Troubleshooting Hardware, Inspiron 9100

My apologies if this is not the correct place for this thread...

I have a first gen Inspiron 9100 that I have owned for a little over two years now and I am just now having some issues that are cause for confusion. Simply stated my video performance is going down the tubes with a quickness... especially when playing games or watching video (screen flashes and fans on full blast in seconds).
My thoughts were that the video card is going bad but giving it some pause for thought I am not so sure if's that simple.
I have replaced both the Hard Drive and the Power Supply recently and I am wondering if increased heat or inadequate power might be the culprit... or the cause for damage to the video card.
Here's my setup for reference...

3.2GHz CPU (32-bit), 2GB DDR400, Mobility Radeon 9700 128MB VGA, WD 120GB HDD, True Mobile 1150 Wireless
I'm running Win7RC...

If anyone has any experience or advice that could be of help please feel free and thanks for the read...

 

Check your fans and heatsink. Clean out any dust that's built up.

Put a toothpick in the fan to prevent the blades from spinning, and blast away with compressed air.

 

All the fans are working... and then some, they ramp to "Hair Dryer" in about a minute.
I'm thinking that the non-Dell AC Adapter I bought off eBay might be at fault. Inconstant or poor power might be taxing the system. Either that or the video card's about to tank.

Thank you for the advice...

 

Just because they're spinning doesn't mean they aren't caked with dust. Might as well give it a try anyway.

 

Would second Mastershroom's suggestion. Clean out your vents, especially if the fans have been running a lot over the years. It could be the power supply, though; oftentimes those fake power bricks will run fine at low power draws, but they may not be able to supply their maximum rated wattage. Only way to test that is to get a genuine Dell brick...

If your video card isn't artifacting or anything, there's a fair chance that this might not be a graphics issue.

 

Make sure you blast your compressed air somewhere else first (just in the air somewhere) to ensure you are not blowing the condensed vapours in there.

Easy to test if it's the AC adapter; does it also happen when running from battery. If so, adapter not in the wrong. Apologise to it and get back to giving your laptop a clean.

Dust builds up considerably over time; it's quite suprising really, and it really hurts the temperature inside your notebook, and none of your notebook parts like the warmth. They should come and live in England, we never get the warmth here.

 

Cracked the laptop open and WOW... Mastershroom was right about the dust. I cleaned it out... it's still flickering but cleaning the thing did make me feel a bit more responsible.

AND...

I feel stupid for not unplugging the damn thing yet... trying that now, thank you Fragilexx. It does artifact, but only after quite a few levels of play... and much heat.

Off to the wall plug...

 

And the Diagnosis is...

...it's the El Cheapo PS. I played through 8 levels of UT2004 and no flickering or artifacts.

Thank you to everyone for you help

 

No problem, glad you've got it sorted. With all that dust cleared out you should at least notice the fan is quieter if nothing else

 

http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=category&id=141&subid=73 for a Dell Power brick.