Big cleanup?

Hey guys.

I have a decent P4 computer with 3GHZ.
When I first got it, I used to be able to play all these high graphic games (such as Need For Speed Underground 2) with max graphics set and not a bit of lag. As time passed, it slowed down a lot. I am no longer to play such games without frame by frame lag. Switching between big programs is also a problem... Even browsing websites that have a lot of pictures gets laggy sometimes.
Now, when I formated my computer once, after having the same symptoms, it worked perfectly, so I know it is not a hardware problem.
I have done a big cleanup of my comp and deleted over 7 GB of unused files, but the problem persists. I have run quite a few spyware programs and it seems that most things were fixed, but the lag is still there.

Now, my question is... Is there a way to clean my comp up of this lag without formatting?

Thanks.

 

Have you tried turning off some unused services.
Check this article by Black Viper

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

I normally use the gamer settings with no problems

 

Try this: http://majorgeeks.com/Pagedefrag_d603.html

 

Tim W outlines a lot of great tips to optimize a computer for gaming here:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=114399&highlight=services.msc

If you bring up task manager, does it show any CPU activity when the computer is just sitting there not being used? If so, that's what's causing your lag issues. I recently had to remove & reinstall my antivirus, as it seemed to have become corrupted and was causing the "system" line in the task manager to run the CPU at 50-60% whenever I tried to start another program, which really slowed things down.

Re-start your computer in "safe mode" & see if the lag problems go away. If they do, then you can use msconfig to shut down all non-microsoft services & startup programs in "regular mode". If that cures the lag problem, you can start adding the services back one at a time until you find the cuplrit. It can take awhile and it can involve a lot of rebooting, but it's worth it in the end.