tried to recreate it but it seems so random that i can't consistently make it happen. I dunno who else to ask so i posted it up here...has anyone had something like this happen before?

EDIT: also the sound lags at the same time, it really is everything that gets jerky and lags...for short amounts of time.

Keep task manager open and see what process is using up your CPU cycles when this lag occurs. So long as it's not critical, kill it off, and see if the problem remains.

On my old pc about a week before I got this one () It started doing this, lagging stupidly and on LFS I was lucky to get 10Fps (On my own) then everything else would run like poop but not quite extreme as the mouse lagging, but small programmes even like paint bogged down the pc even more.

I found out it was a norton application which was hogging all of my CPU power, I looked in ctrl+alt+del processes and the usage was way up for being a silly file (Can't remember exactly what it was)

My solution was just to uninstall norton (AVG is good enough anyway)

Maybe a totally differnt problem but check your processes (If you havn't allready) For any programes using alot of your CPU. (This norton file was using 92% at some points. )

EDIT : Bob beat me....and said what I said in much less words. :/

Are you having heavy hard disk activity during those lockups?

To me it sounds like a driver issue. What motherboard do you have? Maybe it's time to get a chipset driver update... not to mention a SATA-IDE driver upgrade too. Hadn't you installed any driver updates by those days when the lockups started?

Using the System Restore could help, too. I'm a bit short on ideas to be honest, but that's what I'd try if you already checked for virus.

EDIT: Maybe I was too radical?

I have Norton running, it does take up cpu power. Whenever it lags i check and its usualy around 40%-50% cpu usage...however while running a deep scan on System Mechanic to defrag and optimise my settings the cpu usage was 100% for several minutes and got no lag on the desktop.

Hard disk wouldn't be working hard just doing nothing while on the desktop, so its not happening when thats under load. I noticed that when its happening the red light saying its busy is working in the gaps between the lag, so when i hear sound and the mouse moves between the moments it freezes the light is on...but when it freezes it goes off...its like watching a slideshow while a record skips.

This pc is just under 1 month old, everything in it is new except the hard drive...which is next on the list as its only a 60gb...also an extra 1GB of ram...just typing this and it happened again...this time it flat lined at exactly 41% cpu usage everytime it lagged :S

I can't remember what actual norton file it was but it was only a v ery small file that meant nothing and wasn't really significant, it was weird how it just started but getting rid of it did help, if you feel like messing around pleanty with your pc to find the problem, try uninstalling the norton software and see what happens.

But yea a system restore may help but you never know untill you try.

Well norton is gone, i have been wanting to get rid of it because its useless. Now i have an ace little program called System Mechanic 6 Professional, it has every program you need to sort out your computer...i would recommend it.

Anyway i am currently running all the programs on it, so hopefully it will find the problem and fix it.

I am performing what i can only describe as colonic irrigation for my pc. Leaving it going overnight with deep scans for spyware, deep defag, deep anti virus check, deep registry scan and healing, deep ram defrag...the list goes on.

Maybe try running spysweeper? Can find alot of things many other programs can't find (like norton for example, peice of crap....)

The problem went away, and now its back. I am keeping a log of when it happens, its very strange. The attached file was taken after it happened, all i was doing was sitting on the desktop doing nothing, the spikes are where it lagged.