Problems with a laptop

[Delirious]

I have a older laptop, well just over 2yrs now. It is a Dell XPS Gen 1 that had a Intel Pentium 4HT in it that is running at 3.4 and 3.39 Ghz on the speed with 2GB of DDR 400 ram. I also have a ATI 128MB Mobility Radeon 9700. I am basically using this now for Photoshop work and image editing. Nothing really high end in my mind except for maybe a game or two. Just internet, AIM, downloading programs and maybe iTunes, but that is about it.

What doesnt make sense to me is that I recently formated it because it stated to act up and was running abit slow. We even now, I may only have a web page up, AIM and iTunes and the processor will sometimes hit 100% and start to slow down. Like iTunes music will skip because the processor seems to be running on full load or something. I know this machine might be dated, but I dont think I should be having these slow downs when I have 2GB of RAM and a processor at that speed with the L2 cache being 2MB. It also sits on a cooling pad that has two fans on it to keep the machine cool.

I just cant figure out why it woudl be doing this, even know after a reformate. Any help?

[Namslas90]

You probably need to clean out the fans and Heatpipes etc. You need to open up the case for this. Not a simple task, go slow, bag parts, remember how it came apart and it should go back together.

[Delirious]

So you think it is a heat issue then?

[Namslas90]

So you think it is a heat issue then?

Usualy a heat problem, could also be a virus, download free trial of AVAST and run it in BOOT TIME SCAN mode; even though you reformated it could still be a virus. But I still say most likely a overheating problem. If your gonna open it up to clean you may as well redo the thermal paste on CPU. Check fans while open to make sure they work also, Laptops create a lot of heat, fans don't last forever either.

[Delirious]

Thanks, I will check that out and see if that helps, I hope it does because I did drop around 2 grand on this thing, kinda would suck it if just craps out on me like this

[Namslas90]

Thanks, I will check that out and see if that helps, I hope it does because I did drop around 2 grand on this thing, kinda would suck it if just craps out on me like this

Cooling pads are great but they don't stop the lappy from sucking up debrise that clogs the heatpipes, they don't stop fans from burning out.

[Delirious]

Yeah, just poped out the fans and there was a layer of dust over the fins on the heat pipes. Guess I need to keep up on that.

[Polaris573]

Does it run at a constant 100% or does it spike? My P4 spiked as high as 75% when I opened a web page just a few seconds ago while running music. I have a feeling it might be some kind of yuckware. What kind of antivirus, firewall, anti-spyware are you running?

If cleaning the dust out and checking the fans like Namslas suggested doesn't work let us know and maybe we can figure out of you have some type of whatevertheheckware infecting your system.

Edit: Whoops you responded while I was typing my message. Oh well, I hope cleaning that dust out helps.

[Delirious]

I will have to see if that dust removal helps. I shouldnt have a virus, I used Killdisc to whipe the hard drive clean and I havent re-installed the wireless drivers so it couldnt have been connected to the internet yet. SO I think the heat issue might be the problem..... I hope atleast. I dont really have the money to shell out to build my new desktop yet, even though I have a really bad itch too

[PVTCaboose1337]

Had the same problem... open it up, clean the whole thing out, reapply thermal compound, and use the airduster (but dont overrev the fans)

[Delirious]

I cleaned out everything last night, I would like avoid having to remove the heat sink and re-apply thermal paste unless I had too. Like last option to me, but can the paste break down that much over the years, or is this somehting that should be done every so often?

[PVTCaboose1337]

I say that after about 3 years, laptops need to have their paste changed out. I do it every year.

[DR.Death]

i had a problem like this but it was with media player and i don't know what caused it but it ran at 60% or higher and it was rather annoying but i solved it by a reformat with a different win xp disk

[Delirious]

So far so good on the performance, it spiked a little bit to around maybe 60% right after I closed a few programs and had a few other load up but I still need to try and hit it with something hard yet