CPU Lag spikes, Vista

[Relemsis]

I've recently been getting horrible CPU lag spikes. This hasn't started happening until about a month ago. I'll be surfing the web/playing WoW/ANYTHING else, and the computer will just stop responding for 10-45 seconds. Sometimes when it's happening I'll have Task Manager up and my CPU doesn't even go up, it'll stay down. Same thing with RAM, it doesn't move. So I have no idea what this problem could be. Any help would be appreciated.

[Rick]

When you start/bring up task manager
How long does it take to open / display on the screen?
Once on the screen. How long does it take to show an increase in cpu usage ?

[Relemsis]

When you start/bring up task manager
How long does it take to open / display on the screen?
Once on the screen. How long does it take to show an increase in cpu usage ?


During the lag spikes? I can't do anything at all during them; every program locks up. I can tell when I'm going to have one because it starts lagging like latency in a video game. It stops responding for a second, starts working, stops for a second, starts working, etc...

It's such a weird problem I've never heard of before. Another thing that JUST started happening is my display driver's been screwing up. The screen will go black and after a minute or so come back up and Vista will tell me my display driver's stopped working, but recovered. But this only happens when I'm not using my computer, when it's just sitting there.

If anyone needs some specs, here:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon x1300 Pro
Windows Vista Basic

[Rick]

A couple of things come to mine.
first is back ground programs over taxing the system

The second is Hard drive problem. Possible failure coming soon.

BTW.. 1Gb of ram with vista is a bit lean
2Gb works much better and will reduce disk swaps to the page file
where by reducing hard drive wear

[Relemsis]

I am really considering buying another hard drive anyway. If I can't fix this problem that's been happening I'll reformat to XP. The other hard drive will be a 500GB drive for backup before I reformat.

This problem is REALLY bad now. The "video game" type lag happens at least once a day. I may go as far as buying a hard drive TODAY to back up my stuff and reformat completely.