Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist
Public (OOC) => Tech discussion => Topic started by: Corvus on May 30, 2009, 10:30:43 AM
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Lately, for no reason that is clear to me, my computer has just slowed down. Its a rather good and powerfull machine and games like Empire Total War ran rather smoothly before, and then a few days it has problems running it. It doesnt crash or show any error messages its just as if its become weak.
It even has problems with NWN at times. :?
Ran defragmentation on my harddrives, cleaned up alot, updated drivers, scanned for viruses etc. It all just made slight improvements.
Perhaps time to just nuke the computer and reinstall everything. :x
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To be honest Corvus, with my windows machines, I wipe, reformat and reinstall every 6 months minimum. Darn Microsoft OS, just inexplicably get slower with time, the most inefficient and frustrating.
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Its worked smoothly without reinstallation for almost 3 years now. :?
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What kinds of virus/spyware tools do you have installed and running?
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In that case, have you tested the memory? Memory going bad will cause major slowdown in executions.
Also might be prudent to run chk disk, depending on the size of your HDs, it might take a while, but since you say that your OS has never had any issues and nothing has really changed, I first thought is that some of your hardware might be getting old and having issues.
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I'm sort of a noob in this area, so how do I check the memory? :P
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I use Memtest86, it burns to a disk and you can boot your machine from the disk into the test. You can get it here: http://www.wintotal.de/softw/?id=1347&lnk=2442 in ISO format for easy burning.
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Its worked smoothly without reinstallation for almost 3 years now. :?
Run a full virus scan. You never know what made it's way in.
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Also, if your computer is a laptop you might be experiencing problems with overheating.
When does the computer slow down? Is there a clear pattern and can you reproduce the slowdowns?
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No laptop but, you know, I just thought about the overheating thing. I mean its rather warm in my apartment theese days, summer and all. And it seems to slow down over time.
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After alot of fiddeling I think its my graph-card that is acting up. Any idea? I've updated the drivers and all.
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How much dust is in the case? That can add to an over-heating problem, and graphics cards are very heat sensitive.
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Ok, jesus christ on a moped there were lots of dust, haha.
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also want to make sure your vent ports are all clear of any obstruction. putting the laptop on a hard flat surface helps. i found that my laptop would sometimes power off if i played a game while it was sitting on my bed....the laptop had sunk in a bit and all the vents were blocked so it was overheating. an investment in one of those laptop cooler pads might be worthwhile. also you can download tools to tweak the fan settings on your video card or laptop, so you can set them to 100% speed full time.
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also want to make sure your vent ports are all clear of any obstruction. putting the laptop on a hard flat surface helps. i found that my laptop would sometimes power off if i played a game while it was sitting on my bed....the laptop had sunk in a bit and all the vents were blocked so it was overheating. an investment in one of those laptop cooler pads might be worthwhile. also you can download tools to tweak the fan settings on your video card or laptop, so you can set them to 100% speed full time.
It's not a laptop. ;)
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Ok, jesus christ on a moped there were lots of dust, haha.
If haven't done this already, here's a good way to clean it out:
1. With the PC off and case popped, ground yourself (by touching the case on a metal part, static electricity is a massive killer of pcs) pick out any sizeable dust bunnies with your fingers. Try not to touch parts whenever possible, as the oils from your fingers can leave a residue.
2. Grab a can of compressed air, and with short bursts 6 inches from the components keeping the can upright, blow out any and all dust you can. The short bursts are important, as the air coming out can condense on the parts if you blast for too long. And that's BAD. Using the little straw nozzle that comes with the can works best.
3. Make sure you stick a pen or something in each fan as you clean it to keep it from moving, so the air does not try to blow them in the wrong direction or too fast (which can hurt the bearings.)
Also, it's best to keep the area around the pc free and clear, so take anything stacked on top of the pc away, make sure it has a good airspace around the sides, and if possible, raise the tower off the floor with a stand or something (slows down future dust collection.)
With the computer running, take a visual look and make sure all of your fans are running, including the one inside the power supply.
Get a utility like SpeedFan:
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
Install and run it taking a look at your temps. Let us know what you see, especially if/when it starts slowing down :)
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ah well, some of my advice applies to desktops as well. if your case has an empty spot for a fan, you might consider installing one. also, you can still download some tools if you have an nvidia/amd video card so that the fan operates at full speed.
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ah well, some of my advice applies to desktops as well. if your case has an empty spot for a fan, you might consider installing one. also, you can still download some tools if you have an nvidia/amd video card so that the fan operates at full speed.
Sure, some of it might be sound advice. Having a program that will let you diagnose your hardware while it is running seems like a very good place to start.
The fan controller in the existing drivers should be able to manage heat dissipation perfectly well, and rushing out and buying a new fan isn't the smartest thing to do, before you've confirmed that it is indeed a problem with heat buildup, and that the problem isn't fixed by simply cleaning the dust away.
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Well wow, haha, after cleaning the dust away my computer is its old self again! I tested a large battle in Empire Total War and had no problems. I did not know that dust could do that :lol:
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Well wow, haha, after cleaning the dust away my computer is its old self again! I tested a large battle in Empire Total War and had no problems. I did not know that dust could do that :lol:
The dust will cling to the parts, acting like an insulator, causing stuff to overheat ;) Overheating leads to components acting up and certain death.
It's even worse when people smoke around their computers... the dust turns orange and becomes gummy. And it smells awful. I've had to clean a few like that in my day.