Computer Becomes Sluggish...

[raspygold]

Hey guys. I'm not sure completely sure if this is a hardware issue, but I figure I'll post up here anyway and get your ideas.

System is:
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 mobo,
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU (@ 2.45GHz),
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB S-ATAII HDD,
ATI Radeon x850XT 256MB PCI-E,
Asus DVD/RW RAM drive,
2 x 1024MB DDR2 800Mhz PC2 6400 Transcend Jetram Memory,
550W Task PSU.

I've having problems with this current system. After a while with any OS the system becomes sluggish and slows down. Recently I've been playing a lot of WoW on it. I have verticle sync on so my frames per second shouldn't really ever drop below 60 by much. And usually this is the case, but recently after a few days the system starts to lag a bit... and the frames jump around a bit. Upon first boot they'll just at about 60 for a few seconds then dip to about 30, and from there over a few minutes it just slows up a lot and then my frames never really get over 10 if i leave it long enough.

After each time I format the computer seems to go back to full speed again and everything is fine, I can play with my frames staying at about 60 and then thats all good, but the next day I might fire it up and Its running very poorly again. Also after leaving the game the system is slow to respond and a shadow of its former self.

I really don't understand why it would do this. In as much as straight after a format the computer runs perfectly it doesn't seem like a hadware issue and more of a software issue, but if it does the exact same thing after every fresh OS I install surely something must not be right?

I've tried setting all BIOS settings back to failsafe settings and I've checked all voltages etc and it is all fine.

Any ideas?

 

[almcneil]

I don't mean this to sound rude or anything, but it does really sound like spyware to me. Anytime you do anything online, you run the risk of getting spyware. The worst are the peer-to-peer filesharing programs (Limewire, Kazaa, Ares, ... ) But even online gaming can result in spyware.

I suggest using 3 anti-spyware utils to keep your system clean. The ones I recommend are:

• Ad-Aware 2007
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• AVG Anti-Spyware

See if it's spyware that is causing your problem.

 

[raspygold]

I forgot to mention to that my motherboard is revision 1.0 also.

I've checked many times for spyware & viruses, I just ran another scan with Ad-Aware 2007 and found 3 tracking cookies - nothing to cause my system to lag like that.

I've tried several different anti-virus programs also, NOD32, AVG, Avast!, Comodo, Kaspersky etc.
They can't seem to find any viruses either.

I thought it could be something like that but it doesn't appear to be.

Thanks.

 

[kpo6969]

When is the last time you deleted your temporary internet files?
Try this:
1.scan for spyware like previous poster suggested
2.run disk-cleanup
3.defragment your hard-drive
4.set internet explorer to delete temporary files automatically

see if there is any improvement

 

[raspygold]

have run disk cleanup. I dont use IE atm i stick to Opera and use Firefox every now and then.

I Defragement my harddrive regularly but its quite a fast harddrive and makes also no impact even when i once had fragmentation nearly up to 10%.

It still wouldn't explain an overnight problem. I shut down one night, and next morning i boot it up and it loads, but is jolty, its not a constant thing.. Thanks though.

 

[almcneil]

I forgot to mention to that my motherboard is revision 1.0 also.

I've checked many times for spyware & viruses, I just ran another scan with Ad-Aware 2007 and found 3 tracking cookies - nothing to cause my system to lag like that.

I've tried several different anti-virus programs also, NOD32, AVG, Avast!, Comodo, Kaspersky etc.
They can't seem to find any viruses either.

I thought it could be something like that but it doesn't appear to be.

Thanks.

You didn't mention if you ran Spybot and AVG Anti-Spyware. Ad-Aware targets Adware, a type of spyware that usually doesn't cause serious problems, just junk programs. Spybot catches the nasty spyware, the ones that can seriously corrupt your system. AVG AS is also good at catching the hard to find spyware. Make sure you run them when your system is seriously derailed.

You don't need to run multiple anti-virus. They all are good. One is usually enough, two at most.

Did you check with the online gaming web site for some clues as to the cause?

 

[raspygold]

game site reveals nothing at all sadly... And i've run all three of those now and no big change at all.

 

[almcneil]

I might suggest you image your hard drive after your next format. At least this will save you a lot of hassle until we resolve your issue. I recommend Acromis True Image, http://www.acronis.com .


Have you tried using System Restore in Windows? That might also help.

I think something is getting corrupted shortly after you reformat & re-install. Exactly what and where is hard to say right now. You might want to go into Task Manager and see if there are any processes that are hogging the CPU.

 

[raspygold]

Hey.

Making an image is a good idea, but I have about 200gig or thereabouts that i move around on and off each format. But i'll have a look into it.

Have checked Task Manager nothing truly hogging CPU.

Something strange has started happening the last two formats... I have started to have problems with System.exe (can't find much information on it on the net) crashing and spamming the "send an error report" or whatever all on my screen about 20 times each crash, sometiems crashing the windows reporting system. Any thoughts?

 

[almcneil]

I was to retrace a few steps.

Does this ONLY happen after online gaming WoW?

Have any of your fellow online gamers reported the same or similar problem?

Have you tried isolating the problem? For instance, did you try disabling various devices in Device Manager and see if the comp performance suddenly improves? I might suggest the video card as a likely candidate. Also, have you rebooted into Safe Mode and notice a difference?

 

[thebaronjocelin]

Have you gone into the Processes tab under Task Manager and checked for resource hogs?

 

[raspygold]

@thebaronjocelin
No resource hogs, all just normal with System Idle Process taking most.

@almcneil
No similar problems reported. I'm going to try another reformat and try not using some of the software patching utilities that I have. They aren't showing up as viruses, but I think that may be an option I guess.