Help! Old Rig Needs TLC

Alright so, I've had this Alienware laptop for about 4.5 years now. I remember playing Diablo 3 around then and playing at an easy 90fps, smooth all the way. Great times. Well, fast forward to today, I login to Diablo 3 to check out the Necromancer, and D3 plays at about 30fps for about five minutes and then it dips to a solid 10fps and stays there until I restart the game. If I restart the game, it performs at 30fps for five minutes again, then goes back to 10fps; rinse and repeat.

I figured the components are just old. I don't know of many 4.5 year old PC's that run optimally without some replaced parts. I was going to start shopping for replacements, but since I don't really know much about hardware issues, I thought it would be a good idea to checkout a forum first. I never mess with hardware so if I do replace parts I'll have to watch a ton of videos and what not, or I'll need a walkthrough. I don't even really know what parts to replace in order to get my frame rate back up. Ultimately I'll do what I have to do get this baby up and running again, as that's probably cheaper than buying a new PC altogether.

I've seen some similar posts to my inquiry, but they were quite old (around 2 years) so I figured I'd either try to get a fresh/updated answer or if there's a more recent thread I didn't see, someone can link it. Any help is appreciated.

Specs
Model: Alienware M18x R2
OS: Windows 7
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
DirectX 11

I've read that many M18x R2's have two graphics cards in them. I don't believe mine does, or at least not that I can see from the diagnostic tool.

So yeah, I mean...I'd like to get my frame rate back up to at least 60 so I can enjoy gaming again on my PC. Any and all help or advice is appreciated.

 

If your budget is to spend as little as possible, try check your CPU/GPU temps and check if either are overheating. You can use HWMonitor or HWInfo and note the highest temps when gaming.

 

Yeah I'm a college student and this was a big gift from my family a few years ago. I'd like to keep costs low for now until I start working a serious job. Maybe then I'll be able to give it a big ol' makeover.

I had called Alienware tech support today just to see what they would say. The guy had me download Dell's "SupportAssist" app. I ran a 15 minute stress test and it logged a few different temperatures. There were about 5 different temperatures ranging from 90.C to 100.C, the average being about 96.C.

 

All of these temperatures are very high ... Depending on your tech skills you can start from an easy vents and fans cleaning with some compressed air or if you are savvy enough please do a repaste. After 4.5 years the thermal paste will most certainly need to be changed.

Till you do this please don't stress the machine to avoid damaging any components.

 

Most of the Dell and Alienware range are designed to be easily maintained.

These steps might help you: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/opening-the-gpu-cpu-fans-on-the-m18x-r2.735697/

 

I figured running anything at 95.C was a bad idea if it wasn't an oven, haha. Definitely giving my PC a break until I can look over the fans and what not. I'll definitely do the compressed air thing, since I just so happened to have a can laying around.
Also if you can recommend any videos/guides on repasting, that would be helpful since I have no idea what that even looks like. Otherwise I'll be watching youtube videos on it tomorrow and possibly be attempting a repaste tomorrow night. I'm a quick learner, so if it's relatively simple I should be capable of doing it. Biggest issue at that point is going to be finding a place that sells thermal paste.

Thank you! This gives me somewhere to start. It's a bit late here in NY but I'll be opening my PC tomorrow to give it a look over.

 

Wait so you USED to get 90fps but now in the same game you get 30fps? It shouldn't be like that. Have you cleaned up any dust that may have built up?

You can upgrade to a single 780M for a decent price, that should bump performance nicely and it'll be plug n play.

Or if you're willing to go higher, a single 980M will provide you a huge boost in performance.

 

If you don't have thermal paste, don't separate the heatsink from the CPU/GPU or the heat might increase if the thermal paste is really dry and doesn't stick back together. You can still blow dust out of the heatsinks without removing it or by removing the fan.

 

As @namaiki said don't separate the heatsink and die unless you have alcohol pads, microfiber cloth, thermal paste ... etc.

If you are uncomfortable doing the repaste and since you are in NY I believe one of team LHZ can help you @DeeX @iunlock

 

After some reading and video watching, I managed to clean the fans and vents with some compressed air (personal victory, never opened up a computer before). I don't know if you can imagine what over 4 years of dust build up looks like, but it was pretty bad. I'm almost ashamed I didn't open up my laptop sooner for some regular cleaning.

I did another 15 minute stress test, and it kept a solid 40-50fps, which was awesome to see. However the report at the end noted high temperatures still. Around 98.C average this time. I think it's also worth noting that my laptop only has 2 fans inside, whereas it can hold 3 total. The 3rd slot just has plastic as a placeholder. I don't know if you guys would recommend installing a 3rd fan, but between that and a repaste it might bring the temperatures down considerably. The thing is, while I prefer to do these things myself, I'm still not very experienced with hardware assembly, so I would need detailed guides or videos on the subject.

Right. Of course, this is a difference in frame rate over 4.5 years and I never opened it up to clean it because I didn't know how. I might be interested in some GPU upgrades soon, but I heard there's a lot of capability issues that go with that. The guy at Dell told me that only GTX 660m and GTX 675m will work with my laptop (and some Radeon cards, but I prefer to stick with NVIDIA), however I've read posts on this forum where people have gotten some of the higher-end NVIDIA cards to work on their M18xR2 (like the GTX 1080m), so I'll be looking around for info on that. Dell tech support doesn't know what they're talking about, go figure. I'm trying not to spend too much money right now, so I'll worry about significant upgrades later.

Haha I'm definitely not going to be taking anything apart if I'm not absolutely sure what I'm doing. Not about to ruin this beautiful laptop.
Yeah I don't have any of that lying around. I could make a list and get the supplies needed, of course.
Alright I'll pop them a message see what they say. Thanks!

 

OFFICIALLY, your laptop supports:

680M, 680M SLI, 675M, 675M SLI, 660M, etc. from NVIDIA

UNOFFICIALLY (plug and play) it supports:

780M, 780M SLI, 880M, 880M SLI

UNOFFICIALLY(requires some work) it works with:

980M SLI, 980M, 970M SLI, 970M

UNOFFICIALLY(requires even more work) it works with:

1060 and 1070 (single GPU) using nVidia Optimus

SLI = dual graphics

 

Cleaning the fans was a great place to start, but after 4+ years of sustained high temperatures (80C+ on the CPU and 75C on the GPU) your components thermal compound is due for replacement (to put it kindly).

I recommend upgrading to either a single 980M or a single 1060 (more work with the 1060 is required, and the unit will no longer have access to integrated graphics which will mean decreased battery life), an i7 3920xm CPU. We are talking probably $750 here, but your laptop will literally be 4x faster (you will be able to play everything, including newer titles at 60 FPS with a single 980M and a slight overclock, but you will be CPU bottlenecked if you don't also upgrade to and overclock an Extreme Processor).

Upgrading will of course accomplish the task of changing the thermal compound, whether you can afford to upgrade or you simply would like to recoup some lost thermal throttling induced performance, you need to change the thermal compound AND you need to take steps to reduce your load temperatures after by elevating the unit, and maybe going as far as manually setting the fans to 3700-4200 RPM.



http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-ultimate-cooling-mod-to-end-all-cooling-mods.586490/

If you go the upgrade route with 2x 980M you will need a 330W PSU and 3-Pipe cooling pipes for the CPU and GPU(s). You MIGHT be ok with your existing 240W PSU if you only go to single 980M, but you might be pushing it in terms of PSU life-span (980M =120W, i7 3920XM =100W at 1.3V)

 

Man, thanks so much. That really gives me waaay more options for upgrades in the future. I really don't know why tech support only gave me two options. He might've been picking from what was available from their inventory of spare parts, but still. I didn't ask what he had available in the back room, lol.

Hahaha no need to be kind. I've only been looking into laptop care and maintenance for about 3 days now, and I already see that I've been neglecting mine pretty bad. It's terrible because when I bought this thing, it didn't exactly come with instructions on how to maintain it and what not. I guess they're hoping you let it die so you buy a new one.
I'm [very] interested in major performance upgrades like a new GPU and CPU and all that, but I don't have much money to spend at the moment, so I'll look more into that later. For now I'm focusing on cheaper, basic maintenance so it runs smoothly.

I'm thinking of installing the 3rd fan as well. I'll need to know what that entails, but from what I've seen the fan just simply screws in? My uncle was suggesting that I take my laptop Micro Center and have them do all of this for a fee, but I think I'd rather do it myself. I'm actually very interested in learning all of this. I've spent a lot of time learning about software, so it would be cool to learn how to handle hardware.

 

You only need the 3rd fan if you have a secondary GPU there, otherwise it's spinning, making noise and drawing wattage unnecessarily. If you truly can't afford any upgrade to speak of, not even to a single 680M (this alone would double your performance) I would repaste and elevate the unit from here on.

But I really recommend upgrading if youre going to tear the thing all the way down, there's a 4GB 680M right now on ebay for around $100, I would message the seller and ask if it's compatible (I believe the 4GB 680M's are compatible IIRC).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...722029?hash=item23888bd9ed:g:LbYAAOSwAO9ZXw-G

680M is over 3x as fast as 660M (single 680M good for 5K GPU Firestrike 1.1 without an overclock, with an overclock youre looking at 6-6.5k GPU vs 1.5K GPU of the 660M)

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/905889/fs/15120

This is your biggest bang for the buck upgrade, the low hanging fruit, and its completely affordable and 680M doesn't have the driver issues that plague 780M / 880M.

980M is 2x as fast as 680M if you can swing $500.

You can upgrade the CPU later, a single 660M is really going to struggle with everything other than games that your smart phone can run.

 

Official Plug n Play used upgrades:

680m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Dell-Al...433831?hash=item41c6d099a7:g:mzgAAOSwGJlZM0eP

Unofficial plug n play used upgrades:

870m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLEVO-Nvidi...295661?hash=item1c7ef8722d:g:miIAAOSwXYtYwXEB

780m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-Del...602194?hash=item2839c06612:g:AlgAAOSwMg5ZXoEZ

880m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-JH9PP-...473046&hash=item2cc218278f:g:5g4AAOSw3YJZWBFM

Unofficial upgrades that require some work (used):

970m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-Gefo...843729?hash=item3ae9b1c0d1:g:a6AAAOSwDrNZXHO3


If you prefer buying new:

680m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...954527&hash=item464cd42d52:g:EJcAAOSwZjJU8PbR

780m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-Geforce-GTX-780M-4GB-GDDR5-MXM3-0-N14E-GTX-A2-Video-Card-for-Alienware/262957706152?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid=555014&algo=PL.DEFAULT&ao=1&asc=43550&meid=7e9da9c494084640aacd152fd104f459&pid=100505&rk=1&rkt=1&

980m: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-NVIDIA-...127850?hash=item440684932a:g:oHMAAOSwIjJZXvQ0

1060: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clevo-P870D...326915?hash=item1c8ab6e783:g:pv8AAOSwUIhZX5gm

In terms of performance:

680m > 870m > 780m > 880m > 970m > 980m > 1060

680m is 2x faster than your current setup
980m is 2x faster than 680m

 

Sorry I've been spending the weekend with my family so I haven't been replying. I get back to NY tomorrow so that's when I'll be shopping for the supplies I'll need for a tear down. (ESD wrist strap, thermal paste, tiny screwdrivers, etc)

Haha thanks for that detail about the 3rd fan. I figured any airflow at all would be helpful but if it's not worth it then that's good to know.

I can definitely swing $100, especially to double performance. I just didn't want to go much further than $150 right now, especially since I still need a bunch of supplies for a tear down. I don't use eBay often, so I wouldn't even know what to look for if the GPU arrived damaged (other than the obvious).

Side note, but would it be worth it to keep the 660M where it is and install the 680M as a secondary (or vice versa)? Or would that cause problems?
Also, I would be applying fresh thermal paste if I install a new GPU, correct? So I need to buy some paste either way? (Sorry if I'm asking to repeat information, I just want to make sure I'm doing this right)

I've also seen different ways to apply thermal paste and I was curious which was ideal or if it didn't matter. In some videos the guy will apply a small amount and then spread it out with a Q-tip, but a different method was to just apply it and let the pressure from the heat sink spread it out. Is this dependent on the brand of paste? Or is it just preference?

Thanks so much, this was a lot of googling/eBaying on your part, haha. I was actually thinking I do prefer to buy new but given the price difference, I might try for that used part first. If something goes wrong with that (bid doesn't go through, it arrives broken, etc) then I'll save up some money and I might get a new 980m. As an avid gamer, the 980m is very tempting.

 

Alright! Update time! I had to wait for my 680m to arrive in the mail so there was a time gap. So, after a painstaking 3 hours of doing my first tear down, and watching the MrFox video ad nauseam during the process, I have replaced my 660m with a 680m and repasted the CPU! Woohoo! I thank everyone who replied here, since I got most of my information from you guys Truly couldn't of done it without the help I received here.

I ran into a small-ish issue during the tear down that took a few days and a lot of asking around to resolve (I didn't remember how I found this forum, and googling on a phone isn't fun). The ribbon cable connector for my hard drive sort of...snapped off. I didn't do anything differently than what was done in the video, however the laptop in the video seemed very new, and mine is fairly old, so perhaps the little plastic connector was worn. It snapped very easily, with barely any pressure at all. Regardless, in lieu of getting a new motherboard for $800, which is what every support line said to do, this video actually worked for me quite easily:



I also used some non-conductive tape to hold the ribbon/plastic down, and voila! The boot program kicked in! I'm about to do a stress test to see how the new GPU holds up. By the way, you were totally right about the paste. Quite a bit of the CPU and GPU were exposed without any paste covering it at all. I assume it just burns away after awhile. I put a small amount of new paste on each (grain of rice) and let the pressure from the heat sinks spread it out. Should be good to go! Let me see what the stress test shows....

...
...

Okay so old stress test data showed an avg frame rate of 1, and an avg temp of 98.C. The new stress test data shows an avg frame rate of 9, and an avg temp of 47.C!! (I'm also using a marble notebook to prop up the back-end of the laptop)
A success if I've ever seen one! Lol! Again, thanks a lot guys. I've learned quite a bit since I joined this forum, and I'm going to try not to let the connector issue stop me from modding my laptop in the future (just need to be even more careful). Especially with the outrageous prices at Micro Center. Geeze. Makes me want to get really good at this and start my own "Laptop Repair & Part Replacement" gig, lol.