Laptop Slows Down

[adds2one]

Hi,

This is my first post here, so hello!

I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop with a Pentium M 1400MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and a 40GB HD. I am running a legit version of Windows XP Pro. I have had no problems with this system until this week.

Here is what happened:

I was downloading via bittorrent using BitComet. I left the laptop on for about four days as it was downloading. On the fourth day when I came home the fan in the laptop was acting strange, reving up and then slowing down in a way I had never observed it to do before and running really slow. I shut it down for a day and ever since then have it has been running extremely slow. It takes at least twice as long to boot up and once in windows things are sluggish, it is especially terrible at multi tasking now.

The cpu is still running at 1400MHz, and the fan is working fine. The temperature of the cpu is between 39 and 52 degrees celcius. I have defragged my system drive and there is about 3 GB of extra space on it. I have run Adaware and Spybot and have found nothing. I have a legit copy of Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Virus both of which are up to date and find no problems. I have also run a cpu stability testing program which found no errors.

So, could my cpu have gotten overheated? Are these results consistent with a heat damaged cpu? Could it be my hard drive or memory that is damaged? Or the mother board?

Is there anyway for me to rule any of these things out?

I totally cannot afford a new cpu right now so I am hoping I can find a cheaper solution.

I could also try to do a fresh install but it really feels like hardware to me. What do people think?

Thanks in advance - Jason

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Probably something with ur PSU. That would explain the fan going crazy. Otherwise ur CPU is heat-damaged. Stick around for opinions from everyone else.

 

[adds2one]

Does anyone else have an opinion on this? I am looking at buying a new CPU but I would feel way better about it if I knew for sure that it was my CPU that is damaged.

I'm nervous in particular that it could also be RAM as I have almost no ability to multitask anymore.

Anyone?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

If ur RAM's gone bust, usually the PC doesn't even start. But then again, it might start but give very bad performance like in ur case. I really don't know. As I said before, did u check the power brick? Maybe thats the cause of ur problem. Try replacing it and then trying or running it from battery. If that doesn't help, then I seriously don't know. Stick around, someone else will probably help u out.