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    M15x constant freezing during gaming

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by agnu, Aug 31, 2012.

  1. agnu

    agnu Newbie

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    This is my friends laptop. He owns a m15x with the gtx 260m. He got the laptop two years ago so warranty is out of the question. This laptop has tons of problems. But the most frustrating one is when it freezes and crashes during league of legends. According to him, it only happens when he is playing league of legends. I have tried countless solutions with the little computer knowledge that i have.

    Things i have tried:

    Clean reinstall/uninstall graphics drivers from both dell and nvidia site.
    Ran dells diagnostics test
    underclocked some stuff
    tweaked around in nvidias control panel
    removed ram and placed it back in.

    I have beginning to think it is a hardware problem. Another important note is that there is a loud fan noise to the right side of his laptop. It appears to still be working but the noise may indicate that the fan isn't blowing to its full potential? I am not sure. I don't want to make him buy a new fan and not solve the problem. As a friend i am all out of options, and i feel terrible because he bought his m15x because of mine. Help!
     
  2. txsizzler

    txsizzler Notebook Geek

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    The freezing issue is likely due to overheating. Have you tried opening the laptop and cleaning the fan, vent, and other internals with a compressed can of air? The processor and GPU probably could use departing with thermal compound as well.

    If that doesnt do it, use a driver cleaner to remove all traces of the video card driver, and reinstall the drivers. You may even consider reloading a fresh copy of the operating system.
     
  3. dovy

    dovy Notebook Consultant

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    if it only freezes on lol and not any other game, it can hardly be hardware issues, although as above guy said, cleaning would help
     
  4. agnu

    agnu Newbie

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    I have done many driver reinstalls with ccleaner. Now it makes me believe that the problem may be the fan. Maybe it is a overheating issue like you said. We will open it up and dust it out as much as possible. Any good video for guides?
     
  5. txsizzler

    txsizzler Notebook Geek

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    Well, while he did say only LOL, my guess is that it is the only game he is playing on the laptop. There is a high chance this is overheating issues.
     
  6. agnu

    agnu Newbie

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    He does play another games like diablo 3 or CS. But league is the only game that completely freezes his laptop and causes us to hard restart every time.
     
  7. ElectricTurtle

    ElectricTurtle Notebook Consultant

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    Use hwinfo32 to log your temps while playing LOL and post it here so that we can all check :D