m17x problem more serious than i thought

Originally my problem was: when playing Left 4 Dead 2, whenever i strafe left or right and move the camera around its very shakey or jittery. After spending more time I have realized it does this on Oblivion as well and a couple of other games.

my specs are:

2.8ghz core 2 duo
4gb 1066 Ram
ATI mobility 4870 video card
250 gb 7200 RPM HDD

I am running windows 7. I didn't think it was so bad at first but it is definately making games hard to enjoy at all.

Does anyone know of a solution for this?

P.S. I have tried obvious things like messing with vertical sync and turning multicore rendering off in L4D2

 

I'm starting to wonder if its just a faulty machine. If it is, how does dell do replacements? will i have to be without a computer for another month?

Update: I tried a different mouse and I might be imagining it but it seems a little better. It stil seems a little jittery when moving the camera around while strafing though.

Update 2: Should i try reformatting?

 

I've noticed this too in WoW... it comes and goes..

What drivers you using?

 

Put up FRAPS and see if this is a frame rate issue.

Update to latest drivers & make sure you're not running in any power saving modes (full clocks for CPU and GPU is amust).

 

i havent messed with cpu or gpu clocks, they come at full right?

Edit: I installed Fraps, it runs at a constant 60fps with vsync enabled and over 80 without. doesnt fluxuate more than 1 fps. I just switched out my external mouse and keyboard with 2 different ones and it is running better now, i think the problem might have been the mouse i was using. I will report back if there are any other issues.

Back to my older issue. Does anyone know anything about the keyboard buttons needing to be pressed down harder than normal. I am not sure if i'm just not used to it or if its not right. Basically if i push the button down lightly, but still all the way pushed down, it doesnt register. When i put a little more force on that same push, it registers....it feels like i'm typing with a type writer.

 

It wouldn't be a frame rate, at least for a 4870 ATI, that card should be able to cut though that game like butter. The basic Graphics Card: ATI x800/nVidia 6600 or better; DirectX 9 compatible card w/ 128MB memory; Shader model 2.0

recomended is a X1600 ATI or 7600. My friends old P4 alienware can play this game on med specs pretty well. This should not be a issue at all, i have been having the same issue with my SLI nvidias also.