XPS M1530 Performance Issues

Hey all,

So I've got a Dell XPS M1530 which is almost 2 years old. Specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 @ 2.50 GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Graphics Card: nVidia 8600M GT
OS: Windows 7 Pro

So I started gaming, playing mostly Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft. Everything was alright for like 2-3 months. However, just recently I started noticing a massive drop in frame rate as I'm playing MW2. I thought it might've been my settings, so I drop it to minimum settings and I'm still getting less than 20 fps, when I could previously get around about 30 fps on medium settings.

I figured it might be my GFX drivers, so I hopped onto the nVidia website and downloaded the latest drivers. Didn't fix the problem.

Maybe it was my fan, so I opened it up and cleaned it out. No luck. GPU temps were normal and I'm still getting unplayable FPS.

I fired up 3D Mark 06 and scored around 2200~ points out of an average of runs. I have nothing over/underclocked, everything is pretty much stock except for the OS which I upgraded to Windows 7 Pro from Windows Vista Home.

So right now I'm totally stuck. I don't know what to do. I've tried programs such as Game Booster but my FPS still remains terrible and I have no idea why.

I came across this thread and the 3D Mark scores posted there totally steamroll the ones I got, and I seem to have better hardware than the specs posted.

So I'm hoping some of you guys could help me out. Bear in mind I'm rather noobish at over/underclock and whatnot so pardon me if I don't get some things. How can I get 4000ish 3DMarks with my system?

Thanks in advance

 

I would get 3DMark06 scores of around 4200 from my Vostro 15 /8600M GT.

Did the performance issue occur near the time you upgraded Vista?

I would not rule out driver issues. The 8600M GT was really sensitive to drivers. I liked using the DOX Optimized drivers from the laptopvideo2go website.

Have you checked temps on the CPU as well?

Lets start with that ...

Bronsky

 

Thanks for your reply Bronsky

When I upgraded to Win 7, general performance actually improved as far as I can remember. My system rating score increased, with my HDD transfer rate being rated lowest at 5.4.

But now since I've noticed these performance issues, the score changed and my Graphics is lowest at 5.0. It definitely wasn't that low before. So I'm quite sure it wasn't my upgrade to Win 7 that caused the performance issues, if anything they improved performance.

I'm not very familiar with the concept of modded drivers so I haven't tried downloading anything from laptopvideo2go because I'm not entirely sure of the effects.

CPU temps are normal. On 3DMark06 the CPU score is well above the GPU ones so yeah.

Still stonewalled

 

Try uninstalling the current drivers, using Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode, and rebooting to install the new drivers.

Or the modded driver's. I've never tried those, but hear they can be nice.

~Ibrahim~

 

When was the last time you cleaned the dust out of your fan?

I was noticing severe performance drops, and assumed it was due to my m1530 overheating.

Got some compressed air, and aimed it at the "blowout" hole in the back of the computer and literally a huge cloud of dust shot through the fan. Things seem to run much smoother now.

Check out this image of how gross it can get: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/images/Dell-XPS-M1530/clean-replace-cooling-fan-07.jpg

 

Cheers. I'll be sure to try that, but I have no idea what Driver Sweeper is Time to do some Googling.

Edit: Googled and found Driver Sweeper and custom drivers. Trying your suggestion now

Edit 2: Tried this suggestion and downloaded a modded driver that supposedly brings good results (Dox' 185.85 Forceware). Ran 3DMark06 and got the following scores

3DMark Score - 2803
SM 2.0 Score - 1088
SM 3.0 Score - 972
CPU Score - 2259

A slight improvement, but when I tried to play MW2 it still lags like crazy

I cleaned it out about a week ago after noticing the performance drops. I also used compressed air and a flashlight to make sure I could see the light from the other side. As far as I know the fan's pretty clean.

Didn't fix the performance issues

 

One of the things which makes my M4300 downclock seems to be when I run it on a 65W power supply instead of a 90 W PSU.
(If I am not mistaken, it actually runs faster on batteries than on the 65W PSU)

 

Hmmm...how are the temperatures on the card when you game? EDIT: Just re-read first post. Normal, then?

Not to nit-pick, but what resolution do game at? 3DMark '06 at?

Any chance of a system restore?

 

Temperatures seem normal hovering around 73+ C when gaming and around ~60C when idle.

I game at 1400x900 resolution, which is the same resolution I used before the performance drops and everything was fine.

3DMark06 at 1280x1024. Always used this resolution as I only have the normal trial version of 3DMark06.

And unfortunately, I can't system restore. Checked all the points and there doesn't seem to be one far back enough to a time before the performance issues started showing up.

 

Go into nVidia's control panel and go into 3D Settings. Go to COD and WoW's executable there and make sure everything is set to default.

Alternately, you could try going *back* a few versions in the drivers. Sometimes, with nVidia, newer isn't always better (speaking from experience).

~Ibrahim~

P.S. Temps look fine; idle is a bit high, but maybe these cards just run hot. Either way, load isn't anywhere near throttling temperatures.

 

Get the latest drivers from nVidia's site. The previous update had bugs.

 

Yup everything's default.

As for rolling back drivers, I'm not sure if that'll do much because I noticed the performance errors using the old driver, the latest driver and the modded driver from laptopvideo2go.

Yeah already tried the latest drivers, still underperforming

 

Hmmm.

Can you grab a GPU-Z screen shot?

~Ibrahim~

 

Taken just a few moments ago. Only Chrome with a few tabs open, MSN and DestroyTwitter. Been on for a couple hours.

 

Looks normal AFAIK; only the 8x/16x seems slightly weird, but everything else is normal.

Can you check the "log" button and then game some? Upload the log, then.

 

The weirdest thing just happened.

So I started playing some MW2 when I noticed my framerate is actually pretty damn good. So I cranked up the sttings to medium-high. Whatdya know frame rate still holds.

Alright time to benchmark. Fired up 3DMark06 and surprisingly enough:

4418 3DMarks
1798 SM 2.0 Score
1622 SM 3.0 Score
2185 CPU Score

I'm not sure what just happened. In fact I don't have a clue. Ever since I did what I wrote in my last few posts (driver sweep to modded driver), I didn't do any tweaking of settings or anything =/

I'm glad everything's good now, but I'm also really curious as to what happened

 

Huh....I have no idea. Background program? Power settings?

Glad it's "semi" fixed!

~Ibrahim~

 

Hahah as far as I know there was nothing different than before xD Constant background programs, same power settings and charger.

Anyway, I appreciate the help that you and everyone else have given me I'll definitely come back here should there be any other problems since everyone's been really helpful

 

So could anyone recommend me a driver for this card?

I'm running an 8600m gt on a Dell Xps m1530.

I haven't updated for awhile and was wondering if anything could help me bring up the fps on Metro 2033.

What driver would you recommmend?

T

 

These ones work fine, select 64 or 32 bit from the Notebook drivers

25x Series GeForce Driver Releases - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

Adam

 

Hey thanks, can you be a bit more specific? Like what are you using?

T