Laptop chugging.

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

My laptop seems to be having real problems running games. It’s a powerful laptop, easily able to run Episode 2, but for some retarded reason that I don’t know, it wants to run like crap. This isn’t the normal shitty FPS problem, the FPS are silky smooth for like a minute then for 10 seconds it chugs along at a slideshow pace, then speeds back up to perfect. It does this all the time, and it usually gets a little better when I restart programs, but deteriorates the longer I play. I need to get this issue resolved before BM comes out, heh. I think it might have something to do with Vista (don’t look at me, it came with Vista) being a horrible operating system. My specs are:

Intel Core 2 Duo 5 GHz
4 GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 770M

#2

That’s not difficult to do, since Valve optimized the fuck out of it. Did you say it ran poorly with Ep. 2, or just other games?

#3

It sounds like an overheating issue. nVidia cards have a safety mechanism that automatically underclocks the gfx card when temperatures climb too high.

First make sure that Windows Power settings are set to max performance, and then monitor the temperatures during gaming.

I assume that you did obvious things like update drivers

#4

Thank you. I actually did update drivers a while ago, but it actually caused a really irritating graphical glitch in Source games and so I downgraded. I guess I’ll have to wait until a new patch.

And yes, my computer does get really fucking hot.

#5

HURR DURR FIVE NIGGAHERTZ

Anyway, Nvidia card: You’re fucked. Many chips they released have been proven to have manufacturing defects which causes them to die prematurely regardless of any actual cooling problems.

#6

feck. last time I get a laptop through my school. times like this I wish I were more hardware savvy :frowning:

#7

When did this happen? Ep2 still runs like crap for me with crysis going at 40fps.

#8

Yeah I have the 8800GT and I’m too scared to update my drivers because of all the news of Nvidia killing cards using the new drivers.

#9

It definitely sounds like a cooling issue.

before declaring your laptop badly manufactured, try using it with a cooling pad or, at the very least, put several fans near it. Monitor the temperatures and see if the performance increases

#10

Duct tape a small CPU fan (pIII,celeron/amd athlon,duron size) to the air intake of the laptop(connected to a 12v adapter or 9v battery) and see if the fps gets better.

Also, install windows 7 ASAP.

#11

You don’t have a bluetooth dongle plugged in or bluetooth enabled on your laptop, and a bluetooth device enabled near it do you. I know this sounds utterly left field, but I was convinced I had a graphics card malfunction on mine for the last 3 days, pretty much what was happening to you. Then I realised my laptop had decided it no longer liked my phone. I pulled out my dongle (wayhey) and all seems to be fixed.

(The number of different drivers I have installed in the last 3 days, as well as employing forced cooling. All cause of my shitty phone.)

#12

No, I don’t have a bluetooth device plugged in. I will invest in a cooling pad. Thanks, everyone. :slight_smile:

#13

Some laptops have built in devices that can start to malfunction for no reason, so just to be safe, go into the device manager and disable everything except the system devices, mouse/keyboard and GPU, then try playing a game.

You’re gonna have no sound and no internet, but if it doesn’t slow down anymore you can re-enable devices one by one until it does, and you might find out what’s causing it. (if it’s a bad onboard device)

#14

Download a program where it will let you control the fan it works great

#15

I’m pretty sure the fan is already designed to spin at 100% when at least one of the temp sensors is overheating.

#16

My shitty laptop (Celery 1.7, 1.25GB RAM, ATi 200 series? onboard video) plays some old games OK, but it does lag like this occasionally. I used to leave Firefox open, but I found that certain windows would randomly take up CPU time, and cause the game to have problems similar to yours.

Additionally, my desktop I have noticed that the sound card drivers cause lagging, and that assigning the game to processors 2, 3 and 4 (instead of all four) solves this problem for me.

What kind of surface are you gaming on? Your lap? A desk? In bed? If you have something blocking any of the vents on the laptop, it can certainly cause overheating issues. Try propping the laptop up on something, so that air can move under the laptop and cool it off…

#17

make sure you have the correct power setting in vista (when gaming set it to power hungry mode).

Also I happen to have one of the laptops that was produced when nVidia was having the problems, It it was confirmed by the manufacture before they when under (everex USA). The problem was to much led content in the soldering process could compromise the integrity of the GPU motherboard connection. For anyone who has a laptop that was produced in this range (around the 7go series) Update your BIOS, most manufactures increased the duty cycle of the fan around 20% and also replace the crappy thermal paste that is on your GPU. My Everex 5000XT runs at least 10ºc cooler at all times now.

Also the cooler stands can help a little but just taking care to only use your laptop on a well ventilated surface will have more of a effect on the longevity of your system.

#18

Hey firetime, I’ve heard the same story about the 8600M series of graphics cards too. That’s why I was bricking it so much. Luckily the card in my lappy is removable. So it’d only cost me £50 and an afternoons work to fix!

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