Why is my PC being slow?

[hitraj 47]

I don't know what section of the forum this should be in but I'm posting it here since I built the PC myself. I'm not sure if it's a problem with my CPU/OS/Hard Drive or maybe something else.

Recently my PC has been running slow, MW2, BC2, Garry's MOD takes longer to load levels. This isn't random either. It used to be quicker and now it's consistently slow to the point where I've noticed. The last time I formatted was probably in January and I have run an Anti virus (Avast) and defragged the hard drive too (recently).

Now also when I start up my PC, checkdisk (?) runs and says something about my hard drive being bad or something and it does some sort of scan. It doesn't seem to find any errors but I'm really not looking as I tend to just do something else whilst I wait for my PC to boot up. Next time it does it I will try and remember what it says and post it here.

I have all the latest drivers too for my graphics/sound/mobo. I don't mind formatting I guess but I'd rather avoid that. My system specs are:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
ASUS P5Q Pro
C2D E8400 (3Ghz)
2x 512mb 4870's CF
4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 RAM
1x WD 1TB drive (main C: drive), 1x Seagate 1TB, 1x WD 160GB

 

[dndhatcher]

How full is your main C: drive?

The scan on reboot comes from not powering down your PC properly. Make sure you click on shutdown and dont just power off the PC. If you are having HDD problems I strongly recommend staying away from sleep modes.

 

[hitraj 47]

753GB free lol.

I always click shutdown and it shuts down properly. I don't use any sleep modes either. The only other way I shut down is if I have usenet downloading stuff and choose "shutdown when downloads are finished" if I have to for overnight downloading.

 

[dndhatcher]

A good full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan would be a really good idea.

 

[hitraj 47]

I think I will run one over night then. What about a defrag?

 

[shovenose]

iobit.com smartdefrag on a deep otimize mode, along with the iobit advanced system care free.
they gave me a speed boost of a very noticable difference!