Since a year ago i have been able to run CSS with max graphics, everything possible to the max and still crank out a good 100-120 fps but lately since about 2 weeks i can only run with everything turned down, and it still barely runs. Whats wrong do i have a virus? or what... should i wipe my comp?

The easiest thing is to reformat. There's always a reason why it get's slow, sometimes you can find it if you know what it is, other times spending 2 hours or less reformatting and starting from scratch(Everything is easy if you have an external hd). Depending on what games you have on your computer and what you do during the day, it might not take you more than a half hour out of your personal time hitting enter for the installs and restarting your computer for updates, then have your games install while you are out or sleeping. I reformatted last week and had steam up and running about 20 minutes after I put the XP disk in to reformat. The more stuff that you can have ready like video, sound, mouse, keyboard, etc. drivers, the quicker you get your computer back on track and normal.

Most likely something to do with memory. Next time check task manager and see if you have smoething leaking memory. I used to up the priority of HL2 also.

Sorry to hear man.

If there's nothing erroring out (such as a BSOD, which would lead to bad vid/sound/mobo) then it becomes a game of superstition, unless you're some sort of computer expert with good soft/hardware diagnosis skills. When my computers have gone wonky, I usually follow these steps, based only upon my superstitions. I usually try the game again after each step.

1) Unplug any and all peripherals that aren't necessary to me running the game.
2) Close all open programs, including task manager programs.
3) Scan your hard disks for spyware/malware using more than one tool.
4) Uninstall unused programs. Delete files until you have at least 10% free on your main HDD. Defrag. Clean up your registry.
5) Open your box up. Vacuum or blow out any and all dust in your case & on the fans, and remove, dust off, and re-seat your video & audio cards.
6) Re-format your HDD. Replace your HDD.
7) Swap memory sticks.
8) Swap video cards
9) Hit it with a hammer a few times.
10) Buy a new computer.

^^ QFT

I know it sounds terrible, and yeah, its a pain in the ass, but if you get into the habit of doing this every few months or so your computer will really show its capability. Huge hard drives are relatively cheap these days online and you get an external enclosure for like $25 if you don't want to be messing around inside every few months and backup anything you need.

Spyda also makes a great point about the drivers -- I always download the motherboard, nic / wifi and video card drivers before I reformat and put that on the back-up hard drive and those are the first to go back on after the reformat, then when the OS wants to download all the updates and you install all your programs you have the correct drivers and not generic ones so it may go faster and easier.

Another idea that I've heard and thought to be very interesting, although I've never done it, would be to do the backup and reformat, then before you reload your documents but after you update and install all your basic programs (like Microsoft Office, Firefox, Adobe Reader, etc.) but not the more trivial programs (Steam) to do an image backup onto a harddrive. You could also go through and set any preferences that you like (I hate resetting the taskbar and start-menu everytime I reformat) The idea is that if you need to reformat, you can just extract your image from your backup onto your computer, go through the update process and then you would skip a ton of steps. Like I said, I've never done it, but it seems like a great idea.


EDIT: In terms of spyware / malware -- my experience is that removal is really hit or miss -- sometimes you can remove it completely in 15 minutes with a few google searches -- other times it'll take 12+ hours and you will only have removed some of it or not even removed it at all -- or even worse, really FUBAR'd your box. Malware is so good at hiding itself and hooking into your OS in ways only the developers understand that IMHO, if you're hit w. malware, you're better off reformatting.

ok, i feel the flames coming as i type this, but can you post a link to a GOOD step-by-step guide for reformatting? after reading this thread i have a feeling my 3 year old machine could really use it.

Well everyone has their own routine on how they do it really.

Assuming you have everything backed up my way of doing things first is:

windows install

driver installs

windows updates

antivirus shit and what not

document transfer

I have a folder full of exes of programs i use and shit and I just go down the F*CKING folder installing shit

than I go again and do document transfer mainly being game saves, settings files and what not.

Brief yes but it really is that broad, I bet though FOmenta has a indepth way he does it which will actually be nice to hear see if I'm cutting a corner to many.

also the fact he's all doctorate bound and shit.

Lifehacker is usually good for this stuff. I just pasted the first article I found.

http://lifehacker.com/157578/geek-to-li ... om-scratch

Angry Kitten's Retard Friendly Guide to Reformatting: Cliff's Notes Edition -

Back shit up.

Put Windows CD in tray.

Reboot.

Boot from CD.

Delete partition.

Create new partition.

Format new partition.

Bake a F*CKING cake while it formats.

It is delicious cake, you must eat it.

Eat eat eat.

Install Windows.

Unback that shit up.

Yeah thats pretty much what I do.

The other thing I do is I try to time my reformats with an increase in HD size. This doesn't always happen, but if you can time them to fall at the same time, you avoid having to backup, you can just start with the new HD and mount the old one later.

Lets see...

1. Backup (Note 1)
2. -- Product Keys
3. -- My Documents (Note 2)
4. -- .iso files I've downloaded
5. Download Updated Important Drivers
6. -- Motherboard (sometimes very important)
7. -- Video Cards
8. -- NIC / Wireless
9. Prepare Install Media (Note 3)
10. Boot into Install Media
11. Rebuild MPT (usually can do this at the beginning of the OS install)
12. -- Delete partition
13. -- Create new partition
14. Quick Format (Note 4)
15. Install OS
16. Install the Important Drivers you downloaded and Resolve Driver Issues
17. Update Process (for Windows you'll need to do this like 6 times, for Linux, maybe twice, probably only once)
18. -- Update (for Windows it'd be Windows Update)
19. -- Reboot
20. -- Repeat
21. Install Core Programs (I torrent most of my programs so now is a good time to d/l new versions) (Note 5)
22. Restore Documents
23. -- Go through and figure out what makes sense to restore, to leave backed up, or to outright delete.
24. Customize OS
25. -- Customize OS (I always tweak the taskbar, start menu and turn off Windows Firewall(Note 6))
26. -- Programs (eg. Firefox default download location, Firefox Add-ons)
27. Image (This is where you'd make an image of your hard-drive if you wanted, so it could be easily restored later)
28. -- People suggest things like Norton Ghost but I really have no idea.
29. Install Random Programs (Games, IM, stupid stuff)
30. ... do whatever ...

Note 1: I usually do this over a network to another computer using something like a Samba share or FTP if I have to. SSH / SFTP locally is pretty slow (compared to the other two) but also an option. You could also transfer files to a second HD mounted on your system (whether connected through ATA / SATA / USB / Firewire / eSATA / 14.4kbps modem / smoke signals).
Note 2: I actually backup the entire {username} directory -- haven't ever used anything outside of My Documents though -- yet...
Note 3: I don't have CD/DVD drives on most of my computers so I use USB keys -- they're faster anyway. The "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool" is great here -- and is something like PowerISO or WinRAR where you can extract files from .iso files.
Note 4: I like NTFS for Windows and ext3 for Linux -- I hate LVM (and you should too.)
Note 5: For me this is like uTorrent, Firefox, FrostWire, Microsoft Office, Adobe CS4 (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Acrobat), PuTTy, WinSCP, TortoiseSVN, CygwinX, Notepad++, MATLAB, MikTex.
Note 6: I don't really recommend this unless you know what you're doing -- I tolerate risk of infection / attack in order to get things working as they should.

Anyway, the important part is doing the prep work (backing up, downloading drivers, etc) because if you don't, once you delete the partition, you could end up needing a second computer to download drivers just to get you online to update the rest.

This is my solution:

1) Buy new shit!
2) Can't afford new shit then win the lottery or rob a bank.
3) Play till it breaks and go bck to 1!

Purple, do you want to know HOW to reformat or just good steps to make it easy to return to normal after doing so?

yes mindless, how to format. never actually done it. i keep all my documents on an external drive just to be safe, so backing up is pretty much a non-issue. the tips posted so far are good, and the lifehacker link seems pretty good, but is there anything else i need to know? is it really that straight-forward?

Pretty much but just be prepared to have to reset settings and shit and little details you glance over about your system.

yeah, i kinda figured that. i had to start over with the pc i have now a couple years ago, cause i sent it in to be fixed and they sent it back completely empty and never fixed the problem.