Lag spikes while playing games or other heavy programs?

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drakemiller40

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May 16, 2014
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PC Specs:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Proccessor 6000+
Nvidia Geforce 9600 GT
200GB Hard drive space
4GB RAM
Reinstalled OS (like new computer)

Every few minutes when running an intensive program or game, my computer starts to lag for about a whole minute. Task manager is showing 100% cpu usage and about 2 GB of RAM being used. No other programs are running while playing/running heavy programs and games.

normal cpu usage without any program running is about 20%
when game or heavy program starts its at 50% more or less
when lag hits in, its 100%

memory stays around 2GB

I have tried the following:
Reinstalled the OS
Cleaned the inside of my pc tower for dust (which made a slight improvement)
did some overclocking of my gpu
installed a cooling system for my proccessor

please help me find out what is causing me this lag. I doubt it is a malware of any sort since I reinstalled my OS.

Many thanks


 
Solution
plaintuts
No it has nothing to do with low end hardware.

The hard disk is a metal plate spinning at 5000rpms inside a drive with a header pin to read the information stored/written on the plate.

In short, its mechanical and moving parts break down after continuous use. Also if can hear "clicking noises from the hard drive then thats a clear indication of a failing hdd.
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drakemiller40

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May 16, 2014
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I understand that low memory, bad graphics card or low end proccessor would be a cause, but can you explain why hard drive would be an issue?

Just wondering...
 
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plaintuts

plaintuts

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May 5, 2014
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No it has nothing to do with low end hardware.

The hard disk is a metal plate spinning at 5000rpms inside a drive with a header pin to read the information stored/written on the plate.

In short, its mechanical and moving parts break down after continuous use. Also if can hear "clicking noises from the hard drive then thats a clear indication of a failing hdd.
 
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Solution
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drakemiller40

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May 16, 2014
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So if the HD gets old, it reads slower from it making the computer lag? No I'm not hearing any clicking noises. I have a lot of fans, and thats all I'm atm. Thanks for the help so far!

 
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izoli

izoli

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Apr 29, 2011
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It is pretty old hardware, could simply just be getting old and starting to go bad.

But what sort of anti-malware/anti-virus do you have? There is malware out there that can cause high cpu/ram usage and hides looking like an essential program when you look at task manager when it is in fact malware.(reinstalling OS does not always fix this)
 
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drakemiller40

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May 16, 2014
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ill try that plain thx!

mouse, should I get cpuz to monitor my temp, or what program do you recommend? My pc is called "cooler master" and has a lot of fans, plus I added a cooler for my proccessor. and the programs I run vary when lag hits from Revit (an architectural software,) to games like nba 2k14 and CS1.6.

izioli, I never knew an OS reinstall wont rid malwares fully. I even formatted my HD when reinstalling. But just in case, what program would you recommend I use to rid malwares?

Thanks all!
 
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izoli

izoli

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Recommended free ones would be like,
Malwarebytes- https://www.malwarebytes.org/downloads/
Microsoft Security Essentials(for windows)- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download
Spybot Search&Destroy- http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors16/

I run Microsoft Security Essentials and Spybot: S&D.

But yeah, reinstalling OS, reformatting HDD, etc. Will not always remove malware, even though it looks as if you have a clean state there is still information/data on the disc. Using something police would get involved with as an example, if someone has child pornography on their HDD and they reformat their comp or reinstall OS to try to get rid of it and to the normal person the pictures would be gone forever. But the information is still there and can be found via multiple ways.
 
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mouse24

mouse24

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Nov 30, 2010
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I use HWmonitor. If you have CPU-z thats an option also. I'm almost positive it doesn't show GPU temps though.

When it starts lagging just tab out and note the CPU and GPU temps.

@izoli, I'm not sure if thats true anymore. I know that when you do a full format from within an OS newer than xp it will zero the drive. I'm not sure about what goes on during the initial format though.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941961
 
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izoli

izoli

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Can't see anything on that link really just says I have the wrong OS for it.

Most viruses even if they are still around will not be able to execute after a fdisk/format, but there are some that can, particularly memory resident viruses. However unlikely it is might as well get malware protection because you should have it anyways even if that isn't the issue.

And mbr viruses which are actually a hard-drive resident but not kept with windows volumes and starts during your computers boot-up before windows loads and will essentially force the fdisk/format to replicate the old mbr virus into the new mbr therefore the virus will still be there.
 
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