Jibbajabba March 17, 2010 Share Jibbajabba Member March 17, 2010 Ok, guys could use some help from your collection of knowledgeable and devious minds. I am trying to help my brother out, his computer has been giving him some problems over the past few months. Keep in mind, I know nothing about computers but I was hoping some of you guys might be able to provide some advice to him as to where to start. His symptoms are that his computer will just freeze temporarily or really bog down especially when applications start but it occurs when they are just running too. During videogames, even older ones his computer could easily run before, he encounters this problem and sometimes times out of the game. I know sometimes it causes him to drop out of skype calls too for example. He has run numerous virus/malware scans using different programs both in regular and safe mode and nothing has been found. As far as I am aware his computer is not crashing to blue screen or anything. He just had a new hard drive installed about a year ago too so I didn't think it would be that. The only thing I know about his specs are Vista and 4GB RAM and he has done no modifications that I know of to the computer. He is wondering if it may be a bad RAM issue? Does anyone have any advice that I could pass along to him, it would be greatly appreciated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiffy March 17, 2010 Share Jiffy Member March 17, 2010 first thing = update all of his drivers, especially video and mobo. this tends to fix a lot of random little things. now is it games that are multiplayer or SP? because the dropping from skype sounds like a network connection issue as opposed to cpu/video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher March 17, 2010 Share Preacher Member March 17, 2010 If that doesn't work try reinstalling vista. Next step would be power supply I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiffy March 17, 2010 Share Jiffy Member March 17, 2010 what size psu? is the heatsink clogged with dust? take an air can to it and make it clean once more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie March 17, 2010 Share mookie GC Alumni March 17, 2010 Some thoughts in no particular order: (1) Uninstall any unused programs, delete/archive and unneeded data, and defrag. (2) A quick thing to try (if you're comfortable with it) is to reseat anything in there you can unseat. Video card, PCI cards, RAM sticks, w/e. Probably a long shot, but it does clear up some problems sometimes. (3) The computer might be slowing down due to heat. Open the case while it's running, and check to see that all the fans are spinning and that none of the fans or exhaust vents are clogged. (4) You might be looking at a combination of problems: an internal problem that is slowing down programs loading/running (probably a software problem), and a piece of network equipment that's overworked or just dying. If there's any kind of router or switch inside the house, try adding another computer to the network. If you're having connectivity problems on the second computer as well, you've probably got problems with the router or the modem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorgmaN March 17, 2010 Share NorgmaN Member March 17, 2010 I would assume this computer is more then a year old, and has probably never been cleaned out... If nothing has been changed internally or with software, I would say it's a heat issue. Open that bad boy up, get a can of air... or what I use, an air compressor, and blast it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeg March 18, 2010 Share Smeg Member March 18, 2010 I would assume this computer is more then a year old, and has probably never been cleaned out... If nothing has been changed internally or with software, I would say it's a heat issue. Open that bad boy up, get a can of air... or what I use, an air compressor, and blast it! Also a cheapo 2 inch wide paint brush is excellent for what canned air misses. And yes it's likely a heat issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick March 18, 2010 Share [LaW]Maverick Member March 18, 2010 sounds like heat to me off the top of my head... I would definitely try blowing out the heatsink over the CPU--if you don't know what that is, take a picture of the inside of the computer and we can point it out to you. If that is not clogged with dust, I would tehn take it off and check to see if the thermal compound has solidified--that's a little trickier, but I've done that on about 10 different machines and performance increased dramatically each time. Heat is the enemy! also, download Ccleaner, run the cleaner, and run the registry tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage March 18, 2010 Share ZeroDamage Member March 18, 2010 http://www.malwarebytes.org Download, install, update, and run a full scan on his computer. See if it finds anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jibbajabba March 18, 2010 Author Share Jibbajabba Member March 18, 2010 Thanks for the suggestions guys, I already recommended malwarebytes and I believed he tried it and it came up with nothing but I will make sure. It certainly could be a heat issue and I will pass all of this on to him and your advice is appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick March 19, 2010 Share [LaW]Maverick Member March 19, 2010 Any time Jibba--I vote heat because I have had the same exact problem with decreased performance and freezing caused by heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiffy March 20, 2010 Share Jiffy Member March 20, 2010 def my first choice as well. had that my first year in the dorms with an abnormally hot fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.