Having lots of problems running games on the P-7915u

Okay so I recieved this laptop two days ago and I've been testing a few games out. I tried running The Orange Box(HL2, Portal, TF2) and all of them seem to have problems. Portal freezes every time I start it up and TF 2 seems to freeze on me every now and then and play the sound in a never ending loop like 5 minutes into the game. And I'm not talking about hiccups or lagging, but the game it's so bad to the point where I have to open up task manager and end it.
I've tried downloading the lastest driver from NVIDIA before I tested out this game(I was also having issues with a previous game) and my video card settings became inaccessible from the start menu. So I decided to run system restore and return to the previous old driver.
And my internet doesn't seem to be an issue because everyone says it's fine when I post my stats on other forums. I use AT&T DSL and it's around 54 mbps, which is pretty decent from what I've heard.

Soo what gives?

EDIT: I installed the latest DOX driver that supported my video card and it runs Portal perfectly. But Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 still seem to have the same problems.

 

1) download HWmonitor to log your temperatures at all time
2) download GPU-Z to log your GPU clockspeed at all times. It is the 2nd tab
3) set profile to high performance
4) run a game and see if the problem is caused by high temps or GPU downclocking.
5) always run games when plugged in.

 

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Shader Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Memory Used [MB] , GPU Load [%] , Memory Controller Load [%] , Video Engine Load [%] ,

2009-12-18 13:08:57 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 43.0 , 65 , 6 , 4 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:08:58 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 43.0 , 65 , 1 , 2 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:23 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 2 , 3 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:24 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 2 , 3 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:25 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 2 , 3 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:26 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 1 , 2 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:27 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 1 , 2 , 0 ,

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Shader Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Memory Used [MB] , GPU Load [%] , Memory Controller Load [%] , Video Engine Load [%] ,

2009-12-18 13:09:32 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 7 , 4 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:33 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 4 , 4 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:34 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 1 , 2 , 0 ,

2009-12-18 13:09:35 , 200.0 , 120.0 , 400.0 , 44.0 , 65 , 2 , 3 , 0 ,



Hardware monitor ACPI
Temperature 0 36°C (96°F) [0xC14] (TZS0)
Temperature 1 36°C (96°F) [0xC14] (TZS1)

Hardware monitor Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8700
Temperature 0 27°C (80°F) [0x49] (Core #0)
Temperature 1 28°C (82°F) [0x48] (Core #1)

Hardware monitor NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Temperature 0 44°C (111°F) (GPU Core)

Hardware monitor Hitachi HTS545032B9A
Temperature 0 32°C (89°F) [0x20] (Assembly)

Hardware monitor Battery 1
Voltage 0 11.46 Volts [0x2CC0] (Current Voltage)
Capacity 0 86580 mWh [0x15234] (Designed Capacity)
Capacity 1 82640 mWh [0x142D0] (Full Charge Capacity)
Capacity 2 59318 mWh [0xE7B6] (Current Capacity)
Level 0 5 pc [0x5F] (Wear Level)
Level 1 72 pc [0x47] (Charge Level)





The hardware gets slightly hotter. As for the video card, there's not that big of a change.

 

Try other video drivers and make sure you uninstall and install them correctly (Follow the instructions in the Nvidia sticky at the top of this forum).

I've been using Dox 182.46 drivers for a long time and have never had a single problem with these drivers. There are also threads with other recommended drivers that can be found by searching.

 

Oh ok, but it's mainly for laptops with an 8800 or 9800. Will it be okay with a 260M GTX?

 

Its not mainly for laptops with an 8800 or 9800. That driver isn't even mainly for laptops.

It's listed -

Mobile GPUs:
NVIDIA_G92.DEV_0618.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M"

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/23485-dox-optimised-182-46/

 

Oh, I thought you were referring to one of the stickies listed at the top.
Thanks.

 

I tried the updated version of that driver, the 185.85 DOX one.
Still didn't work too well. It took a while longer for TF2 to freeze up but it's still having the exact same problems.
And this is the laptop I'm currently using by the way:
http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668355.php
As you can see, the specs are high enough, so obviously that isn't the problem.

I've read up similar situations on other forums but it doesn't seem to have a definite solution to it. People say it might be best to download the latest driver from the motherboard manufacturer or the sound card manufacturer but I have no clue at all how to do that. Heck, I don't even know the companies that manufactured those cards for my laptop.

 

I didn't post about the 185.85.

I played plenty of HL2 with the 182.46 driver and never had a single problem.

 

Disable powermizer