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11 Posts
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46186
FPS drop / stuttering in all games but not when benchmarking on m15x
Hi,
About 3 months after purchasing my m15x it suddenly started to stutter. I recall that on that day there were no windows update/anti-virus update/game update. Nothing. I made a post back then:
"Two days ago I was watching a video, but then after it finished I left my m15x idle for a very long time. When I came back it had a black screen, fans blowing at full throttle and totally non-responsive. I had to hold down the power button to restart it, after that I didn't do anything on it and then shut it down for the night."
I have been busy for a while so I have only been able to sort it out now. Ever since that night on any games I get stutters after a while every 10-15sec depending on what I'm doing. The fps would drop to 0 for a few sec each time. As of now, the audio can lag without the video lagging but when the video fps drops the audio stutters as well.
After the stuttering starts, it will continue despite switching games. It tends to stutter / fps drop more in Starcraft 2 and Crysis 2, but better in Witcher 2. In Witcher 2 I only get the stutters during fights and cinematics.
Stuttering does not occur in benchmarking. AW Tech Support told me my 3DMark was normal.
Ironically I received my laptop back from Dell with a note claiming that "All video, sound and multimedia handling are smooth." This guy then told me to run it on a lower resolution... I can run Starcraft 2 on my MacBook, not even a MacBook PRO on the lowest settings without stuttering / FPS drops. But then now my m15x can't even handle what my macbook can handle. It seems that this Dell engineer is implying that my two year old macbook is more designed for gaming than my alienware?
This is a brief list of what I have done since then:
Reinstalled all drivers x9
Roll-back all drivers x5
Reinstalled graphics card driver on its own x4 (on top of the 5 times)
Reinstalled windows x5 (FIVE TIMES) [NOTE:They still recommended me to do more reinstalling...Thank you Alienware Tech Support]
Motherboard replaced x1
Graphics card replaced x4 (They gave me a broken one on the third time...)
Checked Temperatures many times, always normal.
Uninstall/reinstall antivirus - no difference on preformance with or without.
Tried offline/online plays - no difference
Tech Support claims that this is a software issue? Yes/No
Yes: No problem in benchmarking / 3Dmark
No: Software issues should be fixed with a few reinstallations
Any ideas? :(
EDIT:
Some System Info...
Memory - 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
Video Card - 1.5GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M
Hard Drive - 500GB Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive
Operating System - Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
Processor - Intel® Core™ i7 740QM (1.73 Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
Dabk89
2 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2011 10:00
currently i had a same problem as well which it shutter but only on particular game...i try run 3D benchmark and is show my graphic performance is low....:(
my laptop spec is similar with you only different is my memory ram is 6gb...
Mind to share with me if u solve the problem?
AlienHK
11 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2011 11:00
I've been trying to solve this for quite a while now, yes 3Dbenchmark showed mine as low too. But Tech support told me it was normal??
Did yours start randomly like mine?
If I do solve it, it would probably on here.
Noel Ho
69 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2011 16:00
Hi guys ... i had the same issue! No visible updates (might have autoupdated in the background and i didnt notice at the time) and thought my notebook was broken/dead ....
i found a way to fix it for myself, but I have no idea if it will work for you guys....
Open explorer and enter "Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features"
And then uninstall all Java runtimes (JRE, SDK, etc). It might just be listed as "Java (TM) 6 Update xx" or "Java (TM) 6 Update xx (64-bit)"
After the uninstall, i rebooted and everything ran fine! I then later installed the Java runtimes again and the issue didnt come back.
Weird as hell, but it worked for me, hope it does for you too.
Good luck!
Noel Ho
69 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2011 18:00
It happened twice to me, and both times, uninstalling the java run time fixed it for me ... but i guess you are facing something else =(
Its not stealth mode is it?
AlienHK
11 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2011 18:00
Actually I didn't even install java after reinstalling windows...Nevertheless I tried installing,uninstalling,reinstalling. No luck :(
AlienHK
11 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2011 19:00
I'll try uninstalling it again, but I'm honestly not very sure it's going to help since I already resintalled windows so many times...
To be honest, I think I prefer the mega lag/stutter from stealth mode than these spontaneous stuttering / fps drop
AlienHK
11 Posts
0
June 24th, 2011 05:00
Uninstalling didn't work.
Considering my problem spontaneously started.....I would suspect it being hardware. It's just that it works fine on 'testing' softwares I mentioned before...so is it software?
Noel Ho
69 Posts
0
June 24th, 2011 05:00
I really have no idea then =(
AlienHK
11 Posts
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June 25th, 2011 17:00
Hm, it's been a few days... *hopes someone with a solution comes out* :)
AlienHK
11 Posts
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June 27th, 2011 14:00
I made some new discoveries which might pinpoint the problem?
So on Starcraft 2, it is possible to keep replaying the cinematics. Normally I get stutters in them as well (FPS drop not shown in them when it lags?), but I noticed if I let it play once with all the stuttering; the second time I play it, it will be stutter free (maybe a few lags here and there) but the more times I repeat the same cinematic the smoother it is. Could this be a RAM problem?
SquidOutOfWater
4 Posts
0
June 30th, 2011 11:00
I bought my M11x R2 in January, and by May it was doing the same thing. It began to stutter about every 3-5 seconds. SC2 was unplayable, and even old Tropico or Tropico 2 sufferred from the stutter.
I've called AW tech support, and the tech downloaded several test programs. Everything appeared normal, though the Unigine Sanctuary program did have frame drops to the single digit range three times in as many minutes. He suggested respawning.
Turns out this build of M11x doesn't have the respawn, and another call to AW tech support recommended I fully reinstall Windows. Did so, downloaded the drivers, and brought the PC back up. Stutter came back in about an hour of play time.
Like AlienHK I have tried the graphics and audio drivers from Dell, and the latest drivers from Nvidia and Realtek.
Still no joy.
Somewhat limited on the tech support choices since I'm deployed to Afghanistan and the Internets connection is lousy at best.
Hope someone has some ideas out there.
Alienware M11x R2
Intel Core i7 U640 1.20 GHz
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
500 GB HD
4 GB RAM
Nvidia GEForce GT335M
tinystork
1 Message
0
August 13th, 2011 10:00
may be it's an old subject but there's a common point for all those machines the hard drive have you tried to install your game on an external usb drive ?
actually SEAGATE realeses several firmware patch on their website for those problems but we can't see anything on dell website. try what i say...
Meanderer
14 Posts
0
August 15th, 2011 07:00
I have also encountered this problem with my m17x r2. My stuttering is occurring in crysis 2 and COD: black ops. It is funny though as MW2 is stutter free.
Has anyone had any luck solving this?