Computer bogs down at intervals when playing Half-Life 2 mods.

Lets say I'm playing counter-Strike Source... When I join a server, everything is fast and smooth. After about 5 minutes of playing, things start to slow down and everyone jumps across my screen as well as my aiming.

This lasts for about 5 seconds then it goes back to running smooth. After the initial "bog down" it happens more frequently, but usually around every minute. It seems to be at a constant interval.

I've tried lowering the graphics to the lowest setting, all this accomplishes is frame rates in the 120 area until it bogs down and drops to 10 fps.

There was a time when everything was fine, I could play CS:S at the highest setting with no problems. I don't know if I installed something that is lagging my computer, changed a setting, or what. If you've played this game, you can imagine how this would make it unplayable. I've even opened task manager and shut down anything that didn't look like a vital windows process (even anti spyware/virus programs and firewall) just to see if it would help and it hasn't.

My first thought was I had spyware/virus that was running in the background slowing things down. Over the past few weeks I've had help on 2 other sections of this forum to get that cleared up and deemed no virus/spyware.

This same problem happens when I try to watch YouTube videos in HD. I'll let the video load all the way, then when I play it it runs fine for about 40+- seconds. At this point it will pause and the spinning circle will appear like its loading the video (which has already downloaded fully) for about 5+- seconds, then start to play smoothly again. Every 10+- seconds after the initial pause, it will repeat this.

If I go to a different video or refresh the page it will let me watch the first 40+- seconds again without pause then bog down in the same intervals.

Now for a little history...

When I put together this computer and installed Windows 7 64bit on it, after a while, I started getting the "blue screen of death". It would state either "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT" or "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA"

The first time I asked for help on this problem was a long time ago on a different section of the forums and it was deduced that my PC was dirty and causing it to overheat. I cleaned it, didn't get that error anymore, until it got dirty again.

I posted for some help about a month ago on the same issue to try to get a different perspective cause it seemed it started happening more frequently, even if I cleaned it. It was determined my case was too small and I need to upgrade from my mid-tower.

I now have the side of the case completely off, and it has crashed once with the "blue screen of death" stating one of the 2 errors previously mentioned. I will say, there was a spybot search going, and I had like 4 other things running at the same time, so i guess i don't blame it for wanting to shut down =P

What I'm trying to say is, I think there is some sort of correlation between this "blue screen of death" issue and this problem I am having playing Counter-Strike Source and watching videos. I'm guessing its a hardware issue, but I hope its not!

Here are my specs...

Case: PowerUp AK-18 ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB and Audio Ports
MPN: TC3J-4503

MOBO: ASUS P5QPL-AM

Processor: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0GHz / 2MB Cache / 800 FSB / OEM / Socket 775 / Dual-Core / Processor
MPN: HH80551PG0802MN

Memory: OCZ Dual Channel XTC 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Gamer Memory (2 x 1024MB)
MPN: OCZ26672048ELGEGXT-K

Video Card: EVGA GeForce 7900 GS KO / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
MPN: 256-P2-N624-AR

Hard Drive 1: ST3500418AS Connected Via SATA
Hard Drive 2: WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0 Connected Via IDE

DVD Burner: ATAPI iHAS324

Sound and networking are onboard.

Thanks in advance!
Mike

well, that CPU isnt really made for H-def, so that could be why your hi-def videos are causing issues and if that was it, id blame the CPU, but since theres other problems thats not likely to be the case. Since its a reoccring problem its hard to tell. Since Im not familiar with what you have already done, I assume youve already run temperature monitoring programs to check the temps that its not overheating? and have you run memtest86+ to test the ram yet?

I have not ran any temp monitoring programs, and I don't think I ran that memtest86+ program either. I will download memtest86+ and try that.

I ran memtest86+ on each stick separately and it found no errors. What would you suggest I run to check temperature?

I go the easy diag route first. Start your source engine game windowed, run task manager while playing and keep an eye on CPU and memory usage. See if you are running out of memory, which triggers your hard drive page file, or maybe the CPU is pegging at 100%. I didn't have problems with HL2 when I had 2 gigs of RAM, but I run a clean/lean system. Crysis on the other hand hammered my memory, and my hard drive thrashed away, causing a slideshow.

A program you can use to monitor temperatures is speedfan which can be downloaded here

Also, cleaning the dust from the inside of your computer/fans could help substantially.

I go the easy diag route first. Start your source engine game windowed, run task manager while playing and keep an eye on CPU and memory usage. See if you are running out of memory, which triggers your hard drive page file, or maybe the CPU is pegging at 100%. I didn't have problems with HL2 when I had 2 gigs of RAM, but I run a clean/lean system. Crysis on the other hand hammered my memory, and my hard drive thrashed away, causing a slideshow.

I played in windowed mode, even dumbed down all the graphics. When it would bog down, neither the cpu nor memory was maxed. There was no correlation.

So have you run temp monitoring programs yet like speedfan for the CPU, and perhaps riva tuner to monitor the video card temps? overheating can cause such freezeups as well.

My video card just went out. I started getting these color lines throughout my display, then windows wouldn't boot at all. I think it has been failing for a while and finally went kaput. I bought a new vid card and everything is perfect now.

Thanks for all the help!
Mike