Posted: 1/8/2008 10:59:31 PM EDT
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I know you fill them full of crap and they slow down, but the two times I have completely formatted and reinstalled the original software, I failed to notice any substantial increase in speed. Is it just my perception, or do the computers themselves "wear out"? |
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I don't know, my Pentium 4 2.0 GHz is getting pretty slow after about 6 years of constant daily use. After several formats (even removed Windows and only use Linux on it now) it still just doesn't run as fast as it used to. Just having one or two programs open has the CPU at 100% most of the time. |
Are you talking to me? If so, it's not the hard drive, I've run tests and the performance is just as bad using two different hard drives. Nothing I've seen in the logs either. I think it's just a really run out CPU (this thing has had a LOT of use and heat over the years). |
This is nonsense. Excessive heat can damage them, but not in a way that would slow them down. To the OP: No, they don't. That's the simple answer. ETA: Very excessive bad sectors on a drive can cause access to it to slow down in theory, but there is a limit to the size of the defect map; it's so small that practically you'd have all kinds of trouble if it were full, long before any measurable slowdown occured. |
I suppose. I've been running the same laptop for over 6 years now. It functions well enough for it's purpose, but I really need to do some maintenance and cleaning... |
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Yes. When they warm up (if they are room temp from being turned off over night) the atoms will spread out (thermodynamic or some such thing). Now because of the larger distances in the device, the electricity will take longer to get from various point As to point Bs. |
 Wrong. |
Its a joke. 
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| Yes they do after a period of time, the system slows down because of programs loading at startup, spyware/virus, and windows files fragmented all over the hard drive. The fragmenting of files causes the hard drive to increase it's seek time(blame this on Microsoft). Defrag does help a little, but if you format and reinstall windows it should speed up again. Also the hard drive could be losing some RPM's and accessing the data slower. On a hard drive there is a couple of metal disk spinning from 4200-10,000 Rpm, and a mechanical arm that touches the spinning disk at those said speeds. The hard drive is mechanical in natural and will break. |
Well then you should've stuck a wink in there. 
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Why is my computer so much slower then? I know it's not the hard drives that are bad, so what other hardware issue could cause CPU usage to be at near 100% most of the time? This thing just isn't anywhere near as efficient as it used to be. |
If the CPU is near 100% most of the time, open up your task manager and see what's using it. Whatever the problem, it's not hardware related. |
Yup. Unless you've gone out of your way to make it change, the CPU is running just as fast as it used to be. Find the program causing the issue, resolve siad programs issues, and regain performance. |
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For those talking about OS, running programs, and fragmentation issue: You missed the point. This is strictly a hardware question. Basically, do microprocessors and the like "wear out" with use? As in: buy new computer, use it for years until it's so bogged down that you can't stand it anymore. So you insert the "Recovery disc", which goes off like a grenade, formating your hard drive and reinstalling all the software the system had when it left the factory. Physically, and software-wise, the old and the new are exactly the same, but it feels like the computer doesn't run as fast as when it was new. I guess the question has been answered with a "NO". Must be just me. I will ask my digital logic, and electrical circuits professors next week. See what they say. I think I will also pose the "Airplane on a conveyor belt" question to my Dynamics professor. He seems like the type that would actually stop to think about it and derail the entire lesson plan. |
No... there are no mechanical components to "wear".. However .. High reverse voltages on the inputs could punch through the substrate.. but you would get all sorts of corrupted data and other problems.. in other words the processor just wouldn't function correctly. I've never seen that happen on a PC but I've seen it happen a lot on microprocessors in the engine controls that GM built back in the 80s and early 90s. Over heating is something else all together.. It you are exceeding the rated core temp you'll get system crashes, lockups and random reboots.. Your system event logs will also start to fill up with warnings and errors... As far as damaging your CPU from overheating.. maybe.. today's processors have defensive mechenisms built in to defend themselves from overtemp.. that's what causes most shutdowns... you will get a hardware error in the event log that says "Over temperature condition".. I don't remember what the event ID is on that though.. In short... I think you have other problems.. If you had done anything in the past to hurt your CPU your system would be FUBARed and generating all sorts of event log messages.. |
That right there is pure comedy!  |
There's no one program that causes it. If I have no programs other than background processes open, it will be okay. I open up firefox, and it goes to 100% when it's doing anything. I close that, and it's fine. Open up another program (Rhythmbox for example) and it goes back to 100%. |
When you open up task manager, click on the process tab and sort by CPU which process is taking up most of the CPU time..??.. csrss ? svchost ? Have you tried Process Tamer? |
Going to 100 and then back down is normal. Sticking at 100 is abnormal outside of a CPU intensive app. Are you saying starting firefox puts it at 100 and keeps it there? |
Starting Firefox puts it there for about 20 seconds. Pretty much any application I use will send it to 100. I know spikes to 100 are normal, but it goes there and stays for a few minutes sometimes, when I'm just browsing the web, and nothing else. When the computer is idling (nothing is really being done, and I'm not touching it), the CPU goes between 25-50 regularly, and then will just go up to 100 and stay for several seconds. The computer runs slower and hangs up a lot more than it used to. Here's a screen shot:  This is fairly typical of what I see. All I did during that time was open one webpage (google). |
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When is the last time you did a virus/malware scan? Sounds like something could be hooked in and possibly hijacking your machine. Use your AV of choice (AVG is free), and run Spybot Search & Destroy along with Adaware, see if they come up with anything. It could also be a severely fragmented drive that's causing it, but that's a pretty long delay, and your disk would be thrashing like mad. |
The answer is still no. Chances are if its 6 years old you have gone from windows xp to windows xp sp2 and then all the patching. The added complexity and bloat of new software makes the system seem slower even if you have only loaded the os due to CPU and RAM usage. Try blowing the the dust out of the CPU cooler or maybe taking it off, reapplying thermal paste and re affixing it. Thermal protection could be kicking in if the cpu temp is over 60 degrees C. With a software reload you could be missing drivers and the OS is using generic drivers that aren't as fast (ie utilizing the hardware to its fullest potential). -Foxxz |
Any time I need to use Windows I do a scan. Nothing more than a tracking cookie ever comes up. I use SpyBot, HiJackThis, and AVG. It's definitely not a virus/malware. It runs Linux the majority of the time and I haven't installed ANY programs that weren't in the repositories. Not a fragmented drive either. It's a fairly new hard drive, and was completely formatted a few months ago when I installed the new version of Fedora. I know it's possible for ext3 to become fragmented, but not this badly in this short of a time. One hard drive has Windows installed, and the other hard drive has Linux installed. I get the same CPU usage stats in either OS. |
Is it using ECC memory? It's possible you've got a bad stick and it's wasting a lot of time correcting memory errors. |
THe difference is that semiconductors aren't like cars or tractors. When they get damaged by heat, they just fail to function, and kind of like a human brain they cannot "see inside themselves" to notice or work around their own defects. Heat will steadily wear on a semiconductor like CPU until it finally just plain fails, it won't slowly degrade like a car that isn't maintained. |
www.memtest86.com/ Download and burn the CD, and boot off it. It's a self-contained lightweight OS that does nothing but run all manner of memory tests. It will tell you if ECC is correcting errors and how many, among many other things. |
No problem, linux-lover. 
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