Is my computer finally dying?

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As of lately... whenever i power on my computer, it takes around 45 minutes to boot up (thats not an exadderation... its seriously 45 minutes). It just sits at the windows loading screen and "loads" for an abnormally long time.

The actual Operating System runs fine, its quick with loading programs up and playing games, minus the few quirks where it freezes up for a few minutes.

And also, i used to be able to play Empire Earth 2 and COD4 with absolutely no lag, and now i get lag about 3 minutes into the game with EE2 and COD4 is almost impossible to play now.


Personally i think my ram is starting to die, but im not so sure. Any ideas?
 
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Sounds like a problem with the O/S. If everything else is running fine, try repairing Windows from the disc. Maybe something is corrupted.
 
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could be any number of things, including (i would guess) malware or spyware.

when was the last time you formatted? back up all your essential stuff, format, install your motherboard drivers, then your graphics drivers, then your game. if the game plays, then happy days. if it still doesn't, then it's a hardware problem.
 
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Personally I'm willing to bet it's temperature.

When was the last time you cleaned all the dust out of your rig Walmart? Try hitting the machine with some compressed air. Make sure you unplug it, and unclog all of the heatsinks on the CPU, Ram if you have them, chipset and video card. You may also want to run it with the case open and see if all the fans are running. Dead fans can mess you up pretty quick.
 
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actually that's a good point. my room is like a furnace, and if i don't have a desk fan blowing air into the open side of my case, it will keep rebooting over and over :eek:
 
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Well, my college education focused on hardware design as well as English literature. I've seen it quite a bit with my clients computers and my own computer. In fact I just had to do it to my own computer last weekend. You should, as preventative maintenance, pull apart and clean your machine once per quarter.
 
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Yeah my PC heats too, it makes the computer work slowly, sometimes it causes lags in games. (in half life mods, but that is the only online games I play) It also heats when im hosting a server than the all server lags, it works slowly and chopped over all.

Tell me, if ill activate a ventilator to my case side vent, will it help?
 
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Spunky said:
The year 1960 for him to have the problem he's having. That isn't the case.
The reason I asked when the last time he defragged is because my brother had the same thing with long boot up at the Windows loading screen. One day it was fine the next long boot up times (not 45 min,but long enough that it was abnormal). I checked the fragmention, there was a lot of red and Windows suggested to defrag, I did after it was back to normal. So I say it's worth a try.

If defrag doesnt work next step I would take would be to run chkdsk /r /f from the Windows cd.

And if that doesnt help I would run a repair install.

you may also want to check the health of your hard drive, you should enable S.M.A.R.T monitoring for your Hard drive(s) most bios have it disabled by defaut for some reason. I use speedfan which I use to control fan speeds in my system(fan control not compatible with all motherboards) but it also has other features including a HDD health thingy.

If all else fails format.

Yeah my PC heats too, it makes the computer work slowly, sometimes it causes lags in games. (in half life mods, but that is the only online games I play) It also heats when im hosting a server than the all server lags, it works slowly and chopped over all.

Tell me, if ill activate a ventilator to my case side vent, will it help?
What are your system specs? including case.
 
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Cuc... thank you haha. I completely forgot about the dust in the case. Yeah, i have 2 dead fans, the case is CAKED with dust and its pretty damn warm in there. So i guess i'll clean it out, rebuild it and do some defragmenting... since i overlooked that too =P

Thanks alot for the help so far guys. I'll reply back in a day or so and tell you all how it goes. Hopefully that'll fix it all.
 
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Also %90 of problems related to slow PC's are just nub software issues, lookin up to much porn getting spyware/malware/**** that boots every time you load windows.

Pull your machine apart- buy some new fans, clean it all out, format it = winnar.
 
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Cuc... thank you haha. I completely forgot about the dust in the case. Yeah, i have 2 dead fans, the case is CAKED with dust and its pretty damn warm in there. So i guess i'll clean it out, rebuild it and do some defragmenting... since i overlooked that too =P

Thanks alot for the help so far guys. I'll reply back in a day or so and tell you all how it goes. Hopefully that'll fix it all.
Not a problem my friend. Remember, dead fans and tons of dust = dead computer.
 
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:-\ No one should ever forget to clean the inside of the computer once in a while. Dust can cause a lot of problems. Would be better if dust never exists!
 
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the CPU is the one is heating. it is pentium 4 Intel 3Ghz.

The case I have no ****ing idea, I only know it has 3 fans.

So a exterior desk ventilator will help if ill put it in the range of the case?
 
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Wow thanks for the help guys, especially Cuc. I tore apart my computer and rebuilt the system.. cleaned out my heatsink and replaced some fans, now the computer boots up in about 1-2 minutes.

DEFINITELY beats 45 minutes by far haha. I guess a mod can close this whenever the discussion dies down. Thanks again everyone XD
 

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