0

On my gaming desktop, I was fixing my desktop's power supply when something seemed to burn (I got that stinging burning smell). However when I turned ON the computer (it was OFF before), everything seemed to be fine.

However, I have noticed that now it becomes too slow if I play a game or movie on it. I am talking about the computer becoming painfully slow after about 5 minutes into the movie/game (it works fine otherwise e.g. browsing), it becomes so slow I can see individual frames from movies/games.

What could be the problem? A fried video card? friend memory (RAM), something else?

My system's configuration is:

HOW I FIXED IT: Credit to the excellent answer below (the one that's accepted), my problem was a faulty fan for the video card, video card was over-heating and hence the slowness. My video card wasn't very good anyway, so I replaced it with a better one and the problem was resolved.

ishaq
  • 103

1 Answers1

2

Whenever you find that a computer runs fine for a while but then slows down after things like gaming, the problem is usually due to overheating.

Gaming is computationally expensive, so the CPU will heat up after a while. To prevent damage, most motherboards implement one or more thermal management systems to cool the CPU down. One common method is to inject a certain number of HALT (do-nothing) instructions into the CPU's buffer when it reaches a certain temperature so that the CPU has a chance to cool down.

One option is to adjust the temperature threshold and CPU throttling percentage in the BIOS, but the defaults are usually fine (in fact usually not enabled at all).

Video cards are also prone to overheating. They don't usually have throttling implemented at the motherboard level, but rather internally, so you don't usually have direct access to thermal-management.

A better solution is to reduce the heat generation in the first place. Here's a few tips to do this:

  • Adjust the internal components of the computer to maximize airflow inside the case
    • Use rounded cables instead of ribbon cables
    • Space out adapter cards
  • Make sure that the heatsink and fan are properly affixed to the CPU with thermal paste or pad
  • Place the system in the open air instead of in a closed closet
  • Ensure that there are at least one or two fans (that work of course) in the system (I asked about optimal placement and direction here)
    • Use water-cooling if money allows/is needed
  • Clean fans of dust and oil them
  • Make sure there is plenty of space around the video card(s) and that you are not recycling hot-air back in
Community
  • 1
Synetech
  • 69,547