upgrading acer aspire x3400

hi im a total noob to this but looking for some help. my computer started recently lagging when i play any game on it (IE) company of heroes , warcraft even minecraft! it works fine for the first couple of minutes then about 10 min into the game the whole computer lags even just doing simple tasks like opening a folder the computer slows down then i leave it for a copule of minutes and its back to normal. i searched a few forums looking for this problem and most ppl have suggested not enough RAM so i was wondering if this is the problem i dont think its a virus as i completely wiped my computer and set it back to its factory default. so before i begin purchasing RAM i wondered if anyone can help many thanks.

 

Hi mate and welcome to MG 's :major , is this your computer ?

http://www.slashgear.com/acer-aspire-x3400-u2012-sff-pc-review-1594020/

Follow this procedure

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx

which is your hhd free capacity and how much memory ram do you have ? :wave

 

From this http://www.pcworld.com/product/585105/acer_aspire_x3400.html?p=specs
it looks like you have 4GB of RAM. If that is the case, and your windows 7 Home Premium is a 32 bit version, 4GB is the maximum that can be used.
What security programs are you running?

 

Actually plodr, 3.75. They have to go with a 64bit edition of Windows to utilize 4gb or better.

 

this is the specs here i looked up maximum ram and it says it was 8gb

System Model Aspire X3400
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 215 Processor, 2700 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date AMI P01-B1, 02/04/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.45 GB
Total Virtual Memory 5.50 GB
Available Virtual Memory 3.95 GB
Page File Space 2.75 GB

thanks for the help

 

I'm wondering if it could be thermal throttling which would be consistent with the symptoms described. I would run OCCT which will stress your machine to it's fullest, more than a game ever could. It also records on your hard drive charts that record your machine's current status second by second and records until you stop OCCT or you get a BSOD. We can then analyse the output.

 

thanks ill try that and post my results

 

this is what i got after it stopped dont know if it helps or if im doing it right

 

It's enough to see that your video card is really getting hot even if they are built for heat but the main culprit is your CPU performance at the bottom right. Current CPU speed shows 800MHz instead of your normal 2700MHz, %70 less!:eek That'l cramp everything down!

Can you try and find the CPU temp chart for us to verify that fact? Is the machine still under warranty?

 

how would i go about finding the CPU temp chart as i said im a noob at this. it is still under warranty is it that bad?

 

Here's where my charts are. Post the CPU charts if you can find them. Core# is enough.

Yes, I think it's that serious. Sorry.

 

heres the only thing i can find that relates to cpu temp. thats all that was in the folder. hope it helps

 

Well, it seems that your video card is the culprit. Wait for confirmation first but that's what jumps out at me.