PC started running slowly - especially gaming

P-Wa-Dee

Commendable
Oct 13, 2016
8
0
1,510
Hi All,

My PC specs are:

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @2.40 Ghz 3.70 Ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3
GFX: Nvidia GTX 970
RAM: 8 Gb (4x2 Gb)
Disk: 1 Tb HDD

My PC has recently started running slowly and especially when loading into various games. For example, when loading up WoW it takes a long time for some models to generate i.e. trees, people in cities (especially players). Furthermore, other games where I used to load into games fast and often one of the first people in (i.e DotA, CS:GO, rainbow 6 siege), I am now often last to load in, occasionally being kicked for inactivity before I have the chance to load in.

What I don't understand is what has caused this change. I have ran an error check on my HDD and had no errors come back, I have defragged the disk, I have McAfee installed and ran that with nothing being detected. It has just appeared to start running slower than it previously did - this has been the case for perhaps a month or two now.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks all for your time,

Cheers.
 
The HDD is around 5-6 years old now. One option I was considering was buying a 500 Gb SSD to supplement what I currently have. I just wanted to check with people that know more about this than myself in case there was something else I was missing.

I am also considering moving towards 16 Gb RAM as well

I did a fresh reboot of my system around a year ago to remove a number of unwanted things from the HDD
 
Check your CPU and GPU temps. This sounds more like thermal throttling than a failing HDD, especially if the HDD scan came up clean and didn't take a ridiculous amount of time (like 10+ hours).

An i7-2600K is starting to get pretty old. The CPU itself is fine, but your CMOS battery may be close to dying or have died. Check it with a voltmeter and replace it if necessary. Check your BIOS settings to make sure they're correct and optimal for your system. Sometimes when the CMOS battery dies or gets low, the BIOS settings revert to default (max compatibility) settings which access hardware in the slowest mode possible.

Also check that you haven't accidentally switched Windows' power options to Power Saver mode. You want it on Balanced or High Performance.

And check Windows' error logs for any failing hardware or drivers. Those can cause your computer to have to wait for the hardware access or driver to timeout, slowing everything down.
Control Panel -> Computer Management -> Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> System (you can check the others too in case it's a software glitch)
 


Hi Solandri,

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I will check out what I can when I get home from work tonight.

I had been monitoring my CPU and GPU temps and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary but I will check these again. No the HDD check finished rather quickly (I would say 30 mins max) and came back clean.

I will try and check the CMOS batter and error logs tonight and post what I find.

Thanks again for the help