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Suddenly ultra-slow PC for no apparent reason

H

himynameisbuddy

Member
I've had the same build for a couple years now and it has been working just fine for me. I'm a casual gamer. My PC has been great in the sense that it plays games fine (CoD :MW2, Half-Life 2, etc.). I never used to get any slowdowns at all while playing.

Suddenly, just a few days ago, I'm not even able to START those games... I get to the loading screen in HL2 after the Valve logo and nothing happens forever. It's really annoying. So I decide to play a very easy (for my PC, I mean) game, Plants vs Zombies. My computer can handle it but it's like it's trying really hard... Every 2 or 3 seconds, there's a "jump" or "lag" or whatever - nothing moves for about a second. This happens every 3 seconds or so, it's so aggravating.

I have no idea what's going on. I even tried a system restore which didn't do anything. I'm thinking about buying a new processor and more RAM, but am deciding to ask you guys first. You've been good to me over the years 😉 .

Right now, my system has an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ which is only 2.8 ghz and is the worst component of my whole setup. I also have only 2gb of memory. I'm thinking of kicking up to 4gb of memory and installing an AMD Athlon II X2 260 processor (3.2 ghz). I'm running a Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 mobo.

Any ideas are appreciated - I keep shooting in the dark and coming up empty.
~Buddy~

P.S. I've checked Task Manager to make sure nothing was running that shouldn't be and I didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

The memory I'm looking to upgrade to:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211188

The CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103873
 
Such sudden slow downs generally mean either a malware infection, or a hardware issue. I'd scan your computer with your AV app, then use the free Malwarebytes app to see if anything shows up. If not, your hard drive may going bad. You should backup your important files and data now in case it totally fails. If you have an app that collects and reads the hard drive's S.M.A.R.T. data, see what this data says about your drive's performance.
 
^ What he said. Hold off on the upgrades until you fix your original problem.

What brand hard drive do you have? Most desktop HD manufacturers have their own HD diagnostic tools.
 
Check for ad/malware... that's a great idea that I probably should have done already. I'll get right on that.

I have 2 internal HDs, one Seagate and one Maxtor. I also use an external, which is an Acomdata. I'll check for diagnostic tools for them. Thanks, guys!
 
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I would do Malwarebytes, Spybot, and Superantispyware free edition. If they all come up clean then I would start looking into hardware issues. First the HDD, then RAM, video card, and motherboard.
 
Well, you guys were right... turns out I had some malware making my life miserable. But now I've got myself all excited about buying new hardware, so I'm doing it anyway! Thanks, gang 🙂
 
Excellent! Make sure to post your build here before clicking the "order" button to get it reviewed by the experts. 😀
 
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