Sager 5720 performance problems

Hey folks. I have a Sager 5720 and up until about a year ago I was pretty happy with it. I use the system for gaming mostly and I've been experiencing some wicked issues with performance with some high end games while others seem to work fine. Namely I've had issues with NeverWinter Nights 2, F.E.A.R, and most recently The Witcher. My specs fall well within the recommended specs for the each of these games and they run fine on my PC which has lower specs. The problem I'm experiencing is the same with all three games. Everything will work fine initially and then after about 5-10 minutes the frame rate drops dramatically. Another 5 minutes or so and it's back to normal. Another 5-10 minutes and it's back to a crawl again. Lather-rinse-repeat.

When it's running slow the CPU usage is at 99%. Memory usage is never more than about 60-70% at worst (Witcher is a memory hog).

I've spent months trying new drivers, going back to old drivers, running defrag, reloading games, removing unneeded software, stopping unneeded services. The only thing I've not tried to this point is reinstalling the system using the provided recovery CD < It just sickens me to think of the time it's going to take to reload everything I have on my system.

Please tell me I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. Or tell me that you run these games on your 5720 with similar specs and you have no problem. I'm so sick and tired of beating my head against a wall - please tell me something

I'm not a big forum poster (obviously) which just goes to show you how fed up I am that I took the time to register and make this post.

It all just seems so futile...

My specs

Sager 5720
Pentium M 2.0 GHz
2GB DDR2-533 SDRAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX
7200 RPM 80GB ATA/100 Drive

 

I love formating and reloading everything. I notice such a huge performance boost. The key to doing this is of course backing everything up to an external HD. I try to make it a habit to format and reload OS every 6 months or so.

Aside from that, are you monitoring your temps? Could be a thermal issue since the new games are more demanding on the hardware. If you have a can of air I would make sure everything is free of dust build ups.

 

Welcome to the NBR fourms.

geez, yet another overheater.... read this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=192256

You better learn your lesson after this.

 

I have to admit I'm a bit pessemistic that the dust thing will work but I just downloaded this everest software and while running Witcher I did an Alt-Tab and checked my CPU temp which is around 77 degrees celsius. That's pretty high but within operating thresholds. However I don't know how to check the GPU temp and Everest doesn't appear to be able to do that for me so it's quite possible you're right. In any case I'll give it a try (cleaning out the dust) and report back on whether that resolves the issue. It certainly looks like the person in the link you provided was experiencing the exact same issue I am.

If that doesn't work I'll take your advice Habib and reload my system. Or maybe I'll just bite the bullet and do that anyway.

I will post a reply once I have a chance to try this out in the next day or so.

Thanks for the help.

 

It is a common problem with laptops. I have seen it a few times myself. It does happen I would recommend making it a habit to clean every few months that way you don't have any problems.

 

If you GPU temp is reaching around 90-ish C degrees when the system gets slow... then I am 100% sure its overheating that causes the system to downclock in order to cool down.

So you need to open up the panels to reach the fans and vents... use a flashlight and see if you can see through them from the other side of the vent.... I bet you cant see anything (due to dust).

Read this for your temp monitoring needs:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

 

Absolutely amazing!

I just got done blowing huge dust chunks out of the vent in the rear of my laptop. I started up The Witcher and played for a glorious hour without any issues whatsoever. My laptop no longer sounds like a freagin jet engine when I try to play a graphics intensive game.

Many thanks for the tips guys. You probably saved me about 3k that I would have dropped on another laptop had this problem not been resolved.

My new motto...Just say no to dust.

Thanks again!

 

Take care of your gaming notebook.

That goes for everyone else here too!!!

 

Good news! At least someone saved some money today.