Graphics "stutter" while gaming, video card, HD or CPU problem?

Check if you have any programs running the the background. Sometimes when in full screen mode other apps will want to take control of the gfx. I would remove everything from the system tray as well to rule out things. Try using msconfig to remove things form startup (start | run | msconfig).

If your temperatures are in celcius, then that is really hot. Get a program called i8kfangui to manually control your fans. Get them to turn on at a lower speed. Usually around 55c is good.

In terms of your performance, it could be that your temperatures are too high, therefore causing your cpu to run slower. After you get i8kfangui to turn your fans on at a lower speed, either change your Power Scheme to "Always On" in the Power Options or use a program called Speedswtich XP which allows you to manually control your cpu speed.

Also you should clean out the fans and vents with some compressed air..... because if thats in Celcius then you are indeed running very hot and dust blocking the vents could be a major contributing factor.

stu

Thanks for your reply guys.

I had Ik8fangui installed prior to the reformet/reinstall process, I'll give it a go again. I got a error message "Can't control second fan" though, and some of the options in the program itself wasnt possible for me to activate. I've tried to clean the fan, nothing seemed to help though.

It seems like there are problems in general with graphics stutter on dell machines, strange.

Would it have any impact on the games performance (since laptop harddrives are slow) that I am playing games emulated from the harddrive?

Hard drive has little effect on games.... I installed my 7k60 to replace the 4200rpm drive I had, and in actual game performance nothing changed, the only thing different was slightly faster loading times for levels in some games.

stu

And I should add that I play all of my games off of the Hard drive through CD-cracks as well.

stu

Bah, clicked reply too fast :p

Good thing to know that a faster harddrive is probably not the solution.

I'll probably end up selling this thing once I get a desktop, even though having a laptop around is really great, I usually travel a lot too. Oh well, hope everything works. I'll come back with some temperatures, but it's usually around 70-72 celsius (I believe that's celsius from ik8fangui, isn't it?), quite hot from what I've read on these boards.

Thanks again.

I'll give reinstalling new drivers a go when I get home, as well as clean out the fan (Inspiron 5150 only has one air intake, this probably is the problem) again.

I'll try the speedswitch program too, even though I will probably not know what I'm doing, I wish I could say I used my laptop for anything but gaming/e-mail/browsing :p

God t

I have the exact same "Graphic Stuttering" problem as you.  I have the exact same system also except: 40 GB harddrive and Radeon 9000.  Like you, it runs fine while computer cool, then once it heats up starts to freeze-frame every 2-3 seconds.  I also play NFSU and have the exact problem.  However for me:

For the first month of playing games: Warcraft 3 TFT, Army Ops, BF 1942... I could run them all at the highest settings with no slow down.  Then after 2 months, "something happened" and the freeze-framing began.  I formatted, updated every driver, tried using older drivers, checked speedstep, fans, everything.  I even went into the Bios, and set the speedstep to always run the CPU at the lowest setting.  Even at CPU slowest speed, games ran fine for a few minutes, then would freeze-frame.  Perhaps it is the video-card that cannot keep cool?  My radeon will step its processor speed down to 15% of normal,  this might be slowing down our graphics.  Our processors should easily be able to handle these games.

For the past month and a half, Dell and I have been sending the computer back and forth and they have yet to fix the problem.  They just sent it back here again, having replaced the heatsink. 

I have spent too much of my own time, as well as over 2 months not being able to use the computer b/c I know it will either be formatted, or taken back to Dell for service so I wouldn't be able to keep any files. 

This most definitely is a manufacturing problem, let Dell know about this and keep on them.  If this heatsink doesn't work for me after a month, I am going to ask for a refund or at least a complete system replacement, maybe with the 8600 b/c this is just ridiculous. 

I think the only reason Dell doesn't address this problem, is because it is gamers like you, me, and many others on this forum, or just people who know about their hardware, that even notice this problem.  Average users who just play yahoo hearts and check email would never see this problem. 

Keep us updated on your progress.