Need Help. Computer taking performance hit.

[Enigma]

Since yesterday, my computer's performance has been abysmal. Webpages taking forever to load, games that normally run smooth now barely chugs along. I don't have a virus, I still have three quarters of my 16GB of RAM available, plenty of HD space. The only memory hogs were Firefox and Chrome but closing them does not do a thing. Nothing I do seem to make any difference. The only thing that isn't affected is watching movies or video clips.

Any ideas?

[Enigma]

I think I have found the cause of the slow down. The CPU temp is reading 200 degrees.

[Sea Skimmer]

Overheating was just what I was about to suggest... that's probably a hair before your CPU would have shutdown from thermal limiting. I'd imagine this means the cooling fan died. Easy fix at least.

[Enigma]

Second time in the past two years. lol

[Enigma]

I checked the fan and it rotates freely, no grinding. I did cleaned it out with compressed air and currently the temp reads around 114 and dropping.

[Enigma]

It is now in the low hundred. I'll do a better cleanup in the morning.

[Zixinus]

Celsius or Fahreinheit? Because there is a big difference.

[TheFeniX]

When you're in the market for a new cooler, I cannot recommend enough the self-contained water-cooling blocks + backplate fan. Easy to clean and the desktop temps hover around the 40Cs. Added benefit of removing heat, rather than blowing it into the case. Under stress testing (which no actual GAME really gets near that), I go about as high as 75C, which is higher than I usually like, but I am running a 4790K and those run hotter than most. But 75C at the high-end still offers a nice ceiling. I would probably benefit from cleaning my backplate fan and possibly checking my thermal paste again because it's been over a year now.

Celsius or Fahreinheit? Because there is a big difference.

I doubt his CPU is getting up to 100C normally as that's pretty much the failure/safety shutdown range. 200C would be a core meltdown. Low 100F is a safe operating range for most CPUs. As said, my desktop temp is around 105F.

Though I do miss the days of running a Koolance full-blown water kit and keeping an overclocked Athlon64 3000+ at 38C under full load.

[Enigma]

Celsius or Fahreinheit? Because there is a big difference.

Fahrenheit. In Celsius, the CPU temp went up to around mid to high 90's. Fixed it by using compressed air and cleaned out the fan and heat sink. Nevertheless, I replaced the fan and heat sink with a compact cooler\heat sink combo. On idle the temp is around mid to high 30C's and after playing Pillars of Eternity 2 the temp was around 50C. It is only a temporary fix until I can save up for a new computer. One with a decent cooling system.