Trying to Avoid Reformatting

[Despain]

Hello BG,

Recently I started playing FFXI once more, but I've noticed my entire computer's overall performance is trashed. I'm lagging even in zone that have no one else in them. I've noticed I've had the same issue with WoW. I can't even do raids without experiencing so much lag that I just get off and refuse to play.

I'm very computer illiterate, and am not knowledgeable of what steps to take to fix this problem. I'm wanting to completely reformatting, wiping out my hard drive, and starting fresh. Heck, even as I'm typing this thread up my keyboard is so laggy it takes a while for the text to come up.

I don't know which scans to use, or what programs to use to fix my situation.

Please halp!

[xopher]

How old is your computer. I would suspect hard drive. Download a program called HDTune Pro and do a benchmark. Post a screenshot of the results.

[Despain]

Computer is about 7 years old now. Did hard core gaming on it for maybe 3 years. When I quit game altogether, the computer was practically just collecting dust, never used.

[Sonomaa]

my secret for reloading is get a new hard drive, disconnect all other hard drives, install windows fresh on the new HD, copy over some of the programs you dont want to reload from program files and program files x86, copy over the user/appdata folder (this is the important part) reboot then most of the programs will run again without issue. Ive done this multiple times and it even works when crossing from one computer to another most of the time.

I hate reloading, I know Im going to have to do it myself pretty soon but its annoying as shit. If you havent reloaded in 7ish years then I can guarantee that is your problem. Heavy users such as gamers usually have to reload once a year, sometimes you can extend it to about 2 years, maybe stretch to 3 but you are basically making mud pies past that point, they might look neat but they will be made of shit

[xopher]

Hard drive looks OK. It's not perfect but not bad enough to be causing that kind of problem.

I need a more accurate description of lag. Some people report FPS drops as lag. That is inaccurate and annoying. Lag is network congestion and has no effect on FPS.

If it is network lag specifically, try replacing some of your network hardware such as your ethernet cable. Reboot router, and do a speedtest/ping test.

[Niya]

Since it has Win7, the install can't be older than ~4 years. Long time for a gaming setup, but shouldn't produce such problems.
When even your keyboard inputs get delayed, it could be something else. Have you ever un-dusted your PC or (have someone) replace the thermal paste of the CPU heatsink? It could be simple thermal throttling.
Get CoreTemp and GPU-Z to check your CPU and graphic card temps on idle (just Desktop/Browser) and load (open up a game)

[orinthia]

Could be you have a ton of trash programs installed all trying to do something at once. I know some friends wind up with that after a nice, clean install I've done since they just keep clicking next like monkeys whenever they find something to install or a nice, friendly banner ad of shit (and inevitably get a dozen toolbars installed in IE, though thankfully they stick to chrome or firefox). One was so bad that it killed their wireless network and windows firewall services completely (how I couldn't figure out; was fixable without a reinstall though not very satisfied with the outcome myself).

Perhaps take a look at your "Programs and Features" uninstall list and see the kinds of things that are in there. Do you recognize anything out of the ordinary (perhaps things there that you don't remember installing or recognize as junk)? If unsure, post screenshots of things you think are out of place. You could also give CCleaner an install and see what kinds of things start on bootup as well as what's installed. Do not use its registry cleaner; it sometimes does more harm than good (usually no big point in doing that anyway).

You could also take a look in your task manager at what is currently hogging your ram or cpu time. Right click on the task bar, choose Start Task Manager, select the Processes tab, then hit View and drop down to Select Columns. Make sure the following are checked: CPU Usage, CPU Time, Memory Working Set, Image Path Name. Image path name tells us where the program is located. Sort by Working Set and look at what's on top. Perhaps post a screenshot if you're not certain.

Obviously if you have something truly malicious it will be invisible here, but most normal junkware shows up here. I know browsers like Opera sometimes explode in ram usage for whatever reason, I've gotten it to peak around 2.5gbs before needing to halt it (I tend to hibernate my machine every day for months worth of uptime and hardly close programs during this, so it builds up). Other programs might be doing something similar for you just in a shorter timeframe and need to be halted.

As a last ditch effort, perhaps you do have something malicious. You may want to get a rescue disc to perform a scan on your system outside windows. Give this a shot if nothing else helps: http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd You may want to have another pc open to review their help vids and get the iso burned or usb key drive settled. You may want to backup your more precious data.

I know I've asked you to do a bunch of things; you might not be able to do them if your system is so unresponsive. This is mostly a small list of things I'd look at next if the machine were in my hands.

As an aside,

Spoiler: show

I have a vista sp2 install from 2006 that's still working fine. Been in use every day since it was installed as well. I, or the person who regularly uses it, haven't installed much or anything new in the past few years, mostly just games through steam if anything. Most of its software was a month-one install from 2006 that have all been working since then (aside from antivirus/firewall changes/upgrades). It's usually used with VMs, work, games, movies, and to print/scan/etc. I have not had to reinstall it since 2006 and it has not really dropped in performance since then either. Still boots relatively quick, fully updated, no trouble. It's way past time to build a new one of course, but I don't think I'll ever have to mess with that box until its hardware starts to fail (which might actually start to happen soon; an 8 year old cheap NAS hdd of mine recently failed; was on 24/7).

Stick to stable drivers, not bleeding edge, and you won't hose your system so quick, but that's only a problem if you're constantly playing the newest games. Think with that vista box I only upgraded the vid drivers 4 times over its lifetime, and never touched any of its other drivers from day-one. Dusty as hell though lol, really should clean it.