Games are running very slow lately

Greetings,

I'm not too familiar with windows as I've been using mac for several years. I bought a windows computer to play games with. Mainly World of Warcraft.

I've managed to play WoW with high settings until a couple of days ago, then I noticed that the game is running very very slow no matter what settings I'm using. So I figured I might have a virus. And searched through countless websites about how to restore windows.

I found out that my samsung laptop had a program called samsung recovery solution 5. So I clicked to get a full restore. I later found out that it only restored the C drive and not the D drive as well. I had WoW installed on D drive, so I figured I should check if it made any difference. Loaded up WoW and I could play smoothly. After about 10 minutes it started lagging again and was unplayable. World of Warcraft is not the only game that runs slow. Minecraft, Assassins Creed and pretty much all of my games are running slow after a couple of minutes.

Now I'm starting to wonder if it is the computer itself which makes the games run so slowly. My computer is getting very warm after just a couple of minutes of gaming and I've read that it might slow down the computer performance.

Do you guys have any suggestions to what I could do? I bought the laptop a year ago.

Specs:
Intel i5 2,3GHz (2,7GHz with the built-in turbo boost)
4GB ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

Hello Cronics and welcome to Seven Forums.

Laptops are notorious for heat issues while gaming. That could be a definite slowdown. There are free tools that can give you real-time temps for CPU and GPU while your computer is at idle or under load. I've read that 80C is approaching max temp. Other articles have said anything over 60C should be viewed with caution. A few free monitoring tools:

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

http://gtopala.com/ (SIW by Gabriel Topala)

Make sure there's no dust build up around the vents (usually on the bottom and sides.) Don't place laptop on your lap or any soft, cushiony surface like a pillow. If everything else is working as expected you might consider investing in a laptop cooling pad. They could decrease temps by 5 - 10 degrees or more depending on construction. Some pads have one fan, others as many as three:

Amazon.com: Cooler Master NotePal U3 Laptop Cooling Pad with Three Configurable 80mm Fans (R9-NBC-8PCK-GP): Electronics

Disclaimer: I have no monetary interest in Cooler Master or Amazon. Link is for informational purposes only.

Yes, I have a strong feeling it is because of my computer overheating.

I'm going to buy a cooling pad within the week.

Ok, so I tried out the second link you provided. After just 5 minutes of gameplay, my PC went from 40C to 86C. And it didn't even start to lag yet, which probably means that my PC could most likely be able to get to about 100C.

Don't let your CPU reach 100C constantly. You will definitely shorten the CPU's life considerably plus you will expericence major CPU throttling that will cause your games to slow down. You can keep the CPU cool by cleaning the heatsink with compressed air and using a cooling pad.