Dell Studio slowing down

[mbish01]

Dell Studio 1737, T4200 dual-core 2.00gHz, 3gb RAM. Lately has been running more slowly, seems to be hotter as well . Fans OK. Would an upgrade to the CPU and/or maxing the RAM help or is this just "old age"?

 

[popatim]

Sounds like it might be time to replace the aging thermal compound and a general cleaning if the interior..