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M18x Random slowdowns during games?

post #1 of 7
9/10/12 at 2:18pm
Thread Starter 

Hello all!!!

 

Ok So I intially had an M17x for around a year and some bad things happened so Alienware upgraded me to an M18x around christmas of last year! It has been great, although I have been playing games on and off. Not quite as often as I thought. But regardless I have been having some problems recently while playing games. It runs flawlessly for around 10 minutes(Think 60+ FPS on Skyrim) and then CRAWLS for around 4-5 minutes before starting back up again, and then crawling for another 4 to 5 minutes(think 3-6 FPS). It has become so annoying that I went back and cleaned out all the crap on my PC, uninstalled games and almost started from scratch. That still didnt help. Im kind at a loss for what could be causing this. Is it an over heating issue? I never noticed the laptop running INSANELY warm, or having any problems. Plus I keep it elevated so the vents are not covered. And its only been happening with games. No problems with movies, flash games or anything super CPU intensive. I figured with 4 gigs of ram and 2 580's running in SLI, that it could handle something like skyrim without a problem...And like I said, it runs AMAZINGLY for the first 10 minutes or so...

 


Specs:

 

 

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Alienware A04, 10/7/2011
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M running in SLI
 
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post #2 of 7
9/10/12 at 2:22pm
I would look into taking it apart and perform some cleaning inside, with new thermal paste first

cheers ...
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post #3 of 7
9/10/12 at 6:27pm
Thread Starter 

Would there be a slightly...less intrusive way to fix the problem? Ie a software fix (Update, virus remover ect?) Or does it sound more like a heat/dust problem?

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post #4 of 7
9/11/12 at 1:51am
Dell/Alienware machines attract dust big time winknudge.gif

You can try with a can of compressed air and vacuum cleaner around the vents if you don't want to take the machine apart and see if any improvements.

As far as software concerns, use cCleaner and running some sweeps and see

cheers ...
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post #5 of 7
1/1/13 at 6:03pm

I don't see any reply or further dialogue. Did you solve this by taking it apart and cleaning out the dust and lint? Using compressed air from the outside just spreads the crap around and does not really fix anything.

 

You probably do not need to repaste and it is not even a little bit difficult to do a really thorough job of cleaning. Pop out the battery and remove 4 screws around the perimeter of the battery opening. Slide the bottom cover off. This exposes the fans. Take the screws out holding each fan in. Lift them out. You can leave the wires connected. Use a vacuum cleaner to vacuum out the heat sink fins, fans and cloth screens on the bottom cover intake vents. Hold the fans so the air flow does not spin them at a high RPM (can damage the fans). If you have never done this before you will likely be shocked and amazed at the improvement.

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post #6 of 7
1/15/13 at 1:48pm

I was looking for this topic.....thanks for sharing with us.
 

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post #7 of 7
1/15/13 at 10:20pm
Good to know. Come by more often smile.gif

cheers ...
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