Is my R2 dieing?

About 3 years ago, I bought my Alienware M17x R2. When I first bought it, it performed well. But over time, I noticed it becoming increasingly slower and slower, and my FPS kept dropping and dropping. So around one year ago, I decided to buy and install 4gb of RAM into my laptop, bringing it to 8gb. And at the time, I thought it was the greatest 60$ I've ever spent. I realize that RAM doesn't necessarily improve FPS, but I play Oblivion a lot and with the extra RAM I could get Oblivion to use more of it, therefore increasing performance. My game was running really well with Med graphics settings, and a ton of mods and it was great. A couple months ago I had to uninstall Oblivion. And recently, I reinstalled it. To my horror, Oblivion with the exact same mod list (and performance enhancing mods) is running at incredibly lower Framerates. Now, I can barely get 10 FPS in the testinghall on Low settings! I've also noticed a lot of performance drops in other games to the point where it baffles me.
Two examples:
1. I actually get frame rate lag in HALO CE! A game made 10 years ago! I'm not even talking about online lag here, campain LAGS!
2. Another example is Super Smash FLASH 2, where I get stuttering! It's a flash game!

I think my laptop is dieing. What do I do? Is there anything I can do?

Specs:
-Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 9400
-Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
-Installed RAM: 8.00 GB (7.75 usable
-64-bit Operating System
-Windows 7

Also, should I try upgrading anything, or should I just say "screw it" and build my own computer?

 

Hey Welcome to the forums! Sorry to hear about your troubles. I just have a couple of questions for you.

When is the last time you cleaned it? Changed thermal Pastes? Do you monitor your temps with program? What are the rest of your specs? The specs you listed are for an original M17x not the R2. Also, You only listed the integrated card, going to need to know if you are running dual or single 260's/280's/4870's? When is the last time you re-installed windows? Updated Drivers?

 

Thanks for the welcoming.
I guess I have an R1 then, as that is my GPU, or at least that's what dxdiag tells me. And I'm pretty sure it's just one card. To be honest, I've never actually done any of those things you've asked .
Any idea on what I should do then?

 

Lol, Alright lets see here,

Download a couple of things for me ok. Take a window Snip with windows snipping tool of each the GPU-Z, and HWINFO64 Summary and Sensors. Also look through to see what the specs of your system are exactly.

1) techPowerUp! :: GPU-Z Downloads

2) HWiNFO64 Download

You should definitely clean out your laptop with compressed air for vents and heatsinks blades, q-tips on the fans blades, and change the thermal pastes on the CPU/GPUS. I use TX-4, MX-4 is good as well. Make a backup of your important files and programs, then reinstall windows with a fresh reformatted install.

Teardown Videos:
M17x Teardown Part 1 of 2

M17x Teardown Part 2 of 2

 

If DxDiag is telling you 9400GT, it is because your system is currently running the graphics through the Integrated chip on the motherboard. (And not your actual GPU)


Reboot, go into BIOS, enable hybrid graphics and disable integrated.

Now, what does DxDiag show you?
- Scott.