Curse

shrouded^god · Feb 04, 2008, 07:43 AM // 07:43

Well Im currently running a 2.8GHz P4...but I think it may be going bad.

I left GW running while watcing the SBowl this evening...when I came back...I noticed a huge decrease in FPS, down to 4-7fps which was while sitting idle in the GH...talking smack about Eli. It also seemed to "freeze" from a second or so every 10ish seconds. So I restarted the system...booted it back up which normally takes no more than a minute...took 2-3 minutes. So I get everything booted and check my Task Manager....seems to the CPU usage is at 100% almost non-stop, it will spike down to 44% every so often. Nothing on the processes screen shows to be eating anywhere near that kind of resources, though there is ~5 msconfigs...dunno if this is normal I assume so? So fooling around trying to figure out what it is...I check my system properties...and its not showing me my processor speed, shows everything else fine...just no processor speed...everything seems to be moving slower...from typing to mouse movement...everything

Any ideas what it could be?

Zegherix Endar · Feb 04, 2008, 08:07 AM // 08:07

I had an issue on a computer running a P4 on Windows XP that was very similar to this. I tried formatting and reinstalling XP which didn't help. Not to mention the installation took FOREVER. Eventually I just opened the case, took the chip out and cleaned all the TIM off the CPU and heatsink/fan. Then I put the chip back in, reapplied some AS5 and when I booted up, it worked fine.

Riot Narita · Feb 04, 2008, 09:21 AM // 09:21

The older Pentiums run very hot... after some time, dust buildup on the fans/heatsinks make them run even hotter. Eventually, when they're under heavy loading, I believe most of them will start throttling back to try and cool themselves down... I think this is what you are seeing.

When the CPU is throttled, you'll see it will go to 100% usage when running games etc, because the CPU is trying to run the same stuff but with less CPU cycles available.

Try opening it up, get a compressor or one of those cans of compressed air, and blow all the dust out of your CPU heatsink and fan (you might want to do this outside!). I had similar problems when I had a 3GHz Pentium D, but I reduced the CPU running temperatures by about 20 degrees just by thouroughly cleaning the heatsink and fan.

shrouded^god · Feb 04, 2008, 01:45 PM // 13:45

Problem fixed...GG mods feel free to close this