Would it be the Video Card, or the CPU?

[Bucko]

I have a question on what may fix my problem on my PC.
When I watch a DVD, or TV (using a WinFast DVT1000T PCI card) the picture and sound will stutter and pause if I open a web page, especially if it has a lot of Flash animation going on. Once the page is loaded, no problems. It's only while doing other things as well.

My current set up is:
Intel Celeron D 3.06Ghz processor,
2Gb RAM
nVidia 7600GS 256mb video card powering two monitors (a Samsung 20" 203B and a 19" AOC cheapo) It's in the AGP slot as my MoBo doesn't have PCIe slot.

The reason I ask, as I probably have enough money to upgrade either the chipset to a Core 2 Duo, or a new MoBo and a new PCIe video card.
Either way, I'll be buying the other later when I save some cash up again, but I want to get the best bet for fixing this problem now.

[SgtM]

My bet is there is something else going on. I'm running a 2.66 P4, 1 gig PC333 Kingston RAM, and a Geforce 5950. I don't have any problems with surfing the web while watching TV with my Sony TV tuner.

[Bucko]

I'm running a 2.66 P4,

That was why I was asking about the Celeron chipset. The P4's are better at running multiple applications.

With DVDs' it does it with PowerDVD, Windows Media Player 11 and Media Player Classic.

So if it is something else, any suggestions?

[Bucko]

It's a socket 775 Celeron D.

[Bucko]

Well I thought I'd watch the CPU usage in Task Manager.
With just Firefox 2 and PowerDVD, CPU usage sits at around 7-14%.
When I start the DVD, the CPU usage jumps to between 50-70%.
If I just use the mouse wheel scroll up and down fast on the forum while watching the DVD, the CPU usage jumps to 100% and the video starts to stutter and pause.

[progbuddy]

Maybe its neither. Do you run your internet through cable? If so, you might need a reception amplifier (I had one installed because we had more than 6 TVs hooked in). This might solve the problem with the internet and your tuner card for the TV. Its definitely not the CPU or the GPU (theyre both good). Also, it might just be the tuner card and a slow internet connection.

[CanaBalistic]

I had a simmilar problem with my rig.

You might be running the dvd drive off the same IDE cable as your hard drive.

If so, get a second IDE cable and have your HD's on one channel and your cd/dvd roms on the other.

Cleared up my problem, it may do the same for you.

[Bucko]

Ok, a couple more details on my set up.

The DVD drive runs on a IDE cable and the HDD is SATA, so they are on different channels.
Internet is via ADSL, so basically it runs from phone line to modem to ethernet port in the computer and is a 1500Mbs plan (generally when I download it runs at about 120-160kb/s). The TV tuner has the analogue cable run straight from my roof top antenna to the PCI card.

I have only just installed the TV card, but it was doing it before hand with DVD's anyway.

[CanaBalistic]

Memory underun?

How much ram have you got? dang-it. Read, then reply...
Do you have a crap load of useless programs running on the taskbar like so many other people?
Do you have old programs installed that may be "eating" your ram?
Have you updated your player, video, windows, antivirus programs & drivers?
Has your rig ever played dvd's perfectly?

[edit]
Have you cleaned your dvd drive's laser?

[Bucko]

How much ram have you got? 2Gb DDR400
Do you have a crap load of useless programs running on the taskbar like so many other people? No, I try to keep this to a minmum
Do you have old programs installed that may be "eating" your ram? This was a clean install of XP on a new HDD less than a month ago
Have you updated your player, video, windows, antivirus programs & drivers? All should be up to date.
Has your rig ever played dvd's perfectly? Yes, but I only had one screen, so I wasn't trying to do anything else at the time

That's why I'm a little stumped.

[Bucko]

[edit]
Have you cleaned your dvd drive's laser?

No, but that shouldn't affect the TV though. It does the same on DVD's and TV. Basically when I have either open and I'm watching it will stutter while pages load on the other screen.

[CanaBalistic]

Maybe your video card cant handle the load. Try a smaller resolution or disable your second screen. Check it by playing a dvd and report here after.

[Bucko]

Maybe your video card cant handle the load. Try a smaller resolution or disable your second screen. Check it by playing a dvd and report here after.

I knocked the resolution right down and it still does it.
I didn't bother disabling the second screen though, as if I'm doing nothing but watching the picture is fine, so it will be on one screen too.
Besides if it's on only one screen, then I can't surf the net as well anyway.