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Originally Posted by GeoffW1
Hi Grant,
A common cause of this is overheating in the CPU after a long session. The PC simply slows and becomes unresposive. Next day after a nice rest it is fine.
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It doesn't really work like that. The P4 CPU has thermal protection that can reduce the speed by up to say half or two-thirds, never so slow that it becomes unresponsive! If it's still too hot the CPU will just turn off to prevent damage and your PC will be completely off.
Anyway the speed throttling is done on a short timescale (fractions of a second), so no need to give it a 'rest' if you can drop the ambient temperature a bit.
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Microsoft Update when set to auto has been shown to cause this behaviour also.
Less likely but possible is that the PC has caught a virus and has gone to bed for a good sleep.
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Those are typical candidates. Could also just be a Windows install that's getting old, since -all- Windows installations eventually slow down and die given enough time.
I usually format once a year, clean the case - removing dust from all the surfaces especially the CPU heatsink and fan (a major source of overheating if the layer of dust is too thick).