Aggrivating "lag" associated with 260m gpu

I'm unsure exactly how to describe my problem, so I've really had a hard time searching it either here in the forums or on the internet in general. If this is a problem that has been posted before, I apologize, I simply could not find it.

I have a G71Gx from Best Buy. I have always loved this thing, really a great budget gamer rig. Just recently my gpu fan bit the dust, and started for the first time experiencing the heating issues I've read so much about. That's not my problem tho. I normally play offline games, with the exception of WoW. I've never noticed any problems whatsoever, and typically play with max or near max settings. However, a buddy of mine got me into Modern Warfare 2, and I've noticed something.

When I play on the laptop, it looks as if I suffer maybe half a second to a second lag most of the time when playing multiplayer. You could never tell from normal gameplay as the lagometer ingame always indicates great connections to the host. Every test or setting I've found I've tried with no remedy to the problem.

When I'm playing, if I get into a head on firefight, I'm dead. The near instant I see someone, they already have a bead and are firing on me. It feels a lot like when your playing against a character with an aimbot. When I watch my killcams tho, it shows plenty of time between when they see me and when they scope and begin firing. I know it's not my reflexes or general gaming ability because I can play on my buddies desktop and just have great game after great game.

Nothing I've looked at shows any type of network issue, and the only thing I can think of is either I have a bunk setting in windows (I'm running 7 64 bit btw) or maybe something is wrong with my vid card. Even after a fresh OS install the problem persisted.

I'm curious if any of you other MW2 players notice this, or if there are settings I may be able to tweak to make this split second delay disappear.

Any suggestions are very welcome. Within a week and a half I will be building a new rig for myself, but the laptop will be passed on to the wife, and I would like to solve this problem so she doesn't suffer my frustration.

 

Did you fix your fan yet? I definitely wouldn't use it until you do.

 

I recall this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/513360-new-m11xr1-optimization-must-have.html

It may or probably won't be related.