laptop hangs every few seconds

[roti]

Hi,

I have this strange problem with my Dell laptop, namely the system hangs (for about 1 second) every few seconds. It is extremely annoying.

I noticed the hanging starts somewhere during installation (not at the beginning, and not during bios boot), so I'm inclined to think it's a software problem. Previously I had Bodhi Linux and it was the same.

Yesterday I found out that the hanging stops if I take out my battery. So it could be something related to power management. I tried disabling Intel Speed step from BIOS but the hangings were there.

Do you have a suggestion about what other module/driver/library I could investigate to try to locate the problem?

Thanks,
Razvan

[wintpe]

im guessing, but hard drive spinning up and down as a result of power management would give a similar symptom.

worth a look at

regards peter

[roti]

I tried to disable automatic power management with hdparm (-B option) but no change. I compared the output of hdparm -I (Detailed/current information directly from drive) when I have the battery mounted, with the output when the battery is taken out. They are identical.

Reading my initial post, I realize that I did not mention something that might be important: in both cases (with and without the battery) I am running on AC Power.

So does anybody have any ideas what I could try to identify the cause?

[linuxero]

Try to run a RAM test. I have such a problem, also, when the laptop gets a bit overheated..related to the graphic card..

[roti]

RAM is fine. The test revealed a problem with the DVD though. I disabled the DVD Drive from BIOS, but no change.

I am clueless. What could possibly be the difference between running on AC Power with battery vs running on AC Power without the battery?