Sager NP 5760 Slowdowns

So I've had my Sager for a few months now, and it's been treating me wonderfully. However, I've recently noticed it intermittently slowing down. It only started happening since installing F.E.A.R., and happens fairly often while playing that. I was also playing AOEIII and getting slowdowns during that (which I ran perfectly before - so I know it's not that F.E.A.R.'s too much for the machine). Any ideas on how to fix this? I don't have anything running in the background - at least I shouldn't be (going to run some spyware/virus scans in a minute). I don't think it's my GPU overheating because it only happens for several seconds at a time and then goes away.

 

umm yea it does sound like GPU overheating... due to not using it on a cooler or having vents clogged with dust.

do u monitor your temps (GPU, CPU, etc...) like I have been advocating for over a year now ?!? IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS MONITOR THEM... (not to just guess thats its not overheating)

you should, because that sound like the temp is reaching peak and forcing your GPU to downclock for a few seconds to cool down.

do you use a notebook cooler and toggle your fans to max (Fn + F2) ?

check your vents and fans every month to clean them out like this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60914

 

yup GPU.

I had a similar problem. Your heat sinks inside the laptop are probably clogged with dust. Chances are the effectgs arent permanent, but I wouldnt continue to stress the card with a clogged up ventillation system.

Follow gophin's links and use that advice. Ensure when you clean the notebook out you clean between the gpu and cpu heat sinks as well.

 

Well I've been using Rivatuner as per Gohpn's suggestion, and it doesn't seem to be occurring at any given temperature - i.e. it will run fine for awhile at a high temp but then occasionally choke up. Then again, I have no idea what else it could be, so I'll check it out. Problem is I'm traveling so am screw-driver and canned-air deprived, but I'll find some and sort it out.

PS What's a normal temperature for the card when it's working hard? Or at least how much hotter than standard use?

PPS I opened up my laptop and everything looks clean as a whistle. As long as I'm looking at the right thing (the copper fins on the top left of the machine as looking at its underside) the GPU's heatsink seems perfectly fine to me. Maybe I'm just clueless, though. Any other ideas about what it might be?