I built new machine and it ran pretty good until a few days later. I installed all the correct drivers and such, and then installed a few games. Now my machine takes forever to load these games, even diablo 2 is giving me problems. nothing crashes but is very slow.
Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?

i bought the following:

Intel core duo 3.0GHz, wolfdale core, 45 nanometer chip.
Abit IP35V Motherboard.
Evga Geforce 8800gt 512ddr3 video ram.
thermaltake 600 watt powersupply
Corsair Twinx 800mhz dual channel 2gig of memory.

Virus/spy ware? Remove all uneccesary software, defrag and run scan disk.

Www.grisoft.com for the anti virus/spyware program...

Somethin' has attacked your OS.
Why did't you protect it well? Those viruses, trojans, spywares and other annoying things are better to be prevented from coming in.

There is another possibility : a program crash, but you've said that this is not the problem.

The best solution is to reinstall your OS and use Kaspersky or AVG. If problems presists, just tell us. We'll help you.

That's not uncommon. One thing that can cause this poor performcance is that you may have some programs running in the background that you're completely unaware of and that your PC doesn't need in order to function properly. Try clicking the Start button, then type 'msconfig' (no quotes) and look at the 'Startup' section. Take a careful look, you can disable anything that's either not necessary for your PC to maintain functionality/stability or that's not providing utility that you're aware of. If you're just not sure, leave it alone or Google it (if you Google an .exe file you can typically find out what it does and if its really necessary). You can test Windows next time you boot and make sure your PC acts as expected, and re-enable anything that you need to. I'd not mess around too much with the other sections of msconfig (Services, etc.) unless you're quite comfortable with how they work.

You could also do a little research @ Black Viper ( http://www.blackviper.com/ ) to see what services you really need and what you can disable (...and save some RAM).

You might have spyware but unless you're truly careless where you browse I'd be surprised that it could get so bad in just a couple of days.

HTH

Yup! I have forgotten 'bout that.
Good advice halcyon.
Do this also :
Press ctrl+alt+dell and try to see all that runs on background.
Check your msconfig and see what are being uploaded at boot up.

I just thought of another possibility, his heatsink may have become loose. OP! check your cpu temps under load and post it

yes im a computer noob, how do i check my cpu temperature when not in the bios? im running windows xp home.
ive defragged my hard drive and shut off the stuff i dont need. gonna try and run AVG next.

Do i need a seperate program to check cpu temperature under windows xp?

Download and run Real Temp 2.60
It's the best

a good tip when building a new box is to leave your network cable dissconnected until you have service pack 2 with windows firewall installed, then plug it in then install your regular virusware scanner.

well Kaspersky anti virus didnt find any threats it said. so it appears my system is clean from spyware and such. i got that real temp program and it says that my cpu gets up to 42 degrees celsius. what is the danger zone for heat?

what gets me is that this was running age of conan at high detail very well for a few days, and now it takes forever for it to load and while can still run at the same settings, it just drops framerate constantly. actually everthing takes forever to load and the other games i have on here dont run as well either.

well ive gone through the services guide at blackviper.com and turned off alot of stuff i didnt need. Ive checked for viruses and spyware with kaspersky, and it found nothing. i changed my memory page file to 4092mb, and checked the best perfomance option on the visual tab. ive defraged my hard drive. monitored my cpus temps( 1 has a total high of 39 degrees celsius, and the other has a total high of 45 degrees celsius). Im not sure what the optimal temp range is for a cpu though.

its still slow loading and running things, i have no idea what else to do now. any other things you can think of?

the imput so far is very well appreciated.