Hi all,

About a week ago I began to notice that under load (playing resource intensive games, CAD, full HD video playback, running multiple VMs) the system stutters every 5-10 seconds for about a second and a buzzing sound comes through the speakers which will interrupt any music or other sounds playing. A few times it also seems this will also happen momentarily if the system is trying to multitask. Prior to this, it ran fine for months since I built it. Resource Monitor doesn't show any spikes in any equipment during stutters and SMART statuses are all good.

Initially, I was concerned about display drivers, but after re-installing twice from different SOURCES, the problem continues. Given the heat we've been having here I thought something might be running too hot, but SpeedFan says otherwise. I opened the case and dusted everything to be sure. As there was still no change I considered that the problem may in the power supply, as I've heard of similar symptoms occurring with failing PSU. Switched to a known good PSU and I'm still experiencing the same problem in the same circumstances.

I'm hoping I can get a little input before I'm forced to completely troubleshoot everything. I haven't installed anything or made any significant changes to software in the last week, so I'm inclined to believe it's a hardware problem.

-klifford

This system:
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU: Intel i5 650 (2 cores, 3.2Ghz, HT)
Motherboard: Biostar TH55B HD
RAM: 4GB 1333MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 460 SE (driver version 275.33)
HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GBYou already did the most obvious THING. Next try a different graphics cad, You may find the buzzing noise is from the graphics card.Quote

I've heard of similar symptoms occurring with failing PSU