Game Freezes Every Ten Seconds

[Simstar3]

Whenever I'm playing my game, the whole thing just freezes every ten seconds, even when I'm not doing anything. All I can do is move the cursor, and it unfreezes in about five seconds, then does it again. It makes it pretty much impossible to play the game.
It just randomly started yesterday, and clearing out the startup disk and restarting the computer did nothing.

[Seabody]

You don't use mods, do you?
The first thing I'd do is open the cheats console and type "resetsim *". There's probably a Sim stuck somewhere. If that fails, I suggest clearing caches, and deleting the contents of DCBackup. (Instructions)

[ZapKid]

Possibly try this? It's a lot of work and might not be your problem, anyways. One key point is if the computer runs loudly when you play a graphic heavy game. (AKA Sims 3 )