Great performance on battery mode, terrible performance while charging.

I own an Alienware M17x and I've had it for two years now. In that time I have encountered countless problems on it. More problems then I have on any other computer (even the old piece of junk the I had for 5 years had less problems than this). Despite this I refuse to admit that buying this computer was probably one of the bigger mistakes, even though I have a new, huge problem to deal with once every two months or so.

Right now, I'm having a problem I've had once before.

Yesterday everything was great. I was playing a game, good graphics, nice performance. Then today the performance is absolutely horrendous. I try to turn stealth mode off and on, but to no avail. Then I unplug the charger and the performance is absolutely PERFECT. When I plug the charger back in, horrible performance. It's like it has reversed overnight. Last time I had this problem it frustrated me greatly but I have no recollection as to how I fixed.

I tried searching the net for an answer but it seems like I'm the only one who has this problem (that really can't be true). Everyone else is complaining about inferior performance while on battery mode... which is like asking why your cup of coffee gets cold if you put it in the freezer. But when a genuine problem like mine appears... there seem to be a lack of answers.

Sorry if I sound grumpy, I just can't take it anymore. The amount of frustration that this computer has caused me when all I want is to play a simple damn game... it's just wearing me down.

 

If you pull out the battery and keep it on AC power, how does it work? My wife's laptop did something like this but it was because her battery had some issues. I pulled the battery out and it worked perfect. Put battery back in, even if fully charged, and it would cause random freezing and major slowdowns.

We eventually replaced her battery and the issue was resolved.

 

Do you have an R2 or R1? Quite odd as Alienwares badly throttle down GPU to unplayable levels on battery to protect them.

 

Could it be that your Control Panel Power Options settings are reversed? Check the power plan when plugged in is set to "High Performance" and when on battery, is set to "Power saver"?