What causes a laptop to slow down?

[SKIPPY PB]

Im wondering what could potentially cause a laptop to slow down and sometimes freeze. Im looking at this from a hardware perspective seeing that it has a recovery install of the OS and it is a clean start point to the best of my knowledge.

I already used various software to scan the whole PC for virus's and malware. Im suspecting a hard ware problem as it has an old IDE HDD with some "mileage on it"

Is it possible that any of the following could cause a computer to slow down intermittently at a seemingly random pace but still maintain optimal performance when its not being effected?

Graphics card?

CPU?

Memory?

Hard drive?

Motherboard Malfunction


This laptop gets very hot. It is an Alienware D9T for those who are interested. But I am looking to figure out the problem to learn more about computers rather than to actually fix this specific pc. Could bad wiring cause an intermittent issue like this (maybe slightly melted)? The graphics cards are always suspect of failing, could that be causing an issue like this?

Or potentially it is over heating. I am not sure.

 

[cTs Corvette]

Could be thermal throttling if it's getting too hot. It could also be bad sectors on the hard drive, I've seen that cause weird intermittent slow downs and freezes. You can download the Ultimate Boot CD and run the appropriate hard drive diagnostic for the brand of hard drive that it has in it and that will tell you if it's the drive.

 

[SKIPPY PB]

Could be thermal throttling if it's getting too hot. It could also be bad sectors on the hard drive, I've seen that cause weird intermittent slow downs and freezes. You can download the Ultimate Boot CD and run the appropriate hard drive diagnostic for the brand of hard drive that it has in it and that will tell you if it's the drive.

Interesting. I do know they run the model runs hot but don't have a good base to compare it too. I actually have a copy of the UBCD I made but have not tested. I'll fire it up and see what happens. I do remember that it was for Windows XP, this system has Windows 7 on it. I'm not sure if that matters or not. But ill find out.