Best Course of Action?

TheOneWizard · #1 08-17-2007, 02:31 PM

So my computer has gotten to the point where the lag and delays is beyond frustrating. Playing online poker has become almost impossible. I've tried all the remidies and fixes I know, but nothing has really worked.

I decided to format my drive but my dad suggest I take a look at the system first. He thought maybe there wasn't enough RAM or maybe the processor was overloaded. The CPU usage seems to be stuck at 100%. The few times I drops everything seems to run smoother but that's somewhat rare.

Is there an easy fix to all this other than the pain of formatting my hard drive? Also my computer is from 2001; it's served me well, but do you think it's all more trouble than it's worth and I should just buy a new one?

Thanks guys.

T3485 · #2 08-17-2007, 03:28 PM

Six years old is pretty old for a computer, especially if it wasn't top of the line when you bought it. What OS are you running? ME? 2k?

Perplexity · #3 08-17-2007, 03:45 PM

six years is insanely old. buy a new computer. they're cheap.

Computerb · #4 08-17-2007, 05:10 PM

If it's performance was satifactory when you got it, a clean install of the operating system will return it to that state. My mantra is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. No need to buy a new one if the old one is servicable.

TheOneWizard · #5 08-17-2007, 05:16 PM

I'm running Windows XP. The computer was pretty strong when I bought it, but not the very top of the line. I suppose I may as well look into buying a new system if you think that's best.

funkyworms · #6 08-17-2007, 08:20 PM

Post the stats for your computer (cpu speed, RAM, and video card). How full is your hard drive? I have a 6-year-old computer that still runs like a champ.

bige321786 · #7 08-18-2007, 01:09 AM

Is this a desktop or a laptop?
Perhaps this is appropriate advice for a desktop as well, but the exact same thing was happening to my four year old laptop computer.
I took it in to Best Buy (Geek Squad) and had them open it and remvoe all the dust inside. It took about 15 minutes, I played Forza 2 on XBox360 while I waited, and walked out $20 lighter.
Not expecting any significant changes, I hooked up my computer when I got home and it works just as well as it did the day I bought it. It's worth a shot.
Good luck.

Jeff_B · #8 08-18-2007, 10:51 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Is this a desktop or a laptop?
Perhaps this is appropriate advice for a desktop as well, but the exact same thing was happening to my four year old laptop computer.
I took it in to Best Buy (Geek Squad) and had them open it and remvoe all the dust inside. It took about 15 minutes, I played Forza 2 on XBox360 while I waited, and walked out $20 lighter.
Not expecting any significant changes, I hooked up my computer when I got home and it works just as well as it did the day I bought it. It's worth a shot.
Good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol 2 remove 2 screws $20 but yeah any theories to why this would work?

T3485 · #9 08-18-2007, 11:03 AM

[ QUOTE ]
lol 2 remove 2 screws $20 but yeah any theories to why this would work?

[/ QUOTE ]

They probably blew out the dust with an air compressor as well. The only theory on why this would work is that when dust builds up combined with moisture it can cause problems for the motherboard and the RAM. The accumulation of dust will also cause the fans in the system to slow down and move less air, which in turn causes more heat to reside inside the box. I don't think that in itself would cause the PC to run slower per say, but it would definetly take years (?) off the life of the PC by accelearting the degradagtion of the power supply, CPU, RAM, HDD, Mobo, basically every part of the PC.

Heat can kill a PC and it's the main reason PCs aren't much, much, faster than they are today. The faster the CPU/RAM the more heat it naturally generates. You can combat this with heat pipes, fans, liquid cooling methods, heat spreaders, etc. This is the domain of the overclockers.

For the average user, I would be suprised if blowing out the dust would make much of a difference in terms of performance, though I have seen machines with obscene amounts of cat hair, second hand smoke build up, spider webs, and thick layers of dust, where blowing it out with air should have been a priority for the user.

T3485 · #10 08-18-2007, 11:08 AM

[ QUOTE ]
If it's performance was satifactory when you got it, a clean install of the operating system will return it to that state. My mantra is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. No need to buy a new one if the old one is servicable.

[/ QUOTE ]

While I tend to agree with this, there are systems I work with daily that are approximately as old as the original posters that I could not bear to use on a regular basis at home. It's like going back to dialup after you have used broadband for a while. Once you're used something significantly faster it's very hard to go back and accept that kind of performance.