PC noticeably slower

[PotatoCat]

i dont know what subforum to post this in so sorry.

Hi, i noticed that my PC has been running very sluggish lately. Programs take alot longer to open and games arent running as it should. I just played battlefield 3 today after several days not playing it and it was really, really slow. I run the game on High on a 1440x900 monitor and i usually get 50-68FPS even on huge maps like Karkand, but now i barely go pass 40FPS D:!!! it stays on the 29-35FPS range T_T

i dont know what caused it, i have updated drivers and everything and only suffered a BSOD crash maybe 3 times since getting this PC in june, two of them in the first 4 months and the last one happens maybe after i updated my 6870 to v12.1... or maybe it was after i cleaned out the dust inside my case... could any of those be the case? im really confused. And i also dont overclock, my card has been factory overcloked and i didnt change anything, my cpu is the only thing overclocked and i overclocked it months ago, before this thing happend.

My PC also never had any viruses, i usually run avast! and Malware bytes usually once a week to clean it, and also use defraggler and ccleaner once a week to defrag and get rid of temp files.
i appreciate any help on this

SPECS:
AMD Phenom II X4 OCed to 3.7GHz
XFX HD6870BE factory clocked to 940mhz
4gb Gskill ram
620w Seasonic PSU

EDIT:
its not just BF3, Skyrim, Portal and Total war also runs slower. like 10-5 FPS less

[TacoTown]

Check to see if you have other processes going on in the task manager. With that little of ram, if you have a lot of things are running in the background that may cause some issues.

[PotatoCat]

Originally Posted by Kevinheraiz

Check to see if you have other processes going on in the task manager. With that little of ram, if you have a lot of things are running in the background that may cause some issues.

i basically run the same background programs for months, the only non-windows/Ati programs that runs in the background are always avast!, malwarebytes, fraps, steam/origin, rainmeter and coretemp and i always close web browsers when starting a game.

[xfire]

I don't trust avast much. Post a screen shot of all tasks running in task manager. Are you using 64-bit or 32-bit os?

[PotatoCat]

Originally Posted by xfire

I don't trust avast much. Post a screen shot of all tasks running in task manager. Are you using 64-bit or 32-bit os?

i use 64-bit OS

i took this a couple of minutes ago


EDIT:
i dunno if this helps or not but i had a power outage a couple of weeks ago and my PC would start windows. so i inserted the windows disk and repaired it there.

[specks]

Thats a lot of chrome.exe

It could something with your hardware. Are the temps ok?

[KieranD]

If it was general slowdown i would say it was the hard drives fault but in games? maybe its the graphics drivers doesn't sound like a hardware problem.

Running a task such as a browser in the background while playing games can use resource's, cpu/ram ect.

[PotatoCat]

Originally Posted by specks

Thats a lot of chrome.exe

It could something with your hardware. Are the temps ok?

yea i had alot of tabs (5) opened when i took that, yea temps are fine, the CPU never goes up 50C even under heavy load

[specks]

Originally Posted by PotatoCat

i use 64-bit OS

i took this a couple of minutes ago
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7692/62828154.jpg

EDIT:
i dunno if this helps or not but i had a power outage a couple of weeks ago and my PC would start windows. so i inserted the windows disk and repaired it there.

Huh? Of course it would start windows What do you mean start windows?

Originally Posted by PotatoCat

yea i had alot of tabs (5) opened when i took that, yea temps are fine, the CPU never goes up 50C even under heavy load

How about your GPU?

[PotatoCat]

Originally Posted by specks

Huh? Of course it would start windows What do you mean start windows?



How about your GPU?

i mean would NOT start windows

The GPU goes to 75-80C when playing BF3

[specks]

Originally Posted by PotatoCat

i mean would NOT start windows

The GPU goes to 75-80C when playing BF3

Temp seems ok. Try updating the drivers

[PotatoCat]

Originally Posted by specks

Temp seems ok. Try updating the drivers

its at v12.1 ATM

[xfire]

Maybe you should try a clean install. Did you try a stress test? http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-st...pc-stable/762/

check the voltages too.

[Jetster]

Ya time for a clean install. Or you could try emptying out your temps and cookies and see if that helps

[Dent1]

Originally Posted by PotatoCat

i use 64-bit OS

i took this a couple of minutes ago
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7692/62828154.jpg

EDIT:
i dunno if this helps or not but i had a power outage a couple of weeks ago and my PC would start windows. so i inserted the windows disk and repaired it there.

You need more memory, in general

Screenshot shows 54% of your physical memory used on idle. BF3 can use just over 4GBs of ram alone without all the background processes. So your PC must be always borrowing memory from the HDD whilst playing BF3, which is probably why performance has become grotty.

As a temporary solution try to reduce the background processes so give you more available memory for the game. Also consider getting more ram.

[PotatoCat]

Originally Posted by xfire

Maybe you should try a clean install. Did you try a stress test? http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-st...pc-stable/762/

check the voltages too.

how do you clean install and check voltages?

[Dent1]

Originally Posted by PotatoCat

how do you clean install and check voltages?

Clean reinstall could mean, formatting the hard disk drive and reinstalling windows or the application in question.

Checking voltages can be done using a utility software. I dont think its necessary at this stage.

Your issue on the surface seems ram related. Too many applications running in the background and not enough ram. You can disable background processes in the MSconfig and admin service tools. Ultimately I think you need to invest in more ram.

MSconfig
Start > Run > MSconfig > Startup

Admin services
Control Panel > System and Security> administrative Tools > services

[qubit]

That's strange. My Windows 7 is well over a year old, doesn't have much maintenance applied to it and has been transplanted onto a different motherboard with another chipset, yet it still runs just fine.

How does it run if you disable your security software?

You may want to check your hard drive for impending failure too (run the mfr's diagnostic software) although that shouldn't really affect your gaming fps, as it's not constantly accessing the HD then. A failing HD will affect your regular desktop experience, however.

[mrthanhnguyen]

virus is the problem, try to fresh install OS then u won't notice any slow speed anymore.

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by xfire

Maybe you should try a clean install. Did you try a stress test? http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-st...pc-stable/762/

check the voltages too.

Originally Posted by Dent1

You need more memory, in general

Screenshot shows 54% of your physical memory used on idle. BF3 can use just over 4GBs of ram alone without all the background processes. So your PC must be always borrowing memory from the HDD whilst playing BF3, which is probably why performance has become grotty.

As a temporary solution try to reduce the background processes so give you more available memory for the game. Also consider getting more ram.

Listen to these guys. Some sound advice. Maybe a Windows reinstall is in order to kill some unneeded processes or do some reconfiguring of startup system tray apps.

[brandonwh64]

Before a OS install though, I would go through the programs in control panel and remove the ones you never use or don't need. I would then restart into safe mode and run CCleaner to its fullest extent on both programs and registry. Then reboot back in normal mode and test the waters.

[xfire]

Originally Posted by Dent1

Clean reinstall could mean, formatting the hard disk drive and reinstalling windows or the application in question.

Checking voltages can be done using a utility software. I dont think its necessary at this stage.

Your issue on the surface seems ram related. Too many applications running in the background and not enough ram. You can disable background processes in the MSconfig and admin service tools. Ultimately I think you need to invest in more ram.

MSconfig
Start > Run > MSconfig > Startup

Admin services
Control Panel > System and Security> administrative Tools > services

I said voltages cause he said he had a power outage.



@PotatoCat
Try speed fan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

a clean install is format your windows drive and install it again.

[silkstone]

If possible, just do a re-install of windows. It's really only worth trouble shooting if you have lots of irreplaceable stuff.

After you re-install, install all your regular programs, patch everything and create a system image.

On a troubleshooting note, before you do the re-install you may want to check through system restore and try a restore point before you were getting the issues.

[catnipkiller]

Do you have any back ground videos running? when i run windows media center or youtube my cards only clock up to 400mhz withch makes me lag. i allways force close windows media center before i game.

[Volkszorn88]

Also go into your taskbar and type "windows features" and turn off stuff you don't need.

Like games and gadgets...etc Useless stuff that eats up memory.

Also I wouldn't recommend having rain metre on while gaming. If you're not using/looking at it, doesn't need to be on in the background while gaming.

When you first boot up, do you have a bunch of apps popping up at once? If so, go into CCLeaner and disable non-essential applications.

Just a lot of small stuff that helps free up memory if it's a memory issue.