Issues with new XBMC setup

Hello All,

So after years of using a Western Digital TV device, which I loved, I finally decided to build a box to run XBMC on. The fact that most of anime that myself and my daughter watch and the WDTV not able to stream 10bit encoding didn't help.

Specs:

AMD A8-5600k
MSI FM2-A55M-E33
4GB DDR3
Windows 7

I configured it up and I have been able to watch movies and listen to music and I recently started adding addons, such as Rom Collection and which it's a PITA it's coming alone. However not all is right in paradise. I connect my HTPC to my TV via my receiver, Pioneer VSX-1022k and every now and then I lose signal and get digital now / lose of video signal. The audio is still there and it only seems to happen when I play a game or if the HTPC timesout out, which is shouldn't since i killed the sleep / hibernate... but it does.

I also noticed that at times video play back will slow to a crawl but it's random, no reason as to why.

Has anyone encountered this behavior or know of it? I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure this out.

Thanks!