Decreased performance after prolonged inactivity?

[Unknown XV]

Hey,

So I recently acquired my computer back, it was in Montreal before and I had it shipped all the way down to Florida. I wasn't able to use it for almost four months. Anyhow, I set it up, very excited to finally have it back, and things seem to work well.

It loads up, but then I tried to start firefox/IE and they just instantly crashed. Nothing else was bugging out so I just kept trying and eventually they worked.

I ran advanced system care, and it cleaned up a lot of stuff I suppose I must of missed before I left. So now my browsers work fine and overall system performance is good, except when it comes to games.

I have an E2180 Intel dual core at 2.0 GHz, with 2 GB of DDR2 RAM at 667 MHz and a sapphire HD 4830 512 MB DDR3 RAM GPU, on a custom vortex Windows XP 32 bit Service pack 3 OS.

It's all on an XFX Nforce 630i Motherboard with an Ultra LS500 500-watt PSU. It only has 28 amps on the one 12 volt rail. This was a mistake, I know, but I already had a thread that discussed this.

My problem now is understanding my the gaming performance has dropped a good 60-70%, when I haven't touched the computer at all.

I'd appreciate any help, thanks.

 

[patonb]

What's the cpu temp?

Could be heating up and throtling back.

 

[Unknown XV]

Aye, it gets up pretty high, about 65 to 70 Celsius under full load. Its idle temp is about 30 though. But this wouldn't have changed with inactivity, would it have?

My conundrum is why it seems so much slower after having done nothing but shut it off and not use it for a few months.

 

[patonb]

The thermal pASTe could have dried up, and/or degraded over the time. 70+ is high on a cpu.

Also florida hot compared to Mtrl.

 

[Unknown XV]

Heh, the Florida part is true.

I don't know. It's a mystery but I guess I can only try and do what I wanted to do before I left anyhow, that is to get a new PSU and re-apply the thermal paste. Maybe I put too much?

 

[patonb]

Maybe.

On the psu, my sister had a desktop, got a laptop, so stopped using the desktop. I bought the desktop, fireed it up and no go... psu died.

Didn't get any use between shut down, and my turn on.

 

[Muffin Man]

if it wasnt used for a while, it could have collected some dust, maybe enough to overheat it. you could also check to see if the heatsink could have gotten loose due to the shipping of it.