Computer stutters momentarily (audio/video)

I'm helping a friend out with an issue he's having on his laptop, which was purchased fairly recently.

Every so often, at random times, the computer will stutter briefly. It's not like typical slowdown, for one second the whole computer will more or less lock up. I've only really noticed this when playing music or videos, as I can see it and hear it. It's almost like a CD skipping or something. This happens when I'm running nothing, so it's not a performance issue.

It also happens when recording vocals with a microphone; when playing back the recording it will have occasional skips in it. I tried to record the sound itself through Stereo Mix, but it doesn't present itself then.

It's weird because I've completely formatted the system and reinstalled only the basic driver, loaded up a YouTube video and it's still happening. Didn't happen for the first several months, changed nothing, and suddenly the problem appeared.

This leads me to believe it's some sort of hardware issue, but I'm not sure. Either way, it's very very annoying. Any ideas?

 

Your internet connection could cause those symptoms. I'd see whats running in the background. Maybe you downloaded something by mistake and its running. Installing toolbars often cause that. That's just my guess.

Is it happening with more than one audio program? (Windows Media, Real Player ect) or just one?

 

Hi,

Which make/model is the laptop?

I wonder if it could be a HD or HD controller problem? Maybe try a HD test from the HD manufacturer. Right-click C: drive in Computer and under the Hardware tab you should see the name of the HD manufacturer. HD diagnostic tools can be found here: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Or if you have a large file like 1gb or so try copying it a couple of times on the HD (just making a copy from the HD to the HD) and see if you see a freeze-up during the process.

 

Okay, I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to the router. The changes just started happening after switching to an N router from a G. Searching shows plenty of other people with the same issue. Switching to 20MHz seems to have fixed it, but I'll continue to test it.