M17x R2 Running Insanely Slow

Hello my Alienware M17x R2 is running insanely slow and Im not really sure what steps I should take to try and correct this I am not in stealth mode and recently have been having issues with my power supply and the battery not charging

Any help would be greatly appreciate
Thanks,
Nick

 

When was the last time you have done a fresh install of windows?

 

if you are using an hdd, when was the last time you defrag'ed your system? is your anti virus updated? did slow down gradually? did the system slowed down over night? if so, try to use system restore to a later date when it was running fine, assuming youre using windows. have you tried to booting into safe mode to see if the computer is still running slow? if it runs fine on safe mode, it might be a start up program slowing it down.

 

Perhaps you can be more specific. When you say "insanely slow" does that mean slow at all times, including taking longer than normal to load Windows, working from the desktop, web browsing and other mundane tasks, or only "insanely slow" when trying to run games or benchmarks?

If it means all the time, doing everything, the thought of defragging (if you have a HDD) or doing a fresh Windows install are good ideas if it has been a long time. This could also be an indication of a dying HDD. Does CrystalDiskInfo, HWiNFO64 or Intel Rapid Storage Technology show any drive errors or other problems?

If you mean the latter and everything works fine except for gaming and benching, then a fresh Windows install may be a waste of time. It could still help, but it might be something easier and less time consuming to fix.

If your system is stuck in a power saving 2D performance mode, that could also be a problem. Does the system work OK without the battery? If you are merely referring to the "plugged in, not charging" error that is fairly common and does not necessarily mean there is a problem. Sometimes it seems that message is erroneous and the system is functioning correctly in spite of the system tray pop-up balloon message that suggests it is not.

 

Same as above, it would be good to know if the system is taking too much time to load or if you are referring to gaming performance only?

 

Maybe his PSU died, and the battery went flat ?

 

Well if its slow like that and you have had psu/battery issues there is the problem.
Solution is perhaps only a removal of psu and battery, and reconnect after you press power button for 5 sek. And then power up.

Having a R2 you probably have bad power connector/socket on mobo and sometimes if it drops contact it drops the ID of the PSU and stops charging battery but still operating.
Result= heavy throtling on the CPU. Easy to see if you remove power cord, and then reconnect after 1 min. If it dont start charging, there is your problem. (alienhead changing color)

If PSU drops out it will not find it again until you do this and will be very slow due to throtling. (or perhaps it turbo mode not operating i dont know)

Should check on if you can fix connector if this is the problem.
This is a "known" problem om R2's. I had same issue and re-soldered the socket before i found this video showing me that i was not alone with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXcKVsOA0Gg