Solved! Weird in-game stuttering problem

[CustomDrive]

Hi all,
I have a weird problem with my ASUS A42J laptop.

Here are the specs:
CPU: i5 450M
GPU: nVIDIA GeForce GT 335M with VRAM 1GB
RAM: 4GB DDR3
HDD: WD Scorpio Blue 320GB SATA
OS: Windows 7 64bit
My laptop also uses nVIDIA optimus

Now, the problem with my laptop is that it tends to stutter or pause for a few second when it is running a game.
These stutters usually occur when something new is loaded into the game.

Here are a few examples when stutters commonly happen:
-Right before talking to an NPC I have never seen before since the game is loaded.
-Right before pulling out a new weapon or item that was not in my inventory since the game is loaded.
-Right before a sound or music is played for the first time since the game is loaded.

During these stutters, my hard drive will always be working.
These stutters also apply to old games like Arcanum (2001).

Currently, I am assuming that the problem is caused by my slow hard drive, so I have tried messing around with some of its settings:
-Setting the power management to maximum power
-Increasing size of page file
-Turning page file off.
-Turning auto-scan on anti-virus program off.

Sadly, none of these changed did anything to help the problem.

So does anyone have a solution to this problem?

 

[buwish]

First, make sure that your GPU driver is up to date via NVIDIA's support site. Also, ensure that the motherboard drivers, chipset, etc... are up to date as well. It never hurts to be up to date on such matters when it comes to gaming issues. If those tips didn't work, I would suspect the hard drive as well. The next time you are in the game, check out the system resources monitor and see what kind of activity you have going on the HDD. If it is maxed out, it may be a good idea to upgrade to a 7200rpm drive or even a SSD.

 

[CustomDrive]

Thanks for the speedy responds.
I am pretty sure I have the newest drive so I highly doubted that's the problem.
Currently experimenting with the APM settings of my harddrive.
It seems like something keeps resetting it to low performance, which may be the cause of the stutters.