# [SOLVED] PC Games suddenly very slow/laggy



## jasta85 (Jul 24, 2012)

First post on this forums (don't know if that's good or bad)
I'll start off with my specs:

Alienware M15x Laptop
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SP1
Memory (RAM): 6 gigs
Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU [email protected] 1.86 GHz
almost 300 free gigs left on the hard drive
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

ok, this is a problem that just recently happened. Basically any time I try and play any game with any kind of decent specs (mass effect 3, guild wars 2 beta, deus ex: Human revolution, skyrim etc) the game becomes really slow and laggy the moment i get in.

In fact even the starting menus are laggy (for example in mass effect 3 when you place you mouse over any of the buttons in the starting screen they light up, well when i pass my mouse over them it takes them a few seconds to respond and light up). I should mention that my mouse does not lag, only the menus and objects in the game itself.
My games are basically unplayable.

_Here are the things I thought might be problems and solutions I have tried:_
_Too much CPU usage:_ this is not the issue, I used my performance monitor to check my disk and CPU usage while a game was open, and my CPU usage was usually around 15-35%. So that's not the problem

_Overheating:_ Not the problem either, I used HWMoniter to check my heat and it never went over the max amount, furthermore I tried playing games right after my computer started up after being turned off for almost a day and they were still laggy.

_Outdated drivers/windows updates:_ I use windows updates regularly along with Secunia PSI and DriverUpdate to keep my drivers and programs up to date.

This happened to my computer about 8 months ago, I couldn't fix it then and ended up doing a full disk recovery from factory settings in the end. However, I just did a recovery from factory settings about 3 weeks ago, and my computer was working perfectly since then. I was able to play all my games on max or high settings with no problems at all. But 2 days ago the lag kicked in for my games and it only seems to affect my games. Internet, videos, other applications have not had any issues.

I really don't want to do another from factory settings reset as it takes about a day to reset my computer and then download all the drivers, windows updates, new programs (especially games off steam). Especially since I just did that a few weeks ago. If anyone has any recommendations I would greatly appreciate it


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## PoWn3d_0704 (Aug 17, 2009)

That is quite strange. Overheating is still on the table. It takes about 3 seconds for a processor to reach temperatures, so starting a game right after boot doesn't do you any more good than 10 years after boot.

Get a can of compressed air, and blow out the PC through every vent and hole you can find.


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## jasta85 (Jul 24, 2012)

*Re: PC Games suddenly very slow/laggy*

I cleaned my PC about a 10 days ago, i'll do it again just to make sure. As I said though, i've been using HWMonitor (I have a second screen I can plug in to my laptop. I had my Preformance Monitor HWMonitor on the 2nd screen while I opened up several of my games, that's how I knew the temperatures and memory usage wern't an issue.

Although, last night I did open one of my games in windowed mode and tried to use some applications (play a video, serf the net) to see how they were affected and they slowed down too. The video lagged a lot and my internet took a little longer to respond than normal. But this was only when I had a game open and running

also, games that arn't that demanding don't seem to be affected, like carte and league of legends


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## jasta85 (Jul 24, 2012)

*Re: PC Games suddenly very slow/laggy*

sorry for the doublepost, I can't edit my previous message (15 minute rule?) But i just wanted to check to see what temperatures my computer should be for the core processor just in case they are too high and i'm just not thinking they are. I do have a cooling station, problem is that it needs a USB port to run and my laptop only has 2 of those (1 for my mouse and 1 for my external hard drive/IPOD charger).


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## PoWn3d_0704 (Aug 17, 2009)

*Re: PC Games suddenly very slow/laggy*

Well, ideally you would love to keep those below 50*C, but in a Laptop that is hard. What are your temps on your CPU, and more importantly, your GPU?


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## jasta85 (Jul 24, 2012)

*Re: PC Games suddenly very slow/laggy*

ok, I think it was the heat that was the issue. Got a usb hub so I could keep my cooling pad plugged in and took off the bottom of my laptop to spray out any dust inside. It's running a lot better now. Since I've got a quad core they all seem to have different temps, but only one of them gets as high as 50 so it should be ok. thanks


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## PoWn3d_0704 (Aug 17, 2009)

Yeah, dust in Laptops is cause for moat of the lag people experience. A good cleaning and a laptop cooler and you should be back to peak performance.


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