computers wearing out?

[obsidian44]

so i had a computer (alienware m11x) for about 2 1/2 years and it worked perfectly the whole time, it even ran Skyrim decently on med graphics, then i lost it. it was gone for about 2 years before i found it and now it wont even run Skyrim on lowest settings, it wont run small games like Terraria at all anymore either, and all internet browsing goes by really slow. what happened? hardware problem? what do you think isn't working right? please give help in the comments below. 

 

im pretty sure the specs were something like this:

intel core I5 dual core 1.7 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

500 GB hard drive

4GBz RAM DDR3

[79wjd]

Is it getting very hot? Try opening it up and cleaning out the dust. 

But a GT335M NEVER would have done a particularly good job at skyrim, so you might just have forgotten how bad it was. 

 

P.s. how does one just "lose" a laptop for 2 years 

[AlwaysFSX]

Clean the dust and defrag the hard drive. Two things that'll really speed it up right there.

[Epic_Nex]

You lost... a labtop.... for 2 years...

[Hoppa]

Lost it... within your house?

Check frequencies, temps of cpu/ gpu and check for virsus.

Maybe re-apply thermal compound(it may have dried up)

 

Windows can be pretty slow after not using it for a while.

[Guest]

P.s. how does one just "lose" a laptop for 2 years 

 

Well, you know... everyones laptop storage closet starts out nice and tidy, but over the weeks and months, as you accumulate more and more laptops and their accessories, it gets cluttered and you forget that you used your 11 inch Alienware as a wedge to seperate your pile of assorted Origin Eons and your stack of chronologically arranged IBM Thinkpads.

[j.dirona]

so i had a computer (alienware m11x) for about 2 1/2 years and it worked perfectly the whole time, it even ran Skyrim decently on med graphics, then i lost it. it was gone for about 2 years before i found it and now it wont even run Skyrim on lowest settings, it wont run small games like Terraria at all anymore either, and all internet browsing goes by really slow. what happened? hardware problem? what do you think isn't working right? please give help in the comments below. 

 

im pretty sure the specs were something like this:

intel core I5 dual core 1.7 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

500 GB hard drive

4GBz RAM DDR3

follow your posts dude and yeah give it a good cleaning that'll be your problem probably

[Noxxx]

depend on which version of Windows is installed, the hard drive may need defragmentation

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

all of these things others have said, but I am going to put it into an order I think is ideal

testing phase:

1. run a game (like skyrim) in windowed mode on your laptop while plugged in.

2. fire up CPU-Z and GPU-Z and make sure your clock speeds are as advertised for your CPU and GPU.

3. check your temperatures with coretemp or HWmonitor for the CPU and MSI afterburner for the GPU if GPU temp is not seen in HWmonitor

4. if the clock speeds are not what they should be, you may be experiencing thermal throttling.

5. if your CPU or GPU temps are near, at, or above 100 degrees celcius, this is probably the case

what to do if you are throttling

1. blow the dust out of the heatsink fan, blowing air into the exhaust port from a can of air duster or an air compresser.

2. if you have the talent, dismantle your laptop and do the same thing(preferrably while holding the blades of the fan in place

3. if you can remove the fan without unseating the heatsink, that will better allow you to clean the heatsink.

testing again

do exactly what you did before. if you are still at high temperatures(above 95C) on either the GPU or the CPU, then it's time to get some thermal compound

to replace thermal compound on a laptop.

1. dismantle laptop and remove heatsink-fan assembly from CPU and GPU. clean existing paste from CPU, GPU, and the chipset(unless the chipset uses a thermal pad that will likely be blue)

2. cleaning should be done with high purity isopropyl alcohol(95% ish is good) and Q tips or paper towels, coffee filters work best if available as they are lint free. make sure you also clean the heatsink of any thermal compound

3. apply thermal compound in a thin film on the bare CPU, GPU and maybe chipset. conventional wisdom for desktop CPUs is a vertical line or a "grain of rice" but with laptop parts having all bare dies, I prefer to spread so I know I have full coverage and it has not failed me yet.

reassemble and test. if your temps are still bad, I don't know what to tell you

one last note: make sure your fans turn on, especially when gaming. they ought to no matter how good your laptop's cooling is.