Unexpected Lag

I'm not really sure how to post my computer specs here for troubleshooting purposes, but I have an Alienware M17xR3 with the 460m\3D option(120Hz Screen), 8GB Ram.
Now when i got the laptop, i did have a few problems with finding a good 460m driver, but nothing that ruined my computing performances. I could run games on high graphic settings without any lag at all. Maybe some when its loading a lot of data, but it didnt last(in other words, I could game just fine).

Recently, I swapped out my main HDD for a 240GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD (with a clean Win7 Installation). My boot-up times are still near 40 seconds.. arn't SSDs supposed to be much faster than that? Also, I experience a blue screen about 50% during bootup. I've tried using the windows recovery tool that the system boots into, but it says its got no solutions available. So any insight to this would be helpful... (I know its not the main issue of this thread, but its better than making another thread for the same computer..)

More importantly, the issue thats been bothering me the most is that i experience a lot of lag while playing games. I experience lag even with games on the lowest graphics settings. I have trouble playing GTA IV, Saints Row, TF2, etc.. My WEI index is 7.1, the two lowest scores being my graphics and gaming graphics numbers. But this issue isn't just limited to games. I notice a slight lag while loading new windows (explorer or chrome), while holding down the backspace key, sometimes even simply moving the mouse around. There are even moments where the computer just freezes for like 15 seconds at a time. How do i get my laptop back to its original state of being able to handle graphic intense games with decent fps?

I should also mention that this "lag" has been prominent before I even upgraded my hdd to the ssd. I thought upgrading would fix the problem, but it seems its made it even worse. I'm not sure the ssd is entirely to blame though..

Again, I'm not sure what you experts may need to diagnose my laptop, but i'm willing to post whatever information you require, as long as I know how. So if you need benchmarks or something...just tell me how to do that LOL, and i'll post it here.

 

Something is weird with your SSD, GPU or MB. Check to make sure your SSD has the latest firmware. Then post which driver version you're using for the graphics.

EDIT: which BIOS are you running?

 

I had an R3 with an SSD as the primary drive and I had much quicker boot times than you talking about. My R4 boots in about 20 seconds and that is full of programs that all want to load and the R3 was just a bit slower, but not by much. My first impression is that you have possibly missed installing a driver. Have you installed the Intel RST driver?

edit.....On the first page of the R3/R4 Owner Lounge on the first post by Katalin at the bottom is a Windows Clean install guide showing the driver installation sequence. Did you install your drivers in this sequence and did you install them all?

 

Yea, I followed that guide, and installed the drivers in the order given (Though I was confused with the names of one or two drivers, but they were installed roughly in the same order, and the command center was installed last.

Before updating to a SSD, I updated my bios to A10.
For my 460m, i'm using 296.10 for my driver.

How do I know if my SSD has the latest firmware? I don't recall installing SSD drivers or any kind of software for it...
edit: I have installed the Intel RST/Management Engine Drivers. one of the very first drivers i installed.
edit2: Just tried doing a bootup test. I got 45.2 seconds, with atleast 25 seconds on the windows welcome screen... the 2nd and 3rd times gave me a blue screen of death(IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or something like that...)

 

Howdy Oranges,

When you say lag, what exactly do you mean? Lag is usually used to refer to issues with network latency, when the packets are not getting to the system fast enough, causing interruptions. The specific interruptions depend on the application. In games you tend to get a slowed in game response time. In otherwords the actions with a noticable delay. If this is what you mean, in that everything hesitates before it happens, something is hogging your CPU time, preventing it from responding quickly enough. Is it possible that you have been infected by some sort of malware? Since this issue happend BEFORE your hard drive was upgraded, chances are it is caused by some software you are running, and not your Windows install or SSD. Have you tried a Clean Boot Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with your game or program ? Try the steps at that link to see if you can isloate a program that is causing your sluggishness. Good luck!

Rich

 

Sounds to me a cross between RAM and your SSD. I've had similar issues with non-AW computers and it usually turned out to be a problem in one of those areas.

Here are a few things to test:

1. Try re-seating your RAM DIMMs.
2. If you have more than one, try removing all but 1 DIMM. Boot, see if the issue still exists. If so, replace that stick with another. If the same thing happens, try a different slot. If the result is still the same, move on below.

SSDs can sometimes be a HUGE problem for memory-related errors and ultimately result in this type of "lag" you describe. Sometimes the RAM + SSD can work together to cause you these kinds of headaches. Had a similar problem with Crucial RAM and an OCZ Vertex Turbo drive.

3. Remove the SSD and replace with a HDD. Format the drive destructively, and perform a clean Win 7 install. (With all your original memory installed). Install your drivers, etc. Now test your performance and see if that lag is still present. If it is there and noticable, go back and perform steps 1 and 2 again now that you are using the HDD. Testing each DIMM and different slots that work.

If the problem is still present, then you can either:
A. Try a different set of RAM (If you tested with multiple DIMMs and used 1 at a time, then its not really likely that all of your DIMMs would be bad. BUT, its possible, and testing with a new DIMM or different one would rule the RAM out for good.)
B. Conclude that the RAM and SSD or HDD is not the issue. This would require more in-depth testing of the CPU, GPU, and MB.

This is the easiest way to troubleshoot this sort of problem, although it can be time consuming.

 

It's not really network lag. My internet speeds do dip a lot from from time to time, but im guessing that may be other computers on the network stealing the bandwidth or something (not really sure how networks work).

I'm going to go with something hogging my CPU usage or something with the graphics card (thats what it feels like, but again, not 100% sure).
I tried removing all non-essential services and items from loading at startup, but i keep experiencing a blue screen. The first time, it mentioned that it was unable to reset the display driver (something like that, i was too slow to take a picture of it). The second time, I got the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, and i did manage to take a picture of that. If any of the information on that screen is useful, here it is:
.

I did do a quick google, and i keep reading that this error means that i may have a incorrect or corrupt driver installed. How do i go about fixing this? How do i narrow down which driver it is?
edit: i do have strong suspicions that the main problem is with my graphics driver. i had to edit the INF file in the 296.10 driver to manually add my graphics card so that it wouldn't show me the no compatible hardware error. I had this error before i updated to my ssd also. I still can't simply download a driver from nvidia's website and get it to work without any tweaking..

 

There are a few BSODs that I recall getting, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION or BAD_POOL_CALLER

Those error messages that I received were the result of memory-related issues (could be), but there could be other problems that trigger an IRQL_ type error, like you mentioned - a driver issue.

 

Hi Oranges,

I think you might have just id'd one potential problem yourself IRQ..... errors are most of the time driver related, and since you had to mod the drivers it might not be installing 100% correct. I suggest you uninstall those drivers and get the latest compatiable drivers from nVidia's site: Drivers | GeForce These should install without issue. If they still won't for troubleshooting purposes get the most recent one's from Dell. I am thinking that this will fix the blue-screening, but will probably not help with the sluggishness. Good luck!

Rich S.

 

The main reason I had to mod that driver was because the drivers from Nvidia's website and from dell's website were not allowing me to install them (yes, i even let nvidia autosuggest a driver for me by scanning my system. they still didnt work).

I've read a guide somewhere on this forum on using driver sweeper in safe mode to completely uninstall my old driver and installing the new one, but that again, did not work. I've gone through quite a bit of trouble to get 296.10 to work, even though i have a feeling its not working at its potential. I'm just kinda scared to go through all that trouble again..

But nevertheless, i cant sit here scared to do anything to my computer.. i'm currently getting my desktop ready with a fresh install (havent used it in a couple years) so that I have something else that will let me go on the internet and search for solutions just incase something goes wrong. Once I get that setup, i'll try updating my drivers once again.

just wondering though, on device manager, does it show youre hardware ID for your graphic cards as the following?

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DD1&SUBSYS_04901028&REV_A1

Because i've noticed that while the 460m is compatible with all these driver updates from nvidia, they are listed under a different type of hardware id(nvidia_ instead of ven_ and dev_, and therefore, my specific hardware id is not recognized by the installer)

edit: scratch all that. downloaded and updated to 301.42(no compatibility problems), even though my screen went black for the majority of the installation. I just came back an hour later and ctrl+alt+deleted, logged off(screen went black everytime i tried going into my account, so i had to log out from the ctrl.alt.delete menu), restarted, got a blue screen of death saying "failed to reset display driver(i always get either this or IRQL error, mostly the IRQL error though), logged in, seems as though everything installed fine(can't really tell though). I'm still lagging in games though, such as Saints Row III on high settings. I'll try a couple more games to check... Also, under hardware & sound in the control panel, the link for the nvidia graphics card panel is in korean.... is that normal? everything in the nvidia control panel is in english, but the name of the CP is in korean.
edit 2: After ^that, i noticed only the graphics card updated, not any of the other nvidia components, so i ran the updater again. Installed smoothly, but got a blue screen while booting up (IRQL_) and i let it go into system restore and do its thing. After booting up(no blue screen this time), i updated to 301.42 again, and so far, no errors, problems or anything. still got the korean part though, which is weird, but i dont really care about that unless its actually harming my computer performance. saints row III and gta IV still lagging (with auto-configure/detect graphic options)

 

First off, NEVER do system restore. It's like Windows Cancer...just causes all the old tumors to reappear while allowing the new ones to grow. Try some hardware modification. Take out your RAM, clean each modules contacts and the DIMM slot with a can of air. Just a quick blast against the contacts on both sides of each RAM module and another quick blast in the DIMM slot is good enough. Then reseat them. Do the same for your graphics card. Then put everything back together and boot up. At POST, hit F12 to enter the diagnostics menu. Run thru all the diagnostics...I know it will take a while. This will make sure there is nothing wrong with your CPU, MB, or RAM.
But...I have a sneaking suspicion that your SSD is the culprit. Only problem is there is no firmware update available for the Hyper 3k right now. That might be something to email Kingston about and see if there are other reported problems similar to your.
To check your SSD's firmware version, open the Intel RST control panel, click on your SSD in the right hand column (it should be the first one), and under Manage Disk it should say a bunch of stats with the firmware revision being at the bottom of the list.

 

I reseated the RAM modules, but i was too scared to do anything with the graphics card(I also didnt know where it was located haha)
I ran the diagnostic, and got an error with the System part. I'll attach a picture soon(gotta edit out the service tag).
My firmware for my SSD is: 501ABBF0

I also noticed lately that my laptop has been getting really hot. I have a laptop cooler seated under my laptop at all times, and always plugged in, so i'm not sure why its so hot all of a sudden, even when idle.
Ever since i updated to 301.42, ive been noticing a lot of screen flickering whenever I switch to iTunes, and an unresponsive black screen whenever i alt+tab out of a game, say skyrim. I see a black screen, and I cant do anything with the keyboard to get the screen to come back on, so i resort to doing a hard reset. Sometimes it switches with no problem, but the last 3 times ive done it, i had to shut down my computer


http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2392/img1126kl.jpg
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/3993/img1127g.jpg

decided not to bbcode those so it doesnt take up the entire page.

 

Your motherboard's goin to hell, dude. Get in touch with one of the Alienware raps in the forum here and theylll get you fixed up (assuming you still have warramty left). Here's one that helped me: http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=508900

Chekced all the googlew searches I could. Everytime the intercval clock error comes up it turns our to be the mother board. Good rthing you took a photo of the diagnostic code...maker sure you give that to the AW technician amnd make sure its the photo that shows your service tagh as well.

 

just great. i messaged the rep you told me to, so we'll see what happens from here. I do have about a year left on my warranty, so i guess i made a smart move getting the 2 year warranty. i'll edit this post later to update whats happening just incase another poor soul out there has the same error i did.

 

Well, theyre sending a technician over in a couple of days to replace my video card, cpu heatsink, fans, etc. they didnt think there was any problem with my motherboard.. hopefully all this gets fixed =P

 

Did you give them the error code? I would not be surprised if you still get BSODs after all their work. I checked the Interval Timer Error again and everywhere I looked said it turned out to be a hardware failure on the motherboard. But what do I/we know. Dell support over in Mumbai has all the answers on their computer screens. If I ever have to contact support I make sure they at least live on my continent, even if they're all the way down in Costa Rica. They've been a lot more help than the ones in India.