P5WD2 Premium PD 945 game freezes BF2

Can someone please help me out? This is driving me absolutely nuts!

I only play mulitplayer BF2 (v1.41) and for some reason my system freezes up for about 20 seconds every 10-15 minutes in which the audio stutters for about 10 seconds and then stutters really fast for the next 10 seconds and then goes back to normal. Obviousyl, my system is getting caught-up somewhere and this "hiccup" is literally killing me. To say the least, I have completely given up flying any aircraft...

This is what I've tried (each separately):
1. turned off all overclocking
2. updated Punk Buster
3. updated RealTek onboard audio drivers
4. changed DX9 audio from Full -> Std -> Basic rendering
5. changed BF2 audio settings from medium -> low
6. changed video settings to medium
7. installed SB Live! audio card (disabled onboard audio)
8. changed EAX settings
9. removed case to allow plenty of cool air flow (my CPU/MB temps never exceed 45C and GPU temps never exceed 55C)
10. disabled 2nd core during gameplay with Windows Task Mgr

I pretty much elimated "audio", "heat" and "video" as causing the problem. My only conclusion is my CPU or memory bottlenecking? I don't get it, cuz this setup should be able to hang in there pretty well. I've read somewhere about disabling Hyper-Threading and/or disabling 2nd core, but I checked the BIOS and don't even see an option to do that. Maybe I'm wrong and this CPU doesn't even have Hyper-Threading? I can't imagine an extra 1GB of RAM is my solution, cuz I have very few startup programs running (I've disabled alot of 3rd party apps from startup) and I disable all unnecessary programs from taskbar.

What gives? Please help! Can I disable HT? Do I need a diff BIOS? Do I just uninstall and dump BF2???

Quick question.

Do you have a wireless card installed?

Nope. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I will probably need an extra 1GB of RAM. Am I better off getting 2 more 512MB sticks (4x512MB) or (2x1GB) configuration?

Another thing: I think this mobo is capable of DDR2 800MHz FSB? How do I know if I'm taking advantage of that or not? Perhaps my RAM is only running at the default 1:1 ratio and not taking advantage of DDR2? Can someone please tell me what I need to do in BIOS to make sure I have it setup correctly? All I know is that I have to set timings 2:3 - I'm NOT up-to-date on this issue... and that could help solve the problem.

PS - I'd rather not drop an extra $120 on 1GB RAM!

Have you already tried disabling "CPU Internal Thermal Control"? Certainly don't mean to ask the dumb question, but I've run into issues where my games will freeze up how you're describing, and its to do with the fact that while the CPU is throttling itself back, it just keeps repeating the same instruction until the throttle is finished.

where do I find the option to enable/disable Thermal Control? BIOS?

It's in BIOS, under "CPU Configuration". Good luck with it and remember to still keep an eye on the temp of the CPU if you try disabling this option.

Didn't work...

Any other ideas?

BTW, I bought another 2x512MB (identical) RAM - no improvement. Wasted money, really.

Try 97.44 drivers.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1532

it says 8800gtx/gts only, but it works with 7 series cards as well.

and you can try this patch from MS for Dual core CPU's.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256

I checked into this again after experiencing some slight problems after the disabling Thermal Throttling. The statements I cam across tended to blame the RealTek Audio Chip.

Now, that being said, I haven't come across anything concrete, so bear in mind that I'm simply saying that it's worth a try. If you have a SoundBlaster Live or some other sound card, try disabling the onBoard Audio Chip and letting the sound card do its thing to see if the problem persists. Hope this helps you out. Good luck with it.

Great job UC, I hope this is what has been plaguing my workstation for 6+ months.

I will also look into disabling the RealTek chip as a possible solution to my painstaking problems with stability.

As of this moment, my machine refuses to stay up for more than 7 days, regardless of overclock.