Since, you seem to dealing with an older PC, all components come into play as a cause. They could be a single item or as a combo now appear to make or break the PC. When things like this happen, I tend to totally teardown and clean the PC and rebuild. You seem to re-use old components and may introduce or eliminate one, but as wear&tear comes into play again the faltering PC finds the weakest link. If gaming was a major part of your use, consider that after 2012 continued usage something has to give. Gamers tend wearout their PCs either from heat exhaustion(thermal load) or poor ventilation/air exchange. If you haven't already, replace the thermal compound/paste on the GPU and CPU and use the right amount, a "dab". Google for proper instructions, checkout the Silver Arctic website.
tada -----Willy ![]()
Good day folks,
You can skip down to the actual question if you'd rather not read the wall of text.
PC Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SP1
Intel Core i7 920 2.76GHz (Bloomfield 45nm) [purchased in 2009]
18.0 GB triple channel DDR3 @ 534 Mhz(8-8-8-19) [purchased Mar 2012]
MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522) [purchased Mar 2012]
ATI AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) [purchased Mar 2012]
931 GB Western Digital HDD [purchased Sept 2014]
PC History:
Initial PC purchase from Velocity micro in 2009
Mainboard, RAM, CPU and GPU were replaced in 2012
HDD was replaced in fall of 2014
HDD was formatted with a fresh OS install on Jan 2015
This past summer, I had problems with PC slow down and narrowed it down to a failing HDD. Replaced it and shortly after, noticed pixel glitching in certain video games. I have also had screen freezes in game. Other than those problems, the PC worked great.
Last month(Dec. 2014), my PC began to display signs of slowdown while working with programs on the desktop e.g. opening folders, PDF's, windows media player, and just about everything else(even notepad). I assumed my CPU(i7 950) that I purchased in 2012 was going bad. So, I replaced it with the older i7 920 that I had purchased in 2009, just to see what would happen). I ended up having to reformat and fresh install the OS. After doing so, it seemed to work fine for a couple of weeks but now, performance has again slowed when processing applications on the desktop.
I executed SPECCY to check temps and the CPU idles at around 50c, mobo at 43c, gpu at 37c. Under load(video game)CPU climbs to 60c, mobo stays around 46c, and GPU around 40c. I then downloaded and executed a diagnostics tool from Intel Corp to test my cpu and it passed in all categories. (That makes me question the integrity of the i7 950 that I just pulled.)
I recently had issues with a faulty RAM port on another PC in my home that resulted in BSOD's frequently until I narrowed the problem to the port and stopped using it, SO I don't think my current issue is related to RAM since I have experienced no desktop crashing or BSOD's.
Since I have just recently reformatted, installed and allowed tremendous updates to the OS, I don't think that there is any registry corruption.
I do know the GPU becomes worse with each passing day and I will replace it in a few weeks but I am still able to load and play some graphic intensive games such as Arma 2 and GTA 4. I have noticed that GTA 4 freezes when the game is forced to render quickly(high speed chases in down town) and Arma 2 renders textures in a slow, pop nature now.
Actual Questions and clues:
Will a failing GPU affect routine operations on the desktop to the point of freezing after a single click? For example, right click on the desktop and it takes minutes to open the right click menu?
The mainboard does NOT have integrated GPU, which leads me to associate the slow rendering to the desktop.
Another thing I noticed just this morning, After leaving the PC off all night, it starts and operates pretty good with normal seeming response times. After idling for hours, it seems to respond slower, to the point of freezing and taking minutes to perform a single mouse click.
I have experienced NO PC crashes at all. No error codes, nothing that would indicate OS corruption. No audible sounds from hardware no software viral interference.
Could it be that the mainboard is also failing and showing signs of degradation as it heats up? Or is it the CPU despite the Intel diagnostics check?

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