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Poor gaming performance on a PC that could totally run the things a week ago

One Thousand CablesOne Thousand Cables An absence of thoughtRegistered User regular
edited May 2011 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
So yeah, I've been having issues with running games on my PC recently--it'll run fine for a minute or two, then the framerate starts chugging and doesn't stop. Every game I've tried running that does this has previously run completely fine on my machine. The problems persist on a fresh install of Windows 7, so maybe it's hardware related? Aside from that, I'm not really sure what the problem could be.

For reference, my PC is an ASUS G72GX notebook with 6 gigs of memory, a 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo and a GeForce GTX 260M.

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Posts

  • ShenShen Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    I've had problems similar to that with a gaming laptop before; it was due to it overheating massively, hitting over 100 degrees C internally. It could be due to dust build up reaching critical levels, a new driver update or something wrong with a heatsink.

    If rolling back a few drivers and clearing out the dust as best you can doesn't help, I'd contact wherever you bought it from. My Alienware's GPU ended up frying because I took too long to fix it.

    Shen on
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  • kyleh613kyleh613 Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Every time this has happened to me its been dust related and using compressed canned air to clear it off the heat sink has solved the problem. Be really careful with the canned air method, it leaks water if you tilt the spray can. You should remove the heat sink and then spray it.

    kyleh613 on
  • One Thousand CablesOne Thousand Cables An absence of thought Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Okay, so I'll get some compressed air and try to clean out the dust. Thanks guys!

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  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    What you've described REALLY sounds like dust buildup--you were getting fine performance until the heat reached a certain point, when your processor clocks started slowing down on their own to try and lower the temperature. Should fix your problem.

    Synthesis on
  • khalathaskhalathas Computer Repair Technician Sarasota, FLRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    If you're going to blow out a fan in a computer, make sure you either stick a pin in it so it doesn't spin, or disconnect it from whatever it's plugged into (board, power supply, etc). Don't forget, that a fan is a magnetic motor. Spinning it generates electricity, which can potentially fry your motherboard.

    khalathas on
  • EgoEgo Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    khalathas wrote: »
    If you're going to blow out a fan in a computer, make sure you either stick a pin in it so it doesn't spin, or disconnect it from whatever it's plugged into (board, power supply, etc). Don't forget, that a fan is a magnetic motor. Spinning it generates electricity, which can potentially fry your motherboard.

    While I haven't heard of it potentially cooking mobos (that'd suck), it's definitely worth stopping a fan before you clean it out just to avoid stressing and wearing out the ball-bearings on the fan.

    Ego on
    Erik
  • khalathaskhalathas Computer Repair Technician Sarasota, FLRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Ego wrote: »
    khalathas wrote: »
    If you're going to blow out a fan in a computer, make sure you either stick a pin in it so it doesn't spin, or disconnect it from whatever it's plugged into (board, power supply, etc). Don't forget, that a fan is a magnetic motor. Spinning it generates electricity, which can potentially fry your motherboard.

    While I haven't heard of it potentially cooking mobos (that'd suck), it's definitely worth stopping a fan before you clean it out just to avoid stressing and wearing out the ball-bearings on the fan.

    Happened to a guy I work with, he had to replace the fried board out of pocket. Was a hard lesson to learn, but fortunately wasn't a horribly expensive board either.

    khalathas on
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    I'd be much more wary of wearing out a bearing in a fan after multiple times....still, I guess it could happen. Best to be careful?

    Synthesis on
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