Skip to main content

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

Closed

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

83157

March 15th, 2005 03:00

XPS - Performance problem temporarily solved by pressing fn+z

I've got a really strange problem that just started tonight that hopefully somebody can help me out with.
 
I have an Inspiron XPS 3.4 with the 256mb ATI MR9800, 2 GB ram and 100GB HD. Over time, performance on the machine grinds to a halt. This occurs most rapidly and is most noticable when gaming - for example, frames per second in both World of Warcraft and Doom 3 slide from 40-60 FPS down to single digit FPS in about 60 seconds after launching - but this also happens at the desktop. Oddly enough, pressing FN+Z immediately causes the machine to spring back to full performance, but only for a very short time - under 15 seconds in the case of the games. It does not sound like the speed of the fan changes when I press FN+Z.
 
The most obvious cause for this would seem to be a heat issue, but I tried both i8kfangui and ThrottleWatch and neither of the programs reported any CPU throttling or other speed changes. Temperature for the CPU stayed in the 70s whether FN+Z was pressed or not.
 
Does anyone have any suggestions? Failing that, does anyone understand better than I what pressing FN+Z actually does beyond asking to reset the appropriate fan speed? I can't find any official documentation on what FN+Z does.
 
TIA,
 
Scott

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 15th, 2005 12:00

To add an additional piece of information I noticed this morning:

Running WoW, alt+tabbing and launching task manager, my CPU usage climbs between 55-60%. After pressing fn+z, it drops to around 30% and slowly begins to climb again. With i8kfangui open, there is no change in the RPM reading of any fan when pressing fn+z.

RichardLusignan

269 Posts

March 15th, 2005 14:00

May I ask how you came upon Fn+Z as being a solution? I find this kindda weird and would like to investigate further.

And have you tried another key combination, maybe like Fn+R ?

Regards,
 
Rick

Madd_Mugsy

5 Posts

March 15th, 2005 15:00

I also have an Inspiron XPS, and while I haven't seen the exact same problem that you have, I have noticed that there is a significant performance hit when my laptop is not plugged-in and I also have recently noticed that there is a decrease is performance after coming back from standby.  Are you gaming after being on standby?  Rebooting and plugging-in solved my problem, but it's still annoying. :P

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 15th, 2005 20:00

Richard: I first learned of FN+Z the first time I resumed from suspend and the fans spun out of control. I searched the web and found that FN+Z fixed this problem. I just happened to try it to see if maybe the fans weren't spinning as fast as they were supposed to be - I certainly didn't expect it to boost my system performance either!

I've tried FN+every other key and other random keys as placebo tests and no other combination produces an increase in performance.

 

Madd_Mugsy: Yes, I too have noticed that gaming while on battery power significantly reduces performance. I always game with the system plugged in. I rarely have it unplugged, in fact.

I have also noticed the performance decrease after resuming from standby. I rebooted multiple times while testing before posting, so I don't think standby had any effect.

Madd_Mugsy

5 Posts

March 15th, 2005 22:00

Could this be a software issue?  Have you tried running anti-virus, anti-spyware and ad-aware?  I know that some viruses and spywares can slow down your pc.  Did you install any new apps/patches/windows updates in the last day or two?

This is a long shot since you've got 100GB, but how much free disk space do you have?  If your swap file is too small, it could decrease your performance.

It just so happens that I was also wondering about the fans going nuts after standby.  I'm going to try fn+z tonight :)  thx!

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 16th, 2005 01:00

Thanks for the suggestions. I use AVG anti-virus and I downloaded Ad-Aware; both came up negative.

I patched all the drivers to the latest versions through the dell support downloads and windows update, but only *after* the problem began (because I figured Dell Support would ask that be done).  I can't remember installing anything before the problem began.
 
I have about 10GB free and I leave my swap file size for Windows to manage. It's currently set at 4GB.
 
I have a support ticket open with Dell, and the only suggestion so far has been to rollback to the last point before the problem started (which I have and didn't help), to reinstall a game or two to try and see a difference (no dice) and to try running the games in safe mode (which was a disaster). I'm no farther ahead but I'm still hoping for more suggestions :)

Madd_Mugsy

5 Posts

March 16th, 2005 14:00

Well, I don't know if it will help, but I found this link to an article:
 
 
The article is about the Inspiron 1150, and I don't think that that exact solution will work, but maybe it could be a similar problem on your laptop.  After reading it, I would at least check the Windows power management options and see if there could be anything weird there.  I'm just thinking that if it's slowing down after a minute or two, maybe the power options aren't set right and the cpu is stepping down or something.

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 16th, 2005 15:00

Thanks for the suggestion - I'm at work but will double check the settings when I get home. It certainly seems like the processor gets slower after about a minute. I tried a couple freeware monitors as well as i8kguifan and none of them report a change in processor speed, so if it is happening it's not being reported by the bios or Windows.
 
More reading has pointed me to FN+Z being a hotkey for some software ACPI control. I've followed the procedure for reinstalling ACPI support in Windows outlined in some of the posts in the Power Management forums, but unfortunately that hasn't helped any :(
 
I'm basically at the point of giving a Windows reinstallation a shot but I need to follow up with the Dell support folks first.
 
Thanks for the continued ideas - I appreciate the help in trying to get this resolved!

Message Edited by scottjahn on 03-16-2005 11:42 AM

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 17th, 2005 00:00

Dell Support had me reinstall Windows, and after patching the new install I tried installing one of the games, only to find the problem still occurs. I'm pretty sure it's got to either be a BIOS setting or hardware at this point, but Support is still telling me it's a software problem and that FN+Z must be a keypress interpreted by my games :(
 
I'll keep you guys posted, and of course other suggestions are welcome.
 
 

Madd_Mugsy

5 Posts

March 17th, 2005 02:00

You can rule out software if you've reinstalled windows and the problem still occurs.  You're correct: it's either the hardware or the BIOS settings.  I'd guess it's hardware. :( 

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 17th, 2005 11:00

A bit more info:

I downloaded SciMark, which is a scientific benchmark that stresses the processor only (purely computational based, uses less than a meg of ram while running).

Here is my result without pressing FN+Z:

Integer: 92M/sec at 1/2 Load.
Float:   63M/sec at 1/2 Load.
DNA:     32M/sec at 1/2 Load.

and with pressing FN+Z about once every second:

Integer: 222M/sec at 1/2 Load.
Float:   172M/sec at 1/2 Load.
DNA:     92M/sec at 1/2 Load.

The same workload with the same programs open runs three times faster if i press FN+Z repeatedly. It's gotta be something with the processor or motherboard.

Now all I need to do is convince support of this :(

Gregmont

19 Posts

March 20th, 2005 17:00

Hi Scott,

This also is a longshot but I've an Inspiron XPS with the 9800 and never have any problems running Half Life 2 but I opted for the 60 gig harddrive at 7200rpm. I believe that your 100gig HD runs at 5400rpm and this might affect your performance when running more demanding games.

Greg

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 20th, 2005 20:00

Supposedly the 100gig has a higher bit density than the 60gb at 7200 rpm, ending up with about the same data transfer rate (and thus the same overall performance).

That notwithstanding, if the HD was that slow it wouldn't explain why the games played OK before and suddenly stopped running well. I haven't tried HL2 recently but I had no problems running it a few months ago.

The current status of the case is, after 1 self-reinstall and 2 customer-service guided reinstalls of Windows (since I supposedly installed the drivers in the wrong order), it's going back to the repair depot on Monday. I just hope it gets the proper attention there as I've found it very difficult to convince the techs it's not a software or a configuration or a "you need an upgrade" problem.

xraggedx

1 Message

March 21st, 2005 18:00

i have had my XPS for about 3 months now and i have found out about this problem with in the last month and a half or so.     i was emailing with dell to figure out why, and they were no help.   they did not seem interested in fixing this problem.   finally they sent me a box to send the xps back to them, and i decided not to send it b/c i use this computer for my job daily and did not want to be with out it.   
 
the computer ended up failing completely,  ( i feel this is a seperate issue and not related to the fans and performance issue at all ) as i did end up talking to dell again and they sent a new box out immediatly and i just received it back (about 4 days later) and the computer is working again, but the same fan/performance issue is still there.     in the paperwork they say the replaced the system board and did a system bios update... they did the bios update as part of the fan problem. and its all still the same.   i will be calling dell in the next few days to try and get to the bottom of this.   i hope that everyone else finding this problem will do the same ,    so we can get our systems running right.
 
keep me updated and i will do the same.
 
thanks
Adam

scottjahn

1 Rookie

 • 

19 Posts

March 21st, 2005 19:00

Sorry to hear that Adam. I use my laptop for everything except work (I have a locked down company laptop for use there), but once this started happening I went out and bought a used laptop cheap to put all my personal files on and tide me over until this gets resolved.

The test to see if the problem fixed is extremely easy to do - I just need to fire up that benchmark, and compare the scores with and without pressing FN+Z. If pressing FN+Z is still 3x faster than not, I know performance is going to s-uck in games and it's going back to the factory, and will continue to be sent back until it's fixed.

I know diagnosing the problem through Dell tech support can be painful, but I don't really blame those guys - they're only doing their job and for each one of us who know what we're doing they probably get a dozen people who think its one thing and it turns out to be something entirely different. So, if it comes back busted, and they need me to format windows 3 times reinstalling drivers in 3 different orders, I'll grin and bear it because ultimately I know it's not going to solve the problem and it will go back until it's fixed.

Was this post helpful?

View All

No Events found!

Top