System Specs.
Intel E6850 @ 3.0 With CoolIT liquid Cooling
EVGA 680i SLI with EVGA Nforce 8800-gts 320mb Version
Aerocool 620W modular Power Supply.
2GB Corsair XMS2
Twin 200GB Maxtor SATA Hard-Drives
- Windows XP Home Edition

---- Problem
Last week I noticed when I played music , after about half way into the song , it would start cutting out and would go to "slow-motion" for around 5 seconds. SO then I played a game. Every 3-4 minutes it would slow down and you can hear everything slow down Aswell as mouse lag and other stuff. This never did this before. So I reloaded my system figuring okay just needed to reformat. Nope still does the same thing. I have even tried Using older video card drivers and things. Its very odd. Also my Tempetures are more than fine. CPU 11-20C , GPU 40-60C which is average. Anyways Its really stumped me , so hopefully one of you guys can help me ^^. - Thanks for your time
Llama052

Llama052 when you reformated and reloaded xp did you do all the windows update!

Of course.... I thought that was the problem at first aswell

Also and I just noticed in CPU-Z It shows my Multiplyers set to 6 instead of 9 , which means my CPU is running at 2ghz instead of 3 , but it keeps going from 6 to 9 , Even with PC wizard it shows the same. What could cause something like this, and how would you fix it?

Does it run fine at stock speeds?

edit: Oh wait, my bad. I saw "@ 3ghz" and assumed that was not the stock speed.

Llama052 have you tryed setting it to 9?Multiplyers and is the pc overclocked @ all

I used to have it set to 4ghz with temps at 35C stable. but that was about a month ago. but no everything is stock now... and multiplyers and supposed to be locked?

Do you have some kind of "Cool & Quiet" feature enabled? Sounds like you need to turn off a setting in BIOS.
The multiplier is fluctuating because the BIOS is throttling your Computer to keep temps down. Change the setting in BIOS.

Everything was default, just checked it , SpeedStep is disabled btw. Its very weird. CPU is at like 17c at the moment.

Weird, in PC Wizard it shows "SpeedStep" As enabled. when in the bios its disabled for sure... Software bug?

Wait just read something that says you cant disable the CPU's speedstep itself that the newer cpus have it built in... Well okay that rules out the CPU then I guess... :S Back to the point.... Need servere help.

Llama052 so you disabled EIST ?

Frankly, Speedstep should have nothing to do with your problem. If BIOS says its enabled, its enabled - and that accounts for the step down you have seen.

But not the "slow play". And geez, you're only playing a song and you get it. Then in games too, presumably with sound.

So, bring up Task manager, and watch what it says when your machine slows down. is something else running - what and why?

If nothing shows high cpu utilization there there, the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is that some kind of error recovery is taking over. HD issue? Or a sound issue. Dont see your mobo spec, or sound card. Sound card issue?

Okay, First off Speedstep shows disabled in Bios, and in task manager its only The Drivers , AVG and well , drivers. Video , Network drivers. Just came from a fresh reload aswell. Also I have no soundcard its Builtin HD audio. Everything is detected and all the drivers are loaded for everything. and the cpu is only running at 4% most of the time. ITS Very weird

Do you have:
your full 24-pin atx connector connected with all 24 pins
your 8-pin CPU power connector plugged in with all 8 pins
your 4-pin molex additional power connector plugged in with a molex
your modular connectors securely plugged into the PSU

if you have any of these partly connected you may be having power brownouts, you need them all for stability.

Also, have you used the N-tune utiltiy during any of your windows instalations? If so make sure it is not on your system, then clear your cmos. That utility will fight with manual bios settings and screw things up.

I thought that was the problem before... so I switched power supplys from my ANTEC 650W Power supply to a AeroCool 620W Modular Power supply, and yes everything is connected properly... I guess my last hope is CMOS. and Yes that drivers auto-load Ntune, but I havent touched it.

Rawr > cmos reset , still freaken lag... S.O.A.B!

When you say you can hear everything slow down, are you talking about the audio through the speakers or can you actually hear the fans change speeds?

The music , its like someone is putting it in slow motion , the same thing with the video, Like when I play a game, randomly it will start to chop up and get laggy for like 15 seconds... then just go back to normal for 4 minutes, it also comes with mouse lag at the desktop every 1-3 minutes I get lag. So very odd.

took apart, TESTED Power Supply with Power Supply tester, everything is fine with the PSU.everything is connected properly.

Try disbling the onboard netword card(s) completley in bios then testing for the lag again with no networking at all. (don't ask)