Pentium Dual Core E218 running slower than rated

[xXMagicPandaXx]

I've only had my PC for about a year now and it's been going slower by every passing month, I've never installed anything on my PC except games from Steam and Windows Update stuff and graphics card drivers from the official AMD website.

My Intel Pentium Dual Core E218 (2.00 GHz) is now running at 1.40 GHz.

I always keep my PC clean and virus free yet for some reason the CPU has slowed down a lot and games that I used to play before are almost unplayable now.

A friend suggested that I might have to update my BIOS but he also said that 1 **** up and it could ruin my PC forever, and I've got just as much PC experience as a turtle has speed.

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit from Windows XP 32-bit but my CPU still remains at 1.40 GHz, I've never overclocked or fidgeted with anything on my PC I sometimes carefully hoover out the dust on my CPU but I already had this problem a while before I hoovered my CPU.

When I'm on my desktop my CPU temperature is always at around 29 ºC in-game it's around 32 ºC so it's not overheating.

I hope you can help.

-Love, Panda.

 

[MrBlkfx1]

Try changing your power settings. I would switch it to high performance mode. Now, what are you using to monitor your CPU ? Are you getting these figures while the computer is idle or doing simple tasks? It could just be down clocking itself because of speed step.

 

[xXMagicPandaXx]

I tried putting my power settings to" High Performance" but every time I apply it and then open "Advanced power settings" again, it's set back on "Balanced". I currently use Speccy to monitor the temperature of all drivers.

EDIT: I finally managed to keep it on High Performance mode and it says that my CPU is running at 2.00 GHz now, thanks for the help!

 

[Raoul Duke]

The CPU is not overheating so it is not a dirty cooler or pooched thermal paste. Air flow through the case must be o.k. as well or the temperature would rise so heat is not slowing it down. Thinking about the drive, you have not mentioned if you have ever cleaned out the garbage (clean out temp files, they are in your user profile-enable see hidden files, your Windows folder and sometimes in Program Data - hidden folder as well) then run a chkdsk followed by a defragmentation.

This is a shot in the dark compared to the previous, but I do not know what kind of video card you have and how complex the heat sink is. A can of compressed air is the best way to blow out the crap that builds up in there. I suppose if the card got really hot there would be some graphics corruption. If you have not done cleaning, chkdsk and defrag that should really, really help.

Also as important as the disk stuff in the first post but I forgot to mention is how full is your hard drive? It should be 15% to 25% free space. Below this speed of the disk will drop very noticeably. The free space is also needed for defragmentation.

You can also check how many applications are starting when the computer starts up, if there are too many boot times increase and the computer runs slower. Uninstall everything you don't use.

 

[MrBlkfx1]

I tried putting my power settings to" High Performance" but every time I apply it and then open "Advanced power settings" again, it's set back on "Balanced". I currently use Speccy to monitor the temperature of all drivers.

EDIT: I finally managed to keep it on High Performance mode and it says that my CPU is running at 2.00 GHz now, thanks for the help!

Glad to see my advise was able to resolve your issue. No Problem!

 

[Raoul Duke]

I wish every problem could be solved this simply...LOL Me and my complex advice. I set my OS on high performance as part of an OS install. Never knew not doing so would have such a dramatic effect.

 

[St1ckM4n]

I've got just as much PC experience as a turtle has speed..

I lol'd.

 

[xXMagicPandaXx]

I wish every problem could be solved this simply...LOL Me and my complex advice. I set my OS on high performance as part of an OS install. Never knew not doing so would have such a dramatic effect.

Well I've learned a couple valuable things from your reply and now I know what to do in the future if my PC starts going slower, so thank you!

 

[Raoul Duke]

The stuff I suggested is mostly just regular maintenance stuff except I forgot to mention, never defragment an SSD drive. But I am glad your computer is working well!! That is the main thing.