In-Game Performance and Fan Issue

Negata · 06-13-2007, 02:47 AM

I play WoW. I have played it since release and I have almost never had a performance issue before, because of my decent video card and 1.2 gigs of RAM. Recently though, my FPS in game has gone down from about the average of 25-50 down to 5-10, even in low-concentration areas where I would normally get 60 (maximum).

My tower sits next to my right leg, and I noticed that my leg was getting pretty warm. This is during one of those low-concentration areas, where I am trying to figure out what in the hell is going on with my computer. I turn off everything immediately once I notice that the heat is coming from my tower. After turning everything off, opening up the tower and cleaning out all of the dust, I turn it back on and get that dreaded "Warning: Previous Fan Failure" message. After a couple reboots and checking my BIO logs, my fan has stopped working. I rechecked the connection over and over, took out the fan and cleaned everything, plugged it back in and it's still dead. I am guessing that this is the issue for my in game performance as well. Could this be the culprit? I even reformatted my OS after the fan failure message, expecting that to fix everything like it usually does. After a reformat my in game performance can usually function extremely smoothly, almost perfectly, but it went right back down to about 10 FPS maximum after about 5 minutes of gaming. Do I just need to replace my fan and have that fix my overheating issues and my gaming performances?

Thank you in advance, -Negata

ebackhus · 06-13-2007, 09:23 AM

The fan would be a good place to start. When temperatures get high the hardware can either pull up more cooling, or slow down. In this case the fans seems to have failed and the CPU had to slow down to an extreme point.

**Aus_Karlos** · 06-13-2007, 09:58 AM

Could you post some temps for us.. eg. Before Playing and After Playing.
The most possible issue for your slow down could be your Graphics card overheating. You may want to see if the fan needs replacing. It may still be spinning but not fast enough.
How long have you had your PC? The thermal paste on the CPU might be gone and needs a new coat.

06-13-2007, 02:47 AM	#1 (permalink)
Negata Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 19 OS: Vista	In-Game Performance and Fan Issue I play WoW. I have played it since release and I have almost never had a performance issue before, because of my decent video card and 1.2 gigs of RAM. Recently though, my FPS in game has gone down from about the average of 25-50 down to 5-10, even in low-concentration areas where I would normally get 60 (maximum). My tower sits next to my right leg, and I noticed that my leg was getting pretty warm. This is during one of those low-concentration areas, where I am trying to figure out what in the hell is going on with my computer. I turn off everything immediately once I notice that the heat is coming from my tower. After turning everything off, opening up the tower and cleaning out all of the dust, I turn it back on and get that dreaded "Warning: Previous Fan Failure" message. After a couple reboots and checking my BIO logs, my fan has stopped working. I rechecked the connection over and over, took out the fan and cleaned everything, plugged it back in and it's still dead. I am guessing that this is the issue for my in game performance as well. Could this be the culprit? I even reformatted my OS after the fan failure message, expecting that to fix everything like it usually does. After a reformat my in game performance can usually function extremely smoothly, almost perfectly, but it went right back down to about 10 FPS maximum after about 5 minutes of gaming. Do I just need to replace my fan and have that fix my overheating issues and my gaming performances? Thank you in advance, -Negata

06-13-2007, 09:23 AM	#2 (permalink)
ebackhus Manager, Design Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: SATX Posts: 14,255 OS: WinXP Pro SP3/Windows 7 RTM My System Blog Entries: 28	Re: In-Game Performance and Fan Issue The fan would be a good place to start. When temperatures get high the hardware can either pull up more cooling, or slow down. In this case the fans seems to have failed and the CPU had to slow down to an extreme point. __________________ ----------------------------- There are no dumb questions, unless a customer is asking them. Help in the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses.

06-13-2007, 09:58 AM	#3 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,447 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: In-Game Performance and Fan Issue Could you post some temps for us.. eg. Before Playing and After Playing. The most possible issue for your slow down could be your Graphics card overheating. You may want to see if the fan needs replacing. It may still be spinning but not fast enough. How long have you had your PC? The thermal paste on the CPU might be gone and needs a new coat. __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home