Sudden loss of FPS in Fallout 3

I'm having some serious trouble with FO3. I downloaded it from Steam and it would crash when I tried to start a new game. I added the d3d9.dll file to the FO3 folder and it worked. I began my new game and was achieving a solid 40-50 fps on high settings. I go to Megaton, complete a couple minor quests and leave the merchant shop. All of a sudden my fps is less than 20 and drops to a low of 2!!! I've tried adjusting gfx settings to low. Still less than 20 fps. I downloaded and ran Powermizer Disabler and it said it couldn't find the settings (tried to manually change them and I couldn't find them either). Ran it anyway and disabled it on "plugged in". Still less than 20fps on low settings. What happened? Did my graphics card fail and I need to send it back. Or is this an optimus issue? It was working so beautifully. I just got it 4 days ago.

COMP:
m11x r2
i7
Samsung SSD
4gb RAM

I've searched but cannot find any answers as to why all of a sudden the fps plummeted. Restarting does not solve the problem. HELP!!!

 

I just tested portal and it is running on about 15-25 fps when I was getting 50+ everywhere I went. Does this mean hardware failure? I can't get it to work. Should I roll back and reinstall?

edit: I did roll back and reinstall and I still am getting terrible fps. Unless someone here can suggest something I may be returning this for a different computer. Drivers should be up to date if I received it four days ago, right? I attempted to search for updated drivers through the Hardware Manager and it said it was up to date.

 

Are you sure you're utilizing the dedicated GPU? It sounds like it may be using the integrated, which explains why you're only getting a fraction of the FPS you would normally, along with DX errors and whatnot.

You could try forcing discrete in the BIOS, or maybe reinstall the graphics driver? I have an R1, so not familiar with how the R2 handles switching (I thought it was supposed to be an automatic thing).

Anyways, a couple things to think about. Good luck.

 

I don't know about portal but in Fallout 3, depending on the time of day in the game frame rates can decrease by a lot especially when looking at the sky at least on my m11x r2 with nvidia 259.22. Overclocking the graphics card slightly using evga precision fixes that issue . Try updating your drivers if you have an older version and see if that makes a difference. Also starting with 257.30 nvidia allows a taskbar icon to show you when the GPU is working so you might also want to check if the GT335m is actually working when you play Fallout 3.

I hope that helps

 

Thanks everyone. + rep for the help. I thought since I just received the laptop on 9/16 that its driver would be up to date. I checked today and indeed I am still on 189.69. That is incredibly poor service to build it with outdated drivers. My main question is still why the sudden loss of framerates. I played for five hours with great framerates then bam, in the teens. That is why I thought powermizer was the culprit but adjusting those with P. Disabler did nothing. Hopefully the driver does it. Thanks again and if anyone else has advice please share.

 

Woo hoo!!! Cruising a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland once again. Thanks everyone for the help. I didn't play long but my framerates are back where they should be. Whew. This is my first gaming computer, I'm normally a console guy, and I'm not used to all the fixes/updates that are required.

I've played some Fallout on both Ps3 and 360 and this lil machine puts them to shame. The draw distance alone is truly amazing. Knowing what I know now I'm not sure how many non-exclusive console games I will get. Once again thanks for the help. Sorry for asking noob questions. If the mods feel the need to delete, please do.

Also, for reference, after updating I had to delete the d3d9.dll file to get FO3 to load.