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High CPU Usage Spikes w/ Audio Distortion
Ever since I built my computer 2 years ago, it has suffered on and off from this same problem.
When watching youtube, listening to iTunes, or playing a game through Steam sometimes it will begin to lag. The lag seems to come in waves, and causes my mouse and whatever is on my screen to lag. What's odd is that it lags in time with loud audio distortions from my speakers, which sound like 'bzzt' noises. Whenever this happens I check the Windows Task Manager Performance, and the CPU usage spikes in time with the noises.
The error is very jarring and game breaking, and often persists indefinitely. For youtube videos, if this error occurs I usually either have to try and get through the lag, or just give up (usually the latter.) With games, if I set Steam to offline the error still occurs, but much less frequently and is more likely to stop.
The error seems linked with my internet - when the internet seems to be fast this won't happen at all, but when it's slow it happens almost constantly to the point I can't watch videos, play games online (Guild Wars 2 won't connect at all without this problem occurring).
I've checked the power supply (no problem), temperature (doesn't seem to be a problem), the fans are all plugged in, drivers are all installed, antivirus scans (Microsoft Security Essentials numerous times, and sometimes Malwarebytes - both on normal and Safe Mode to no result), defrag, uninstalled many programs, and monitored what programs open at start up.
In the Task Manager the program giving the most CPU usage is whatever program caught the error in the first place - Firefox, in the case of watching youtube or netflix; iTunes, if listening to music started the error; and Steam/game or Guild Wars 2 when a game caused it.
I've been looking around for a solution since I built this computer, any help would be greatly appreciated.
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