m17x R3 ... slow performance in games, screen not coming back after sleep, can't adjust screen britghness

Hello,

First of all, my config:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
8GB Ram
AMD Radeon HD 6870M
intel Graphics


I recently noticed that I was having some slowdowns in games (during the last 3 or 4 months)... at times when there's more on the screen and such. Older games like UT2004 slowdown to 20-30 fps if there's more than 1 character at times. This should not be happening.

I tried running CCleaner... didn't help... I checked for viruses etc... nothing there. I did the updates from Dell's site as suggested... same problem.


After all this though, today i noticed that the screen doesn't come back after sleep mode. The computer comes back... just the monitor stays black. Finally, when I'm using the AMD card (don't have this problem using the intel card) I can't adjust screen brightness.

I feel like this could be a driver issue... but I don't really know. I've never uninstalled any video drivers... just installed everything on top, following the dell site instructions.

What can I do to resolve these issues?

thank you very much!

 

Hi again...

Anyone have any suggestions? :/

thanks

 

You need to try a different video driver. What version are you on right now?

 

Thank you for your response.

I'm tried installing the latest one recommended for my system from the dell site. Version 9.003, A00

Driver Details | Dell US

However when I click the video card properties in the device manager it tells me the driver date is 2012, version 3.9.0.0

I tried uninstalling the driver by uninstalling the amd card, restarting the system... but then windows automatically starts installing a vga driver which mid process is detected at the amd card and windows installs an amd driver for it. I tried installing the driver update on top.

Can I or should I use the latest driver from the AMD site, which is from 2014? How will this affect the Intel drivers... do I need to do anything with them?

thank you very much!

 

Use latest drivers from AMD, its worth a try. You can always uninstall or use an older version if its not working.

 

Black screen is usually an indication of video driver errors while they try to initiate after sleep state. I would try a clean install.

 

Thanks. Is there a guide or step-by-step to properly updating the amd drivers for an alienware machine? I know the generalities... but it doesn't seem to work well (as described in my post http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...n-t-adjust-screen-britghness.html#post9748747)

I've found a few differing versions on how to do the update. Is there a definitive system?

thanks!

EDIT:

I tried installing the newest AMD drivers, but I guess it didn't work as after installation it didn't seem to detect that the card was installed.

So i went back to my original situation.

How do I do a CLEAN install I guess is my question...

 

Here is one i made sometime back, which will remove all traces off your machine. Also i included a Tips and Trick link to help keep your system running smooth. both these links are in my signature block. (Pro tip: Make sure your lappy is not connected to the internet while doing any of this, have all the drivers you need already downloaded onto your machine ready to install).

Remove AMD drivers:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...all-amd-ati-not-have-rely-driver-sweeper.html

Tips and Tricks:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...your-system-running-like-new.html#post9396290

 

Thanks! However... Oh My! Is there really no other way to do this properly in order to solve my problem? Going into the registry freaks me out, and I prefer not to do it....

 

One more thing to illustrate my performance problem (which perhaps is related to the other problems?)

standing in an area in a game (say on a ledge overlooking a scene)... it can be going at 150 fps... then suddenly dip to 30 fps for a bit. This can happen with older games as well (UT2004 for instance). Why would this be happening?

 

Have you checked your temperatures? Could be your heatsink is full of dust. I wouldnt be suprised.

 

How do I check my temperatures? I tried opening GPU-Z, but get this error (I can open the program when I'm on the intel card though... just not the amd one)

"ATI OpenCL driver bug detected, skipping OpenCL detection. Uninstall the AMDStream SDK/Open CL driver to re-enable this functionality."

By the way, this slowdown can occur with both the AMD card and also the Intel card (for old games that the Intel card can actually handle).

But it's not always consistent... it might not always happen.

 

Try HWinfo, that can give you temps also. Sounds like maybe the CPU or GPU is overheating and throttling, leading to the random spurs of low FPS.

 

Hi, These are the temps I recorded during the fps drop. I loaded the game in windowed mode so I could see both at the same time. It was running great... around 150 fps... for a few minutes until it suddenly plunged to this:

View image: temps

I should also mention that some games seem to work better than others.I have slowdowns in everything, but sometimes a newer game will work slightly better than an older one, etc. It's very random.

 

You need to open the case and pull out and clean the fans and the the radiator fins on the heatsink. When was the last time this was done. Also i would suggest a repaste of the CPU if you dont feel comfortable doing it take it to someone who can.

Also i would run a stress test, to see what your true average TEMP is. or play a game for 30 min then take a reading screen shot of your HWinfo64 screen. Also older games only utilize 1-2 cores, so you can expect a higher temp since all stress is on one core.

 

Thanks. Is there a guide to cleaning out the fans... I mean, a video or image guide on how to open it up and clean them? I'm quite clueless!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4myeDK-3U&noredirect=1
Credit goes to Hidevolution

Here's a complete tear down. It's very simple. Really

Just remove your battery, take out the two screws securing the service panel and you'll have full access to both fans.

 

Anyone else see those temps at only 19% utilization of the cpu. I imagine they get over 100*C on full load.

 

Well after cleaning the fans (I didn't do a repaste)... the performance seems to be a lot better, despite there not seeming to have been a whole ton of dust in there.

I guess I still have driver problems though... the ones I mentioned in the initial post. I guess those aren't heat related (I figured that anyway).

I can't seem to properly install the drivers...

 

How are you deleting and installing the drivers? Walk us through your procedure and we'll let you know where it went wrong.

 

I go to the programs section of the control panel and uninstall anything that says amd or ati. (one of the times, I also uninstalled the drivers from the device manager, but it made no difference).

I restart the computer (sometimes Windows tries to automatically detect and install Radeon drivers for me.

I then install the drivers I downloaded from the dell website. ... and restart.

That's all!

 

...so what am I doing wrong?

 

...last bump...