How do I fix this? (computer question)

[gamblore99]

my computer is supposedly really fast. It usually is, but now when I leave it on for more than like 6-7 hours it gets very slow until I restart. How do I fix this?

[tac252]

restart your computer

[JDErickson]

Duct Tape

[fluxrad]

ctrl-alt-delete.

bring up the task manager. sort by CPU usage, see if anything is using a boat load of your processor time.

sort by memory usage. see if anything is using all your ram.

if that doesn't work. you might look at returning your computer. it could be out of processing fluid.

[tek]

Shake the keyboard.

[TStoneMBD]

put icecubes on your motherboard

[Mars357]

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put icecubes on your motherboard

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He may not be far off on this one. Open up the computer and make sure the CPU fan is still working. This sounds like a heat problem...

While you are in there, get a can of air and blow out all the dust....check any other fans that are in the computer.....

[Leo99]

Hmmmm. If you have Windows XP, install Microsoft's Spyware protection software. It works well. Sounds like you have some sort of memory drain. Follow the advice of using Task Manager to see what is using CPU and memory. If it's a heat problem, restarting would only fix it for a couple minutes before the heat builds up again but it can't hurt to make sure your fans are working properly.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

fan or heatsink...

It's slowing down because it's too hot. It's too hot because either it's working too hard (see post re. task manager), something's malfunctioning (fan or heatsink) and/or you're keeping it in a hot room without ventilation (clean out dust that may be blocking vents).

sounds like you bought it pre-made, so don't try fixing yourself...backup your files and then take it back to the store.

[greg nice]

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He may not be far off on this one. Open up the computer and make sure the CPU fan is still working. This sounds like a heat problem...


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if the cpu fan stopped working.. well.. your cpu would die very quickly. i doubt thats the problem.

[BusterStacks]

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He may not be far off on this one. Open up the computer and make sure the CPU fan is still working. This sounds like a heat problem...


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the CPU would last quite a while even without the fan

if the cpu fan stopped working.. well.. your cpu would die very quickly. i doubt thats the problem.

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[gvibes]

It's not a heat problem. You'd have hard resets under load, and corruption (ie - failure to run big unzip operations). The processor doesn't slow down as it gets hotter.

As an earlier poster noted, it's likely a program you often run has a memory leak or something. If you aren't somewhat computer-savvy, you also probably have about 60 programs running you don't need.

[Gamblor]

The processor doesn't slow down as it gets hotter.

In fact, doesn't it get hotter?

Isn't that the theory behind overclocking?

(overclocking = dangerous [i've heard] move where you shade in the top of the processor with a pencil to keep it hot so it calculates more cycles per second)

[BusterStacks]

negative, overclocking is done (usually) in the BIOS and does not require hardware changes unless your multipliers are jumpers on the motherboard.