Games hang every few seconds

[ascian5]

System specs below. I built a new computer and finally got a fan for my heatsink today, so I was anxious to fire up a couple games and other assorted benchmarks. I can run prim95 fine and that's all I've realy done so far. However today I installed HL2/CS:Source and SWAT 4. I can load both fine, but when I get into gameplay every few seconds, say 15-20 my whole computer freezes for about 5 seconds, then continues on normally. This happened first on SWAT 4, which I hadn't played before, so I went into CSS and ran the Video Stress Test. Everything looks fine, but the same freezing occurs, and where the stained glass should be, I get the infamous red ERRORs.

I tried using NVIDIA Drivers 76.41, 76.45 and XG 76.50 HD.
I left display settings at default other than adjusting resolution for my monitor.

Is this some sort of driver issue, is there a setting that I have wrong, has anyone heard of an issue like this? Desktop and Windows are smooth and stable. The only thing I can think of changing is perhaps my paging file. I forgot to move it right after format and installed some stuff before moving it to a different HD. Should I move it back? Heck, can I even move it back without formatting? Or did ?I just goof something up in building, who knows.

Also, my GPU temp reads at around 70 celcius at idle. It was always warm in my old computer, but that seems a bit excessive to me when the system temp is around 45 according to the nvidia readout and around 32 from the MSI monitoring tools.
Of course, any help would be appreciated.

Coolermaster Wavemaster
Antec TruePower 550W PS
WINXP Pro SP1
AMD 3500+ Venice Core
Thermalright XP-120 w/Thermaltake 120m Thunderblade
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
1 GB Corsair PC3200 LL
BFG NVIDIA 6800GT OC
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Pioneer 109 DVD+/-RW
SATA WD 80GB (C:\)
2x160GB WD 8mb 7200RPM (D; and E:, paging file on E

 

[ascian5]

ha, i searched the forums and didn't find anything, but a google search returned an anandtech thread on very much the same thing. Unfortunately.....no one had a solution. Oi.

 

[Chapbass]

Try throwing a normal fan (not one for computers) on the side of the case to cool your card. I can't see this making the choppiness go away but itll at least remove one of the factors....



I know some HD's freeze for a little while browsing folders due to bad spots....I dont think thats it though.


I don't really know man, id like to hear a good answer for this one too...

 

[ascian5]

This is a brand new hard drive that Windows and my other programs are installed on, I've defragged and scandisked them all. I've upgraded to the newest 1.8 BIOS for my motherboard.

I out the real fan there and it helped. I think that what may be leading to high temps is that I put the Thermalright XP-120 on upside down, and if you look at a pic, the big ass pipes are pointing down and are close to the graphics card. If I can get this other problem sorted out I'll find myself some pure isopropyl and reseat the heatsink. But first things first. This is really bad.

I guess I could try and coax a friend into letting me try a different video card, but that will probably have to wait until the weekend.

 

[ascian5]

Not to speak to soon, but it appears that I found the issue. By removing the NVIDIA GART driver, and doing the appropriate restart, everything seems to be working fine. Now I'm an AMD newb and don't really know what that does, but everything seems to be working and at an acceptable rate of performance, so unless someone says otherwise, I'm willing to chalk this one up as a win for me!