Computer Speed issues

[Kaotic]

Hey, sorry this is kind of a "I can't figure anything else to try" type of deal, so hoping maybe one of you can help <.<

Basically, I bought this laptop about a year ago (yeah I know, lolLaptop gaming) for FFXI. Everything ran great, had almost 0 lag issues even in busy areas with settings on full and enhanced graphics with the registry edit thing. Not to long ago my computer started to really lag when I played ffxi, and I just assumed it needed defragmented or something like that. When I defragmented it, nothing changed. So just the other day I reformatted my laptop but for some reason the lag and lack of speed is still there.

Some specs about laptop:
Intel(R) Core2 Duo T5800 2.00 GHz processor
4 gig ram
GeForce 9600M GT graphics card (512mb dedicated)

So basically, I was wondering if there is any reason anybody could think of of why this is acting slow all of a sudden when it didn't in the past. Was a pretty sudden thing. Thanks ~ sorry for the wall-o-text.

[viperlasson]

Does it get really hot? I had to blast air into the vents and even open up my old laptop to clean it out well. Dust will collect in the fans/heatsinks eventually causing overheating.

[Shibo]

Is the problem with just ffxi or other games also (if possible check other online games to see if it's a possible connection issue, or run a speed test).

[fishstix]

yeah, i'd lean towards it overheating. download hwmonitor and cpu-z to check temps and make sure your cpu is running at proper speeds

[Kaotic]

yeah I blew out the vents and a lot of dust came out lol, don't know why I didn't think of that. Seems to be going great now, thanks a lot