Computer giving FPS lag

[Akira]

So, I've been getting FPS lag only when I play games. Then it lags the whole computer. I'm playing Mass Effect 2 right now with usually over 60 FPS, but when the lag hits, it goes below 15 - 10. I'm afraid it's my processors. It only lags for a few minutes, then goes away.

Here are my specs.

XFX Nvidia 9800 GT
M2N68-AM ASUS Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
Windows 7 Ultimate, 32 bit
680w PSU
3 gigs of RAM

[sky]

hmm specs arent too bad for that game. You may have something running in the background. Maybe something was autoupdating and installing while you were playing. Check you processes and remove anything you know that shouldnt be running.

[Akira]

I made sure nothing was running in the background while I was playing. It has to be a hardware problem.

[FSPgroup]

What harddrive are you using? How much of it is filled up? Do you defrag often using a dedicated defrag program?

[Akira]

All of my games are on an external HP HDD. It's really quite old actually. 125 gigs out of 149 gigs used. And no. I don't know how to defrag. :D

[FSPgroup]

You have very little headroom in your harddrive. Lookup PerfectDisk as the defrag program.

[Akira]

Just defragged it last night. Still having the same problem.

[Akira]

I figured it out. Turns out my rig was overheating. Cleaned out all of the fans + heatsinks. Works like a charm now.

[sky]

Nice! I gently vacuum my pc like every 2-3 weeks lol

[Dj Roara]

Dust FTL