Vista slow, stuttering, and freezing.

I keep encountering a problem when using Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
where every 10-30 seconds, it will stall and I will need the system to catch
up to my inputs. For example when using Firefox, pressing 'File' would freeze
my system for a few seconds, and then the 'File' menu would appear.

I have encountered few problems since installation a few weeks ago, but this
has become a bit of a nuisance. My specs are as follows:

Pentium D 3.0GHz
Geforce 7800 GTX 256mb
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
2 GIGS Ram

I've noticed it occurs more frequently when playing media (music, video) but
does still occur occasionally without. I've also noted that CPU usage is
extremely erratic (2%-35% jumps every couple minutes, accompanied by a
stutter and distortion of any playing audio).

Could my sound driver be responsible for this entire annoyance or is there
anything I can do to lesson this occurrence?

Also, could anyone provide a list of processes that may be closed in Vista
to maximize RAM usage? I have been able to close a few, but a few times I've
managed to crash the system by ending an important process. If anyone could
spare me the trouble of going through all 56 running processes, I would
greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advanced for your help,

_Mike

I have a similar system and the same trouble. Media player playback has
frequent lags and stops. It doesn't matter what else I have running. I
don't know what programs you can try turning off to lessen this. I
disabled/uninstalled stuff I didn't want like napster, corel, and abode photo
loader that came installed and it doesn't help. Also adjusting visual
effects for best performance doesn't do much. The lag/stopping is still but
slightly less often. I don't know what else to do to improve performance.

"Mike" wrote:

> I keep encountering a problem when using Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
> where every 10-30 seconds, it will stall and I will need the system to catch
> up to my inputs. For example when using Firefox, pressing 'File' would freeze
> my system for a few seconds, and then the 'File' menu would appear.
>
> I have encountered few problems since installation a few weeks ago, but this
> has become a bit of a nuisance. My specs are as follows:
>
> Pentium D 3.0GHz
> Geforce 7800 GTX 256mb
> Sound Blaster Audigy 2
> 2 GIGS Ram
>
> I've noticed it occurs more frequently when playing media (music, video) but
> does still occur occasionally without. I've also noted that CPU usage is
> extremely erratic (2%-35% jumps every couple minutes, accompanied by a
> stutter and distortion of any playing audio).
>
> Could my sound driver be responsible for this entire annoyance or is there
> anything I can do to lesson this occurrence?
>
> Also, could anyone provide a list of processes that may be closed in Vista
> to maximize RAM usage? I have been able to close a few, but a few times I've
> managed to crash the system by ending an important process. If anyone could
> spare me the trouble of going through all 56 running processes, I would
> greatly appreciate it.
>
> Thank you in advanced for your help,
>
> _Mike