Oh good to see im not alone. i have inspiron 5150 with 768mb ram, 3.06 GHz, 64mb Geforce Fx5200. i play any game and for about the first 5 min everything is smooth and then after that i get 5 seconds where it stops and then runs fine for 10 sec and then 5 second stop. This seems to be a problem with all inspiron 5150. Any1 kno wuts up?

oh i forgot to mention this doesent just happen on video games, it happens even on internet games that any comp shud b able to play without a snag

I believe your problem is due to too much heat in your system. If you want to do a test, try taking out the keyboard and the cover protecting the cpu and video, run it with open air ventilation, most probably it will run very smooth.

I am having this problem where lots of lag occurs, when i play games.... Called dell and they told me to reformat the hardisk....

If your problem starts from the start, when the computer is cold, there could be a few possibilities,

1)video driver corrupted==>Reinstall latest video Driver

2) Too many application running at the same time, insufficient ram thus resulting in slowness

3) Some application  utlising your cpu by alot which can be view at the task manager under the process tab

4) Heat problem(if you observed when your system power up from cold, it takes less than a min for it to heat up very quickly) but unlikely since it is new

5) Lastly but most hated option==> Reinstall your OS and run only that application after you reinstall your OS. If it works fine, most likely one of your OS components is giving the problem.

 

For me I took out my keyboard and exposed my video and CPU to open air ventilation, it solves all my overhating problem such as auto shutdown  or lag in games. I am going to seek Dell for a solution to my porblem which I realised I am not the only one facing the porblem of overheating. Dell had just replaced my motherboard yesterday, Still there was no help. I installed fangui and exposed the cpu and realised that my idle temp dropped to 41 degree instead of 55 degree without exposing my cpu for more ventilaiton.  I am now shocked to think that the dell technician would suggest to me to reformat my harddisk when my problem is overheating.....

 

Inspiron 5150

P4 3.2 HT

1GB ram

64 MB Geforce 5200

80GB harddisk

 

I dont't know about overheating. You see my problem begins  from the start when computer is still cold .Still thanks for commenting on that. I've been dealing with Dell Suport Team for the last few days.Tell you the truth I think these people don't know what they are talking about.It's always a different person giving you new advices and some of them so stupid.Like defragmenting my hard drive.Why should I do that! My computer only 1 week old.I did it anyway.It didn't help as I expected.The other guy told to put power settings that good For DeskTop PC.I realized that he doesn't even know that my computer is laptop.I think I am not gonna get any help from them.My last and the only logical move is to start everything from the scratch.Reformat my HD,partition it.May be to put my old Win98SE on one of the  partitions  and add things one by one and see how the computer will behave.Let's face it they pre-installed a lot of junk that I don't really need.Some of this junk may effect computer's performance.If anybody has a comment on that move please let me know. Thanks a lot. Leo777

You see cwt870 how stupid they are.I really appriciate your input.I did reinstalled video drive twice.Too many applications at the same time could be the problem(I said that Dell pre-installed a lot of junk you don't really need).I think I need to check my task manager.After that my choices are as you mentioned the most hated one or what you're saying though I don't quiete understand you.You mean physically take out keyboard out of laptop.I feel a little unconfortable to open up the computer itself.I'm afraid that I'll damage something.And it only serves for diagnostic purpose only.And if this the problem how can actually take advantage of it.(what is fangui?).Thanks again for trying to help.Leo777

Under your process tab at the task manager, observe which preocess thread is the one that will have utilise cpu 100% at the time you indicated it jumps to 100%.

Once you know which process hits 100%, look for the software causing it. Either look at the setting of that software or uninstall or reinstall it.

If that process belongs to your OS components, look for the services or program causing it.

Hi cwt870.I just checked Performance in my Task Manager. And what do you think? CPU runs smoothly with 1% usage in general and  then at approximately 1.5-2 min time inteval it jumps to full 100% for few secs.and than drupps to 1+%.You can see it clearly on the chart , at approximately same interval of time there is a huge jump(peak) and then quick drop. I think this is it.Do you have  any idea what to do next? Leo777

yea i hav this problem too while playing video games

I’ve experienced the same problems, and sometimes the system will freeze altogether.  I’m positive that it’s not happening when there are too many applications, as it happens when there is only one application running.  I’ve also noticed that it only happens when using DirectX applications, such as DVD playback and games, not on the desktop or while word processing etc.

I’m able to use the system all day for desktop (AKA 2D) applications, but as soon as I try anything 3D, such as a game, the system will run for a few minutes, then begin to slow down, return to normal for a few moments, slow down a few more times before finally locking up altogether.

Corrective actions I’ve taken so far:

Reformatted the system and installed both Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Installed every iteration of the video driver ever released by Dell
Tried 16 and 32 bit color depths
Removed all external (USB) devices from the system
Tried multiple application settings (Low Texture Quality, etc)

None of these have had any effect on the problem whatsoever.  I believe I’ve isolated the problem to the GeForce 5200go video card as an identically configured Insperon 5100 with an ATI Radeon 7500 can run all the games and playback DVDs with no difficulty.