Pausing every 2 seconds

[BreezeLI]

Using XP Pro SP2.

About a week ago whenever I move the mouse it'll pause every few seconds then release. If I play a video now it's pauses every few seconds then continue. If I'm listening to audio, I hear it sputter every few seocnds if I'm doing more than one thing.

I tried restoring to an earlier time to see if something had been installed that was doing this, I scandisked and defragged, virus scanned and adawared.

It seems to be accessing the hard drive over and over again. Could this be a drive failing? A power problem?

I appreciate your suggestions.

-=Rob

 

[bcastner]

I would guess malware. You need to scan with more than one AV and Adaware. See faq608-4650

 

[linney]

Task Manager would be handy to look at to see if anything is using all the CPU.

You could also see if you have the same problems in Safe Mode.