OT: Computer is randomly pausing.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

My computer is randomly pausing. It's not critical (Only lasts a second), but I'd like to figure out why.

Any suggestions?

[Jack Simth]

Partially depends on your OS and system specs, but....
Essentially, it means that something is hogging recources - perhaps a system routine, perhaps a program - in a relatively exclusive mannor.

Check the Task Manager when everything's fine, write down what's in it, then check it again while paused (if you can); what's new? Might be the problem.

Try Alt-Tabbing when it pauses (hold down Alt) I once found a program that had come installed on my machine which was trying to call home for an update... I eventually found out it was a program that was no longer supported due to security issues, and removed it. Was a pain anyway, as it would interrupt me in the middle of typing and change the focus to the desktop.

Edit: Also, get your machine scanned for viruses & spyware. Either could cause such a phenominon

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Thanks.

I've got XP, 2.0GHz Athlon, and 1Gig memory.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

It's happening more often, and I have yet to identify a pattern in the cpu usage.

I have already done a virusscan and spybot.

[Jack Simth]

How technically competent are you? If it's increasing in frequency, it's probably a virus; many find, disable, and replace virus scanners as one of their top priorities.
You might try a free online one, such as This one (pretty much must be run from IE; sigh) as something you just picked up is less likely to be affected (but not impossible).

Are you up to:
1) shutting the thing down
2) opening the case
3) removing all hard disks
4) opening another machine
5) putting the potentially infected hard disks into the second machine as non-booting drives
6) having the second machine scan the disks of the first
7) then putting everything back the way it was
?

A much simpler option is to back up non-executable stuff you want to keep, wiping the machine, and re-installing everything, of course; but the above preserves all data (at the cost of a small risk to the second machine)

An even simpler option (for you, anyway) is to phyisically take the thing to an expert... but that tends to cost money....

[Suicide Junkie]

I have a machine with a crappy sound driver...
It freezes the machine for an extra millisecond or so before playing each sound sent to it.

After a couple days, the milliseconds add up; the lag is quite noticable and it needs a reboot.