M15X is sometime very slow in games

A few weeks ago I bought a second hand M15X with Intel i5, 4gb RAM and 240m graphics card. For a while I was happy with the fact that it would play (not too recent) games quite well but four days ago I turned it on and when I tried to play any games they would run about 5 - 10 fps. I spent a couple of hours reinstalling graphic drivers, directx etc and had multiple restarts and then it suddenly started working properly again.

The next day though it had gone slow again for no apparent reason and despite my attempts (even a fresh install of Windows) nothing seemed to work. Yesterday I took the back off and turned it on to make sure the fan were running ok and they seemed to be alright. I put the back on again and rebooted and magically it started working normally again.

So, it's still running as it should but I'm just waiting for it to fail again. I've ruled out software due to the reinstall and I've updated the bios to the latest one so I'm guessing it's hardware related.

Does anyone have any ideas? Could it be the CPU, graphics card, fans or motherboard? Any insight would be gratefully appreciated. The guy I bought the laptop from has offered me a refund but I'd rather hang on to it if this problem can be sorted.

Thanks.

 

Are you using the most recent bios? Cleaning and reinstalling the heatsink and fan is always a good idea.

If this doesn't get your laptop running smoothly then download ThrottleStop and find out if your CPU is being throttled.

 

How much did you pay for it if you do not mind me asking?

 

Have you already checked the temps? Maybe your GPU needs repasting

How to Check for overheating on Alienware Laptops

 

Thanks for the suggestions so far. In answer to the above points...

Yes, I think I'm using the most recent BIOS (A09 is it?), I flashed it about a week ago - a few days before the trouble started. The fans appeared to be quite clean when I took the back off. I'll download ThrottleStop and use it along with a benchmarking program I have ready for the next time it fails, hopefully they might point in the right direction.

No I don't mind you asking - I paid £400 for it.

I haven't checked the temperature yet but the next time it goes I will use the program mentioned in your link to test.

I hate intermittent problems - I just keep waiting for it to happen again.

 

Do you use hibernate? M15x is known for being throttled after hibernating. Just press the stealth button twice to fix it.

 

No I don't use hibernate. Also the stealth button doesn't appear to make any difference to performance. I read about the stealth button yesterday and thought that might be it but when I press it games still work fine.

 

Update - It went slow again after I'd been using it a few hours. I ran tests and found both the CPU and graphics scores were lower. There wasn't a lot of fan noise yet when I turned the laptop on it's side the fan sound got louder and my performance was back to normal.

I took the back off and found the processor heatsink was quite a bit hotter than the graphics heatsink. Both fans are clean and spin freely but I'm guessing now that it's either the CPU fan failing or the motherboard not telling it when to spin up. I hope it's an issue with just the fan but the fact that sometimes I switch it on and the fan runs full on for ten minutes makes me think otherwise.

One last note is that it's not the original CPU, it was originally an i3 but he put an i5 M560 in, don't know if this has any bearing on it. It's weird because most of the time it's just fine. I upgraded the ram to 8gb this weekend and I've just ordered a graphics card for it so I hope I can get to the bottom of this problem. Anyone have an opinion?

 

you need to monitor the temps with software, throttlestop is good for the cpu temps you could also use hwinfo to monitor everything and or gpu-z for the gpu. It could have been a bad thermal paste job when you swapped the cpu. also while running throttlestop check chipset clock mod and turn it on.

 

OK, I just downloaded throttlestop and ran it along with prime95 to give the CPU a workout. The fan kicked in hard and the highest the temperature got to was 80 degrees. Bear in mind that my laptop is currently performing as it should.

Idle temperature seems to be between 38 and 45 at the moment.

 

good now game with throttlestop on and remember to keep the chipset clock mod ticked. also last time i checked hwinfo has fan speed control and also logs fan speed which may be useful to you. also you might want to re-flash A09 as there is a know problem with the ec

 

Sorry, what do you mean ''ec'? Is there more than one version of A09? I downloaded this one only a couple of weeks ago. Oddly I didn't have this problem before the flash.

Thanks for your help.

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Edit - Just done a bit of research and seems a few people have had graphic card issues with A09. Maybe this is it ...
How would I go about flashing A08? Would it be straightforward or would I have to flash to an even earlier one first?

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Edit 2 - Right, after doing more reading of the thread about A09 I realise my EC version had not been updated and was still on 1.06. I've just flashed again and now it's 1.18 as it should be.
Fingers crossed, let's see how it does over the next few days.

 

OK, yet another update on this issue.

I upgraded the graphics card a few days ago and everything was running fine until yesterday. Then the problem came back, running slow during games.
I realised I could not hear the processor fan going so I turned the laptop on it's side to inspect and the fan started up and my performance was back to normal.

The fan spins fine so It's difficult to understand why it just doesn't kick in sometimes. Last chance ... I've ordered a replacement fan for it and if that doesn't work then it has to be the motherboard so I'll just take the laptop back and get a refund.

 

Final update.
Despite everything I tried this problem persisted. I finally gave in and took the laptop back for a refund.
Sad to see it go but I've built myself a PC with the money.

Thanks to everyone for your help and suggestions.