Which hardware device is causing slowdown?

[dp595]

Hi, I have an Emachines M6805 laptop. One day it started acting very sluggish.
By sluggish I mean I can no longer play 3D games that had once worked great (they just stutter) and apps like Firefox take at least 20X longer to launch. Also, when I run a virus scan with Norton's the machine powers down before it finishes. I've already reformatted and reinstalled the OS (Windows XP Home) but that did not solve the problem. I'm fairly computer savy and pretty sure it's a hardware problem but don't know where to start weeding out what the problem component is. I've run some diagnostic tools like hdtach and a memory test tool (I can't remember which one atm) and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary.
Please help.

[Overclocked]

It might be related to the overheating problem - have a look here: http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic188637.html

update - also: http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic169699.html

[RealMode]

Originally Posted by dp595

Hi, I have an Emachines M6805 laptop. One day it started acting very sluggish.
By sluggish I mean I can no longer play 3D games that had once worked great (they just stutter) and apps like Firefox take at least 20X longer to launch. Also, when I run a virus scan with Norton's the machine powers down before it finishes. I've already reformatted and reinstalled the OS (Windows XP Home) but that did not solve the problem. I'm fairly computer savy and pretty sure it's a hardware problem but don't know where to start weeding out what the problem component is. I've run some diagnostic tools like hdtach and a memory test tool (I can't remember which one atm) and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary.
Please help.

It is hard to say what the cause is at this moment. Are u tried to consult Event Viewer ? see if u can find anything there and report them for further help.