Can a processor get old and slow?

[SportyGuy220]

Im wondering, ive had my cpu overclocked for about a year. air cooled. from a 2500 to a 3200 barton. ran almost every day. temps 41o idle. 46o max. I was playin counterstrike other day and the game started to video lag. Im wondering either video card or processor. but how do i find out w/o just buyin new stuff and wasting money.

 

[kirbyrj]

I doubt if it's your processor. I'm going to go out on limb and say it's probably software related rather than hardware (obviously not seeing the problem for myself firsthand ).

 

[Dr. X]

Generally, non-mechanical electronics either work or they don't. I'd say it's software. Might be time for a format.

 

[D3v01D]

Did you install anything (software or drivers) before you started having problems?

 

[Chilly]

Windows is getting clogged up, really if you keep windows REALLY clean it can run about a year before it starts getting clogged up and start lagging down gradually, but a personally can't stand windows after more than like 3-4 months without reformating, maybe its just me, maybe its just ingraided into the geek mind "format, format Format, Format, FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT!!, FORMAT!!"

Chilly

 

[Absentee]

you forgot....FORMAT!!!!!

sounds like windows is paging stuff to the HDD....

 

[Tazman2]

Windows is getting clogged up, really if you keep windows REALLY clean it can run about a year before it starts getting clogged up and start lagging down gradually, but a personally can't stand windows after more than like 3-4 months without reformating, maybe its just me, maybe its just ingraided into the geek mind "format, format Format, Format, FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT!!, FORMAT!!"

Chilly

Silly format freaks. Helps to find the original reason for the slow down so you don't have to reformat montly when you do the same dumb mistake(s) and make it run slow again!

 

[isai95]

There is ghost and true image to avoid doing that nasty reformating job. It takes only minutes (in my case less than 2 minutes) to restore the whole partition to a good working condition again.

I even created a floppy disk that do all the job automatically.

 

[Krypto]

Windows is getting clogged up, really if you keep windows REALLY clean it can run about a year before it starts getting clogged up and start lagging down gradually, but a personally can't stand windows after more than like 3-4 months without reformating, maybe its just me, maybe its just ingraided into the geek mind "format, format Format, Format, FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT!!, FORMAT!!"

Chilly

Werd.

 

[Unknown-One]

Windows is getting clogged up, really if you keep windows REALLY clean it can run about a year before it starts getting clogged up and start lagging down gradually, but a personally can't stand windows after more than like 3-4 months without reformating, maybe its just me, maybe its just ingraided into the geek mind "format, format Format, Format, FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT!!, FORMAT!!"

Chilly

Heh, thats sorta strange...I usualy run Windows (XP at least) for about 3 years befor I need to format. My last format was caused because of a motherboard change, not a software problem, so somethign funky is going on with your computer.

 

[robberbaron]

There is ghost and true image to avoid doing that nasty reformating job. It takes only minutes (in my case less than 2 minutes) to restore the whole partition to a good working condition again.

I even created a floppy disk that do all the job automatically.

Except that when you ghost the drive back, you'll have all of the software problems you had before.

 

[Skrying]

Heh, thats sorta strange...I usualy run Windows (XP at least) for about 3 years befor I need to format. My last format was caused because of a motherboard change, not a software problem, so somethign funky is going on with your computer.

Uhh, then you dont notice slight slow downs very well. No matter what you really no, you have to clean out Windows every once in awhile (about 3 months for me) before slow performance hits start happenings, its a fact of life. Thankfully there's programs that allow you to start back at a nice clean basic image with your constant programs.

 

[isai95]

Except that when you ghost the drive back, you'll have all of the software problems you had before.

You make an image of the booting partition when all your main apps are working fine and keep it in a safe place. Now when you get a problem you can restore. I make incremental images so I can always restore my computer to a good working condition. I never do a clean intall again on the same computer.