Sony VAIO VGN FS Media Playback stutters and Slows down system

Hi, there's this Sony Laptop I've been trying to fix. It's a Sony VAIO VGN-FS740/W.

The problem is that in every media player, even with system sounds (like when windows boots up) the sound stutters from normal stuttering to long and short distortions. The system also lags a lot during this time. Which is most of the time. Internet also lags because of that.

The closest experience (on my desktop) I can think of is like when I'm copying a huge file to a different partition in a different Hard Disk (while playing a song or video), except here I'm only trying to listen to some 3mb mp3 files. And the system sounds can't be more than 50k in size. And I only have one partition (80g) in this Laptop. And yes, it's been defragmented months ago, and when I check today windows defrag says it doesn't need to.

The system is clean, like sparkling. It got NOD32 and Comodo Firewall. And ran services like Panda ActiveScan off the net. Windows is up to date.

The place where I bought this from says this is a normal VAIO problem when it's introduced to a conflicting program. Which is also what I have in mind. But what program can possible make this much damage. I uninstalled most and left the more popular progs like MS Office, Photoshop and the problem is still there.

I got the same problem about 3 months ago and I did a system restore to a certain period it wasn't having the problem and it runs fine again. So I don't think it's a hardware issue. I would restore again but I somehow lost that restore point.

Looking at the program Taskinfo I see two suspects, it's "System Idle Process" and "Interrupts Time Placeholder".

I know what "System Idle Process" is and it is supposed to take most CPU time when the computer is idle. Problem is that even when I run CPU intensive programs like Media Players, these programs don't get more than 1 percent of CPU, at any time. Thus the stuttering, I think.

Second suspect, "Interrupts Time Placeholder". I search high and low and I still have no idea what it is only that it is a Windows process. When I run said Media Player the CPU that "Interrupts Time Placeholder" takes is more than 40%. IT is taking the CPU not the Media Player!

In my desktop "Interrupts Time Placeholder" is only taking 1-5 percent everytime a program is run.

So my guess, "Interrupts Time Placeholder" as is name states is distributing CPU time to programs that are running, at least in my desktop it is, but in my Laptop it's not doing that. It's hogging it all, and when I close the Media Player "System Idle Process" takes eveything again.

I'm at a lost here. If this is a known Vaio problem, like the place who sold it to me says, I can't seem to google it.

Thanks for any insight.

 

my friend has the exact same problem, he put up with it for 6 months and finally payed a tec to reinstall windows!!!! i was shocked, i would have done it for free, for him, it still can't touch my old celeron M but alot better than before (PM 1.73ghz)

 

hey, thanks for the reply. so my only option is to reinstall windows and make regular backups/restore points. I have no idea why this is happening, so whatever it is I could happen again.

 

Have Sony VAIO VGN FE17S (Thailand) and had this problem start along with mouse stutter; however, does not happen all of the time. Not tech savvy but not tech-phobic, either. Thanks for any help. [PS - Personally find this Sony product over priced (saw same model in USA last week for more that 1/2 what I paid 6 months in Thailand) and frustrating to use with problem after problem.]