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    Alienware m15x 8800m GTX choppy gameplay

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by jeebus131, Dec 22, 2008.

  1. jeebus131

    jeebus131 Newbie

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    Hi everybody, first post. I'm currently deployed in Iraq and I decided to fork over the dough for an Alienware before I shipped out so I can play a little bit here. I've been having some trouble, however. Here is my current setup followed by my issue, hopefully somebody can offer a solution.

    Alienware m15x @ 1920x1200
    Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X9000 @ 2.8 Ghz
    4 GB Corsair DDR2 (at 667) - after market purchase
    8800M GTX
    Standard 7200 RPM 100GB HD (first try)
    320GB 5400RPM Western Digital HD (second try)
    Creative X-Fi Notebook PCI-E card
    Blu-Ray ROM
    etc.

    Here is my issue. Whenever I play games now, everything used to be somewhat slow (mainly because it runs on Vista, which eats up a lot of resources), however about once every minute the framerates would drop to less than 5 and stay there for about 3-5 seconds, then go back to what it was. I thought it might be the drivers, so I redownloaded the drivers from Alienware (the Nvidia ones don't work). Same thing. I adjusted the settings to low on everything, same thing. I went back to the standard onboard sound card, same result. After that, I reinstalled Windows Vista on the different hard drive thinking that may have been the issue. It worked well at first, then just recently it started slowing down again. It happens in every game I play. With the fresh install the gameplay was faster, when it worked, but it still slows down. Could it possibly be the RAM? Is anybody else having this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    -Shawn
     
  2. boypogi

    boypogi Man Beast

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    i think its over heating
     
  3. Geoki

    Geoki Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hmm. download hardware monitor and monitor your temps. Makes sure stealth mode isnt activated or any other power saving options for that matter, where it might be restraining the fan from shooting full speed. do you hear your fan blowing at full speed while gaming? if its not then it could be a downclocking issue... there was a bios fix, but if you just got your lappy ...u should have the latest version x36
     
  4. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

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    yeah, use HWMonitor to check your temps while gaming. if you do indeed experience overheating, update your GPU driver to 180.84 1.1 (Dox Custom) and, very important, update your BIOS to X36.
     
  5. cha

    cha Notebook Deity

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    Check out which BIOS version you have. You can do this by checking out your system information.

    BIOS versions below x34 have problems with downclocking with the extreme processor which you have.

    Update your GPU driver as well, you can check out www.laptopvideo2g0.com for the latest drivers and instructions on how to update them.

    Finally, make sure that:
    1. You are on A/C power
    2.. Performance is set to High Performance
    3. Stealth Mode is off
    4. You are using the 8800M GTX and not integrated graphics. You can check this by right clicking on your desktop. If you see Nvidia Control Panel as one of the options, you are on dedicated. If you see Graphics Options as one of the options, you are on integrated.