Does the Processor slow down overtime? Do they age and slow down?

[vazurahan]

Does the Processor slow down overtime? Do they age and slow down?

For example, my processor is Pentium 4 2.4Ghz

Same OS
Same other Hardware Components or new ones with the same specs

As it age would it slow down like 2.0Ghz or just become slower?

 

[FALC0N]

No, not really. Why do you ask?

 

[vazurahan]

It's just that my PC seemed to slow down very much.

I know that one cause of PC extreme slow down is 'old hard drive'. I learned this through experience both with my PC and a friend's PC.

Even if you totally emptied the hard drive and put a new Operating System.
The disk access time is sluggish.

But after placing a new hard drive the PC as fast as new.

But my problem is that. Now, even videos from youtube lag so much even though they're played on the browser. I know that my HDD is very old and need to be replaced. But my problem is that I can't play videos now on my computer.

 

[amnotanoobie]

Me thinks it is either working, or not-at-all. I haven't seen an instance where an all-stock, faulty processor was able to boot and get up to windows.

 

[ksampanna]

The CPU doesn't slow down with edge, its the components like HDD which wear out & slow down, bottlenecking the entire system.
Your video playback problem is due to the HDD, not the cpu. How old is your HDD? If more than 3-4 years old, then I'd recommend replacing it.

 

[vazurahan]

Yes my hard drive is very old. It's IDE.

I also found out that having two hard drives, one OLD and one NEW, make the PC run like having the just the OLD one.

Just recently, my classmate's PC was running slow even when newly formatted and accessing hard drives is sluggish. I told him to replace the hard drive and it works.
The problem when we tried installing both hard drives even though the operating system is running on the new one. The PC became slow again.

Why is that?

 

[arterius2]

there are known conflict issues with some systems that running both SATA and IDE harddrives would causing sluggish performance to the PC, my advice is to throw out the IDE, its technological dinosaur anyways, not to mention that you have a high risk of losing your data on drives this old.

or, if you are the handy types, you can turn this POS harddrive into a cool sander:
http://www.borntechie.com/entry/how-to-make-a-sander-machine-from-old-hard-disk/

 

[vazurahan]

They're both IDE.

 

[arterius2]

lol, then buy some new sata drives, the 500gbs, they basically cost next to nothing thesedays.

in fact, if your computer is as old as your drives, then its probably about time to upgrade the entire PC TBH.

 

[vazurahan]

I just wanna know the reason. So I can explain how or why it happens.

So this problem doesn't occur on SATA drives?

What I mean is not the hard drive 'slow down' itself but the 'slow down caused by one hard drive slow and one hard drive fast.

 

[arterius2]

when dealing with components with moving parts like the harddrive, you are bound to run into all sort of problems related to wear and aging. there could be all sorts of reasons, most notably the rotor, as hard drives age, the rotor and its lubricant are subject to constant wear, thus overtime, would affect its performance. same reasons why CPU fans have a life cycle of around 2-3 years before it goes dead. the head of the drive (or the rotor powering the head) may also be subjected to wear, and disks may lose its magnetism over time and eventually fail.

this problem may also occur on SATA drives as they age. your IDE drives however, are already living on borrowed time. I would take some precaution with data backups if i were you.

 

[amnotanoobie]

there are known conflict issues with some systems that running both SATA and IDE harddrives would causing sluggish performance to the PC,

Could you show proof of this? I think most likely there are other problems rather than "having a SATA and IDE drive in one PC". I've had several PC's that have both SATA and IDE drives and the usual problem that just comes up is that the IDE drive is just plain old and about to give out.

 

[Guest]

As the problem seems to be a general slow-down in performance which also affects, as the example was given, streaming video, I do not think it is harddrive related.

Most likely problem to me would seem to be a heat related problem which causes your CPU to throttle down. You could try to resolve this by removing the cooler, removing the old paste and remove dust while your at it and apply new paste before you place the cooler back on.

 

[arterius2]

Could you show proof of this? I think most likely there are other problems rather than "having a SATA and IDE drive in one PC". I've had several PC's that have both SATA and IDE drives and the usual problem that just comes up is that the IDE drive is just plain old and about to give out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/257608-32-sata-drive-works-fine-drive-slows-system

 

[warmon6]

It's just that my PC seemed to slow down very much.

I know that one cause of PC extreme slow down is 'old hard drive'. I learned this through experience both with my PC and a friend's PC.

Even if you totally emptied the hard drive and put a new Operating System.
The disk access time is sluggish.

But after placing a new hard drive the PC as fast as new.

But my problem is that. Now, even videos from youtube lag so much even though they're played on the browser. I know that my HDD is very old and need to be replaced. But my problem is that I can't play videos now on my computer.

thats not HDD related.

That could be heat as roald said or :

1. slow internet / selecting a quality thats too high

2. the OS is running sluggish and needs a fresh

3. you dont have enough ram and so HDD is constantly paging. reducing performance.

 

[vazurahan]

thats not HDD related.

That could be heat as roald said or :

1. slow internet / selecting a quality thats too high

2. the OS is running sluggish and needs a fresh

3. you dont have enough ram and so HDD is constantly paging. reducing performance.

The video of course is fully buffered.


So a CPU can slow down because of heat?

I thought the PC would shutdown because of overheat.


How can I know when my PC slows down because of heat?

The CPU is able to get to 100% though.

 

[warmon6]

The video of course is fully buffered.


So a CPU can slow down because of heat?

I thought the PC would shutdown because of overheat.


How can I know when my PC slows down because of heat?

The CPU is able to get to 100% though.

If the cpu gets to hot too quicklyit will shut down. Now if it's gradual incline and if the cpu can protect it self, There an overheat protection mode where the cpu will reduce performance until it cooled down enough to run in safe temps.

Here an old video showing off the ability. (Today amd cpu have the same ability as intel cpu in terms of overheat protection compared to back then)

[flash=425,344]http://www.youtube.com/v/06MYYB9bl70[/flash]

Now how to know when the cpu slows down due to heat, well if this was a lga 775 Pentium 4 or later cpu i would say uses cpu-z and watch the GHz and see if they drop after using a stress program like prime 95.

Although from the info you gave us, the only 2.4 ghz p4 i can find is on 478 socket, so (just like my p4) that method wont work.

So all i can say is, use a temp program like speed fan or HWmonitor and tell us the temps are. (only 2 temp programs i know that work on 478 socket cpu. )

 

[saaiello]

The problem is that your CPU is just getting passed by. The minimum requirements for HD Flash video is a P4 2.4ghz now at the min you will see some stuttering of higher definition video. Also you didn't mention a video card if you are using onboard video that just makes matter even worse. And how much RAM are you using webpages and programs are getting more and more advanced so overtime it may seem like your system is getting sluggish but its more like the programs and the Internet environment is getting more complex.

 

[ksampanna]

In conclusion, time for your to upgrade. Trust me, saving bucks by trying to prolong your current system will only result in more headaches. I suggest you do get a decent new one.

 

[Kewlx25]

Your system is probably "slowing down" because of new Service Packs and codecs and other software which all ASSUME you have a semi-recent system.

A high end netbook could put your computer to shame.

 

[seariv]

Older IDE harddrives, when hooked up on the same IDE cable, will default to the slowest connected hardware on that cable, unless there is a new ATA controller involved. On IDE0 keep the newer hd connected by itself, then if you have a CD or DVD on the IDE1, hook up the old drive on that one.
This should clearup the slowdown on the new drive.

see the following for a better explanation:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confTiming-c.html

 

[Raidur]

Older IDE harddrives, when hooked up on the same IDE cable, will default to the slowest connected hardware on that cable, unless there is a new ATA controller involved. On IDE0 keep the newer hd connected by itself, then if you have a CD or DVD on the IDE1, hook up the old drive on that one.
This should clearup the slowdown on the new drive.

see the following for a better explanation:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confTiming-c.html

+1

There's the answer the OP was looking for.