My buddy asked me to look at his computer. I can't figure out what's wrong. I haven't ran a check on the HD yet, but it's weird. There's random OS slow down (100% CPU usage, but nothing using that much load) and then there's random, what I think is, graphics issues. Loading up BF2 or Guild Wars yields something like ~10 FPS or less. What's weird about that is Prey runs perfectly fine at about 30 FPS.
He has a Pentium 4 3GHZ in it. I don't know if it's dual core or what. Windows is useless for hardware info.
Having something that's consuming 100% of CPU but not showing up in Task Manager is worrisome. You should download Process Explorer and use that to check to see what might be taking up all the CPU. Under Options crank up the "Difference Highlight Duration" so you can see very short lived processes starting and stopping.
You should also install something that can monitor CPU temperatures. His CPU may be overheating and throttling itself down.
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He has a Pentium 4 3GHZ in it. I don't know if it's dual core or what. Windows is useless for hardware info.
I believe the dual-core Pentium 4s identify themselves as "Pentium D" though I could be worng.
You should also install something that can monitor CPU temperatures. His CPU may be overheating and throttling itself down.
Bingo. It was throttling down cause it was excessively overheating. When I looked closer it would seem he managed to get the light dust off the heatsink, but there was some thick shit caked into the fins. Had to wash it all out and it managed to clog my sink. That and the thermal paste was barely there. Runs perfectly fine now.
Thanks Trippy!
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He should be glad he didn't have an AMD, as they'll heat up until they simply melt.
That's only the Athlon (XP) not the Athlon 64 and only if your motherboard didn't have a CPU thermal sensor (which unfortunately was many if not most MBs).
At work we always use ASUS mobos for our rack servers and they are by far most reliable. As long as you are not on the 'cutting edge' ASUS delivers solid and reliable perfomance. I belive that MB should be the last place where you should go cheap.
Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
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