Problems Overclocking my GT240m Alienware

So I have an alienware m15x. Ive had it a few months, bought it used for pretty cheap. I upgraded the ram to 8gb. It runs everything I have played on it just fine. I normally just play Shogun total war and Star wars knights of the old republic. I recently purchased diablo 3 and it is very laggy. I have had gaming laptops before and normally just a mild overclock (or underclock if it was heating up) would help. So I download EVGA Precision X an gave it a try. brought all my clocks up a bit, dont remember the exact except I know i brought the core clock up from 550 to 650 and the game ran awesome on max settings. I kept a close eye on heat and I didnt get over 56. I thought I had room to overclock more actually. Anyway, I shut down for the day. The next day I fired up the laptop, logged on and it was D3 was laggy again. So I went into EVGA to check the clocks, they had reverted back to normal. I thought I must have just forgot to apply at startup. Well moved the slide to where I had it the day before and hit apply and it instantly reverted back to default. Now thats all I can get it to do. Ive tried everything. I have changed drivers 6 times, got newer ones, reverted back to older ones etc etc. There are no overclocking options in my bios so thats not an option. I flashed from A1 to A9 bios that didnt help. I tried installing a desktop driver following a walkthrough, that didnt help. Ive tried rivia tuner and MSI afterburner and nothing worked. Whats left? I have no idea why it worked before and it doesnt now. I tried to do a system restore but by the time i thought of that it had been 4 days and my restore points didnt go back far enough due to the 923493284923 changes i made to drivers and bios etc. Someone please help! I am like 20 hours in this and at my wits end.

 

Make sure you're not in stealth (low power) mode

Download and run Vantage to make sure your GPU is performing properly

What is your CPU?

The GT240M is pretty old. Even a ~$75 260M would be a drastic upgrade.

 

Use MSI Afterburner. Better programme. My GT 240M on Acer Aspire 8735G runs on that OC: Core 688 MHz, Shader 1522 MHz(don't linked core clock with shader,normal clock to 688 @ core is 1513 mhz) and Memory 1000 MHz.

 

What kind of CPU is it you've got?

You might want to play around with ThrottleStop as it sounds as if you might be throttling...

 

Later that night I tried it again and it just worked... It has been working every since. I do want to look at some of the other things you guys suggested but now I am paranoid that for some reason it will just glitch out again. I used evga to get it to work, I would like to try afterburner because with evga i can only set core clock (bumped from 550 to 705) and shader (bumped to 948( ish?) which is its max in evga) I remember MSI had one more setting to adjust and the shader could go higher. my normal operating temp was 56 or so, no im at 58-60. Im averaging about 59 and the max ive seen is 61. With those temps dont I have alot more room to OC?

Whats the best card I could put in it and where can I buy it? I am not opposed to an upgrade just cant readily find the parts.

 

here is a place where you can buy graphics cards, i would go with a 6990m, or 7970m. i know the 6990/6970 will work and i believe the 7970m will work as well, then all you need to do is upgrade the cpu so it wont bottleneck.
Laptop Video Cards - R&J Technology, Clevo Barebone Notebook kits, Laptop and desktop system builder

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/658295-7970m-m15x-why-yes.html#

here 300 for a 940xm http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...17?pt=CPUs&hash=item33773e4ed9#ht_1226wt_1396

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-720QM Processor ,Alienware score: 5526 PCMarks

I ran 3dmark and this is what I got. for some reason it doesnt show my GPU clocks.

 

I think my GPU is starting to die.... (for the last few weeks it hasnt been booting right up everytime, i checked the error code and it is a GPU error...) so it looks like an upgrade is in the works anyway! The new question becomes, what card can I get for around 300 bucks (or less) that will have relatively few kinks during the installation of hardware and drivers? links to parts would help. Ive seen a few things on ebay 260s, 280s, and 285s that were all fair priced but I dont really know if they will work and if I can re use my old heat sink etc. I really just want to be able to play a few of the future MMOs and Arma II, I dont really need to have like a super awesome card but I would like one thats way better than my 240m

 

well first you need to check what kind of mxm slot you have, and i believe it is mxm 3.0a, so you could upgrade to pretty much any card available that is mxm 3.0a

heres one its a 6770m which is fairly newer and fast and its dx11 for around 200 plus shipping, also you need to ask whoever is selling it if it comes with a heatsync, or find out if your current heatsync will accept the new card. also get the gddr5 card not the ddr3.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-Mobilit...V_Cards_TW&hash=item257126b64c#ht_1442wt_1396

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/...1GB-MXM-A-VGA-Video-Card-for-aliens-M17x.html

 

How do I go about finding out if I have an MXM 3a? I am looking for the closest to a drop in replacement as possible. I am pretty tech savy, built several desktops but there is always some super frustrating hang up when venturing into unfamiliar territory and I am trying to avoid it by clocking with something close. Although I would like to get a decent pump in performance.

Would something like this work? NVIDIA GTX 570M 3.0GB DDR5 MXM Upgrade Notebooks Mobile GPU Video Card 560M 460M | eBay

 

nope unfortunately you have an mxm 3.0a slot which is sort of uncommon now, so the fastest card you could put in would be that hd6770m that i had pointed out before, its actually a great card, the only thing is you need to figure out whether it will come with a heatsink or not by contacting the seller of the card.

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/9...iens-M17x.html

but if you want to look for something else go ahead and search for a card that is "mxm3.0a" and make sure it will work with your heatsink or comes with its own heatsink.

then after you find a card, you would need some thermal paste for it and that should be it.

 

MXM 3.0 a and b have the same slots. The Alienware should be able to run a MXM 3.0b card.

 

its the same slot, but the card itself is shorter,

eugeniusii if you could go ahead and measure the length of the slot for us to confirm its length that would be great and then if its big enough to fit a 3.0b card you could possibly fit up to a 7970m into your m15x.

also could you tell us the exact model number so that we can be sure, thanks.