Hi.

I noticed the past few days that the performance on my computer has gone down for some reason. I tried googling but didn't find any specific help so I'll ask here if someone knows what's going on.
The games I play used to run smooth a week ago but now they have been acting differently.
I had smooth fps but now sometimes when playing I hear and see the processor fan spinning faster and game fps drops to 20 for few seconds i.e. from 100 fps. but only when I hear the processor fan going faster, then after few seconds the fan runs slower again and game runs smooth. Even on an old game called morrowind this happens.
I have quadcore processor and havent had any problems before.

So is this processor related issue or is something wrong with the PSU?

edit: the CPU temperature is between 40-60 degrees most of the time and I've cleaned the dust out

What's the GPU? Do all the fans have good clearance (e.g. are they free of dust)?

Probably not PSU related, this sounds like an overheating problem (most likely down throttling of the CPU or GPU). Any recent changes in your case or did this just pop out of nowhere?

If you still think it's a damaged CPU, check the connector pins to see if one is bent. Other than that, clean the top plate and re-apply thermal paste. Then tell me if any of that worked. Same can be done for the GPU of course, if you have the skills, but might (probably will) void your warranty.

the GPU is a bit old, it's ATI radeon 4800 series, I've cleaned the dust out of GPU (opened it) and CPU weeks before the slowdowns started happening. The temperatures for both seems ok while playing.
Only change I've done to the hardware is I added secondary harddisk to the SATA port.

I suspected that some viruses are slowing down, because I think this started after I went to some webpage which popped out dozens of popups. though I've checked for viruses and spyware with different tools but haven't found anything so far. Could be a coincidence...

I'm gonna check the CPU pins tomorrow and let you know

CPU, PSU, motherboard, etc. are about a year old and GPU is more older than the rest of the hardware

I suspected that some viruses are slowing down, because I think this started after I went to some webpage which popped out dozens of popups. though I've checked for viruses and spyware with different tools but haven't found anything so far. Could be a coincidence...

There's your problem right there...

There's your problem right there...

I suspect that too but I can't find anything on the computer. I've checked with malwarebytes' anti-malware, ad-aware, windows defender and f-secure but nothing so far. Anyone have good recommendations which apps I should use?

ESET: Online Antivirus Scanning

It is not meant as a replacement for active antivirus, but it does do a good job doing a sweep and remove.

As a general rule: every year (or more frequently if you wish; I do it ever 6months or when necessary) do a clean install, reformat everything, and restore anything vital from backups. Keeps everything nice and happy and any quirkiness introduced from faulty registry entries (windows has a nasty habit of this) or any malicious virus is gone.

Of course, this assumes you are smart enough to keep backups around and ensuring they're up to date. But, if you aren't already doing it, start doing it!


As far as anti-virus goes... I use Kaspersky. I rarely have problems with viruses sneaking up on me

I'm gonna check the CPU pins tomorrow and let you know

Don't do that. If pins are damaged things would not work or fail much more spectacularly.

but only when I hear the processor fan going faster, then after few seconds the fan runs slower again and game runs smooth.[/quote]

So something pegs your CPU.

Considering it's not crashing, download sysint's process explorer. Have it open while you replicate the problem. Look at what happened. It could be disk activity or some application spiking CPU load.

Go through processes and check their CPU history and check what happened at that time.

Using the built-in resource monitor is another option, sort it by CPU and when the slowdown occurs, look at what is on the top.

I've been creating backups since 5 years ago. So formatting and re-installing is not a problem

I guess I'll then go with re-install after I check what the CPU is doing like Antheus said.

btw. the website which gave me popups.. I checked browser history and the title of that page was "GNAA Last Measure v4.1 by Rucas with Armorfist's PopupByPasser Mod." which opened lot of browser tabs leading to file named "spawn.php"
I read off google that it is a prank, but some say it might contain trojan

I just scanned with "ESET: Online Antivirus Scanning" and it didn't find anything.

I've been creating backups since 5 years ago. So formatting and re-installing is not a problem

I guess I'll then go with re-install after I check what the CPU is doing like Antheus said.

btw. the website which gave me popups.. I checked browser history and the title of that page was "GNAA Last Measure v4.1 by Rucas with Armorfist's PopupByPasser Mod." which opened lot of browser tabs leading to file named "spawn.php"
I read off google that it is a prank, but some say it might contain trojan

I just scanned with "ESET: Online Antivirus Scanning" and it didn't find anything.

A clean reinstall will fix any software issue which is what it sounds like you have. A dying hard drive or bad memory/motherboard can cause slowdowns but they usually cause crashes instead. A processor going bad without overclocking or some kind of catastrophic hardware failure or power surge is very uncommon.