So for a long time I moved away from PC gaming as my PC stopped being “the shit” a good 2 years ago, so knowing my PC would not run any modern games I just stuck to consoles. Recently I had the urge to go back and play WoW with a few of my buddies, and now I’m having problems. You see, ever since I got the game, I’ve always been able to run the game at a solid 60fps with everything turned up at 1600x1200, which is not that impressive since it IS WoW. But now, I’m getting ridiculous frame rate problems in most if not all my games, even the ones that, much like WoW, used to run just fine, but now are a complete mess. Here is my PC setup:
Pentium 4 3.4ghz
GeForce 7800GTX
2GB of RAM
Windows XP SP2
Note that about 2 months ago I reformatted my hard drive, I defrag every week, scan for viruses every day, and have all the latest drivers. I tried troubleshooting on Blizzard’s site, and even tried using the forums but got no help. So I’m going to try my luck here. Anyone know of ANYTHING that might be causing this? Is it dust? Heat? Maybe a incompatible or malfunctioning part? Please, just toss some ideas on how I can maximize my PC’s performance, because I’m not going to upgrade it unless I fix it first.
Yeah, I’m thinking its something with the card. Maybe malfuncting since you say you lag on older games. Does the computer still run fine or does it crash on you?
It never crashes really, it’s just getting progressively slower as time goes by it seems, or at least that’s the impression I’m getting. Mind telling me how to check for this AGP thing? I’m not a PC wiz so I’m going to need some instructions if I’m going to troubleshoot this. Also, can dust or heat do this? How do I check my PC temperature and how hot is too hot?
EDITAnd so, right after I make a post about crashing, when I get home and start playing WoW for a good two hours, the game locks up on me. I quit out of the game after much effort, and take a look at my CPU temperature, which was at 71c, which seems awefully hot for a PC to be running. What’s a normal temperature for a PC anyways? And could that be a possible reason for my slower performance?
EDITOh boy, what is this…just got a warning saying my Chasis and Power fans are not working…which I don’t really understand what that means or how to fix it…so please, someone help me out here.
71C is pretty damn hot if you are not trying to overclock anything, I’d say for sure that is the problem along with you saying the fans are no longer working. Just check and make sure everything is plugged in for them, they are not very complex. If you can try plugging them into another computer just to test to see if it is the fan or your motherboard crapping out. Bad fans are a very easy and cheap fix while a whole new board will cost you.
That’s the thing, I don’t even know where the cables are at all for my fans. I looked and looked and I can’t find it. I’m pretty sure my power supply’s fan is off or something since it’s incredibly hot to the touch if I place my hand on top of my computer. I did go out and get a can of compressed air, cleaned it up a bit. Wasn’t as dirty as I thought. So yeah, my main problem is trying to have two of my fans working, which I’m not sure which is which and where the connectors are. My PC says, like I stated before, that the following fans are running a 0rpm, in other words not working:
-Chassis
-Power
Tried playing again and it stayed at 68c this time.
Definitely sounds like a thermal issue… Open up the case with it running and see if the fans are turning. It’s not very difficult to figure out where they plug in, just follow the wires from the fan and see where they go. Chances are one of them shit the bed… I doubt it’s the CPU cooler, or you wouldn’t be able to run it very long even at idle… It also sounds like maybe the fan in your PSU died… Ask Santa for a new power supply for xmas…
I tried following them but there are so many freaking cables that they eventually get lost. I looked and on the motherboard, there is a 3-pin slot that’s labeled “PWR” and another “CHS1”, both have no cables connecting them, but at the same time, there are no loose 3-pin calbes inside my case.
EDI Just took a look inside my case while it was on, and all my fans seem to be spinning. I have one on the side, which I’m assuming is that “chassis” one? It’s spinning. I have my CPU one which is working just fine, the PSU one seems to be working as well. Problem is, both when I use ASUS’ spftware to check, and on my BIOS, it shows as my power and chassis are still off, and like I said before, I don’t see any “loose” or disconnected cables. This is starting to give me a headache, since I was so close to upgrading my PC, but I need to fix these problems first.
It is very good and may give you some control over everything in case the ASUS software is acting up. Plus you can control the speed of the fans, like say right now they may be running at 10% for whatever reason you can crank it up to 100% and get the air flowing.
Hmm, that software is really helping me get a better understanding of my PC’s temperature, but I’m having trouble setting anything up since everything is using a generic name, like fan01 or speed01, which I’m not sure what goes where and what does what. It says that temp1-3 are running extremely hot(120c+), and my CPU is hot as well(at 56c). Also, only two of my fans are reading any rpms, which is off since I have 3 fans that are spinning. Man, this is a real pain. Oh, I have a pentium 4, but it says I have two cpus? I didn’t know pentium 4s were more then one?
Best thing to do would be to remove the CPU heasink, wipe out the old thermal paste (Alcohocl 90 works wonders) and re apply some new paste (Get Shin-etsu or Artic Cooling MX-2, don’t get fooled and avoid Artic Silver) That should do the trick.