m5550i-r3 question

This is an older laptop but hopefully i could get some answers for the problem I am having.

One problem I am having is that it runs EXTREMELY slow when on battery I'm talking like 30-45 seconds to open firefox or chrome. When it loads browsing is decent, but if I go to youtube or similar unwatchable choppy video and audio. I know its an older laptop but it doesn't seem right. I hadn't done anything to the laptop, except for 4gb ram, since it was ordered so i figured a new CPU would do the trick. T2300 out and T7300 in. Overall amazing upgrade when plugged in, on battery about the same. So next thing, a new HDD. The old one had a sata interface so i figured it was modern, but with a little snooping i found out it was an IDE bus with a sata interface. So i get a modern WD scorpio black. Fresh install of win7 64 and all the drivers etc, another big boost with it plugged in but on battery only minor speed increase.

This leads me to the only thing I haven't upgraded yet, the video card. It's pretty dated now ati x1400 128mb. There are a few sites aimed at upgrading mxm video cards but they all really push the best cards w/ 512mb memory. I have tried these cards but they all require you to downgrade to a bios that doesnt support 4gb of memory.

I found a nice medium with a ati radeon HD3650 256MB card that will hopefully work with bios 2.07(support for 4gb of ram). Has anyone gotten this to work? or maybe some suggestions for the slowness on battery?

TL: DR

Slow on battery, proc upgraded, HDD upgraded, video card not upgraded.

Does the ATI radeon HD3650 256mb work on bios 2.07?

 

Your setup should support the Geforce 7600 gt.

 

You can get the 7600go GPU here LINK. And it will work in the m5550. I used to have an m5550.

 

how long ago did you get the RAM, and which type did you get?

it could be a memory issue. i would run memcheck and make sure there aren't any errors in your memory.

also, i believe you're running the Intel 945PM chipset which doesn't support more than 4GB of RAM. this means you will be over the threshhold and you will have an excess of 256 megabytes of ram that is unused by the system. this issue isn't a OS limitation, this is a hardware limitation. you have 4GB of memory, and then 256MB of video memory. the computer should allocate resources to utilize the VRAM but not fully utilize your RAM.

 

Wow...i have the same exact model alienware as you. I ordered the new battery from atbatt.com and i followed the instructions. but the computer runs sooooooo slow, even on high performance mode. i have the ATI graphics card, and I upgraded my hdd and ram. I think there is a compatibility issue and I cant seem to find a battery that will replace my old one. I don't know what the problem is but it is extremely annoying. let me know what happens...

 

Thanks for the replies I know the 7600go is supported but for the same price I can get an HD3650 which is somewhat modern. As for the battery, my original one got to a point that it wouldn't hold a charge and I ordered a new one and the slowness began. But the battery is the exact same specs as the original one voltage and everything.

Edit: The link for the 7600 is and has been out of stock for many months.

 

also for the memory there are no problems with that, I have ran memtest and it passes.

 

I found out the battery is not compatible, I ordered a different battery from shop battery and it worked great. Although the battery you got has the same voltage/specs, there is some underlying compatability issue. I once ordered an m5550 battery (which caused the slowness), but then i found a website that sold m5550i-r3. I'm pretty sure theres a difference between m5500, m5550, and m5550i-r3 batteries, even though they all look the same and have the same voltage.

Heres the link: Alienware AREA-51M 5550i-R3, M5550i-R3, Model P53IN Series Li-Ion Replacement Laptop Battery

 

Ya thats the exact battery i have in my system. I ordered it from shopbattery.net and its the 9-cell

but ill give a new battery a shot see if it helps.

 

Hey guys,

Just an update on this thread i got a new battery and that solved the problems I was experiencing. I could not find a 9-cell battery this time so i got a normal 6 cell.

Thanks!