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    alienware M15x overheating and low FPS issues

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Sean Hee, Apr 22, 2015.

  1. Sean Hee

    Sean Hee Newbie

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    Hi guys,

    First off I would like to say I'm a total amateur, and I've been having this alienware M15x for 3 years now. The first year was fine and later the laptop started to overheat, so I bought a laptop cooler. Without the laptop cooler my laptop will shut down by itself and I could feel the sides being hot. I play games such as Dota 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive without the battery, I've always plugged in the AC Adaptor. A few times I've been getting messages like me not using the correct adaptor but I ignored it anyways, so I'd like to ask if my overheating issues could be the poor quality of the AC Adaptor?

    The other problem I'm having is low FPS issue. At first I was getting 120-150 FPS on CS:GO and now I'm playing with 40-50 which is ****ty.(my graphic card is the ATI Radeon HD 5850) I tried downloading the latest graphics card but it doesn't seem to be working, so I would like to seek help. Thank you for everyone who replies to this.
     
  2. KTHIRY

    KTHIRY Notebook Enthusiast

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    Sean Hee,

    Hey man, welcome. You stated that you're a total amateur and that you've had the laptop for 3 years and started to have heating issues. First thing I would absolutely try is to take the bottom cover off and spray the fans and vents with canned air from the inside out since you do not want to blow dust and particles into your machine. It's simple and there are disassembly videos to help you with the process. A link below takes you to a YouTube video of Alienware Services showing you how to disassemble the computer. Once you do that, see how your temps are and let us know. If you do not have it, you can download HWiNFO64 to monitor your temperatures. If you're having thermal problems like you say you are, you could be having thermal throttling with your graphics card, which would cause low performance resulting in FPS loss. Also, I would highly recommend that you get a couple of containers to put your screws in. Alienware does a great job of labeling the screw holes, but you need to keep track of which screws go where. What I do is have several containers, one for each different screw type, and place a piece of paper of which screw is in the container, such as (P), (I), and so on. If the area is not particularly marked, you can write on the piece of paper where the screws went, such as "bottom cover/panel" or "display" if they are not marked (D) on the M15x. If you're only going to remove the bottom cover to clean out fans and vents, no biggie, but wanted to give you a head's up in case you tried to go further with it down the road, such as re-pasting the CPU and GPU. Best wishes and best of luck.

    Video:
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2015
    Alienware-Wasserman and TqM like this.
  3. TqM

    TqM Notebook Guru

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    I've been living with that message for a long time now, many others too. The message itself is unrelated to your problem. There are ways to fix it mostly involving mods to the PSU block ranging from pulling out the center pin to modding the block itself.
    My advice is to keep ignoring the message.. just hit F1 and continue on your way.

    KTHIRY gives good advice though do what he said.

    Those ATI's run quite warm so keep those vents clear. If you're running a stationary rig then consider removing the mesh that covers the fan intakes from the back cover in order to increase airflow. (not a good idea if you ever put it on your lap etc.)
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2015
  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    I'd take KTHIRY suggestion. It does seem like the machine may need a repaste and a clean after 3 years of usage.