is this my M17x or windows 7 or something else?

When i first got my M17x a few weeks ago it seemed fine. Now that i am playing some games on it I am noticing something weird.

The latest example is: I installed Lord of the Rings online last night. The install went smoothly. The problem is when I try to load the game. The game loads but it takes upwards of 3 or 4 minutes to load the game...I don't remember ever having anything like that on my older desktop (much much less powerful than my M17x) when i played it on that computer.

After experiencing this it reinforced the feeling i had about other games seeming to load slowly.

When in the game its alright...lord of the rings is a little twitchy and never really becomes completely smooth, even when i turn the graphics down.

I have the configuration with the Ati 4870 and am using driver 9.10.

I am hoping this is just a video driver issue or something small, but i am suspecting it could be faulty memory or other hardware issues.

 

I am running the video driver from Dell's website and LOTRO is running great for me. There is still the typical lag in the 21st hall though, but that is a server side issue. I haven't played in a couple days though and they were supposed to do a significant hardware upgrade on the servers yesterday. You may want to check the lotro forums and see if anyone else is having the same issues.

 

I will try the dell driver for the ati 4870 but my issue is also there when playing other games including L4D2, Oblivion, Guild Wars. Loading times seem to take a lot longer than they should and the game doesnt feel as smooth as it should.

Update: I installed the driver from the dell website and the load time is actually worse with it. it took about 2 minutes to load into character select and then after 2 minutes it still hadnt displayed my selected character yet.

 

Are you sure you're running on the ATI and not the integrated graphics? What entry is showing under display adapters in device manager?

 

in device manager its ATI 4870. I even checked in bios that the integrated graphics was disabled

i've been trying a lot of things. With this and my keyboard being shoddy (button presses only register 2/3rds of the times pressed) i think i might just return it and look for a different laptop (have only had it a couple weeks.

hopefully there are fixes for these issues (i've given up on the keyboard problem since no one replied with a fix to my thread about it and i couldn't find anything).

 

Aren't game loading times more impacted by the hard drive than the video card? How much free space do you have on the drive (I would think you have plenty given that it's a new machine). If < 50%, what about fragmentation?

I just got my M17x on Dec 11th, so I'm still learning my way around it. Took a look at your thread, and I have the same experience as you with the keyboard. I've chalked that up to a different feel - just need to be more deliberate pressing the keys. I tend to use a light touch, so this will be a bit of an adjustment, but I see it more as a problem with me than the keyboard itself.

I also did a keypress test in notepad (nothing scientific), but the keys registered every time as long as I made sure I was pressing moderately and not lightly. The key travel may give up resistance over time.

 

The hard drive is less than half filled. i also checked and its not fragmented. It's good to hear that its not just me with the keyboard problem but i still think its a problem with the keyboards. you shouldnt have to push hard on the keys, it will only cause keyboards to break faster.

 

Have you check the lotro site about ati grapics cards. Also when you seid it boot up better on a older system. What are the specs of the older system.

Issues I read up on lotro was. when you run a instance depending on your hard drive Just due to the fact lotro is a Huge game 12.3gb.

Have you tried any memory test.

 

My older desktop was from early 2005 and it wasnt top of the line then. It had 2 gigs of DDR ram, a 2.0GHz Pentium D, I think the graphics card was an nvidia 8600 or somewhere around there, and a low end one. With that system lotro flew with no issues and really good load times.

Also, so far i haven't ran any instances in Lotro. i am just talking about the loading time from when you select your character to when it is game, which is when it loads all of its textures, etc.

I don't have this loading issue on all games, but definately on a few including L4D2 and oblivion.

 

I see a few post in lotro about famework issues. I dont have a alienware laptop now due to the fact I sent mine for a replacement due to 103c in Lord of the rings.

Some suggested load in admin Mode. Also do your search as Ati Windows 7.
Have you tried running Lotro just on the geforce 9400. Just to see if the issue still happen. If both type of gpu have the same issue then it software. If it work on geforce 9400 it could be one of your gpus are bad or need new drivers.

Most of the talk of windows 7 is here http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=298547

When I order my laptop hopefully tomarrow. Oh question What server are you on in lotro.

 

Landroval, character name in Mneuril, human captain. feel free to say hi in game.

 

I am on Meneldor

Zantar LM, Nasp LM, Atol Hunter, Sithchean RK, Ghostly Burgler, Daigh Warden, Tarvos Champ, Scilti Capt and Sativola Gaurd. Alot of the names I use a Celtic baby Name book.

 

Ha that is awesome. About the problems i have been having. I tried some things suggested on the forums. I am going to just accept that for right now LOTRO and windows 7 don't gel together well.

 

Hey Mneumonicxx.
Is the problem you are having your loading screen when you first log into the charactor screen? If so, I have noticed a signifiicant increase of loading times since I upgraded my M1730 to Windows 7 from vista, the initial loading screen takes nearly 2 mins, as before on Vista Ultimate it took around 20-30 seconds. I was thinking of going back to Vista ultimate instead of Windows 7 ultimate, but my frame rate in game has increased by 20 FPS in most places on Win 7, even 21st Hall, pre SoM. So I am going to stick with it for a while. My new M17x has Windows 7 on but i have not installed LOTRO yet.

So I would say it is Windows 7 causing this, maybe in the next patch or book update they will sort this out.

 

really its all loading times in LOTRO. the initial load before the character select screen and the one after you select your character. the total time to be in game is sometimes nearly 5 minutes.

 

Have you tried running the game in Vista SP2 Compatibility mode?

 

yea that didn't seem to do much if anything.