First off I will start with my system.
Dell Dimension 8400
3.4 Ghz Pentium 4 550 w/HT
Seagate Barricuda 160 GB HD (ST3160023AS)
1 GB Dual Channel PC3200 (2 DIMMs) 400Mhz
NVidia GeForce 6800
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Now when I use this PC, doing things that require a decent amount of load, the computer will start to skip. By skip I mean everything seems to freeze for a brief period about every second or so. If I am running sound at the time of the skipping, I will get some sound distortions like high pitch beeps and clicks that cooridinate with the pausing. The mouse, 3d games and video skips, does not matter what im doing its all affected. Now this problem comes and goes quite often.
Now for what I have tried. I have had the RAM replaced 3 times (Dells reccomendation). Mother board has been replaced. Windows reinstalled twice. Removed audio card. Decrease video acceleration and all the usual windows troubleshooing ideas. I am showing no hardware conflicts.
It seemed to get really bad right after i formatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP. After i worked with the computer on the internet for a while it progressivly got better over a period of 15 min and stopped skipping totally by 20 min.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, cause talking to India for teck support is a joke.