Atomic Systems

Hi guys,
I wonder if anyone can help, I've been having some frustrating laptop problems recently.

The problem started randomly when a Youtube video was played and the entire screen went black. The only way to "fix" the problem was to turn the laptop off then back on again. Sometimes the video would play after restart, other times the same thing would happen. It isn't consistent. I searched around the net and found that I could disable hardware acceleration, so far it seems to have solved the problem. However, I don't understand why all of a sudden I've had to do this.

After thinking I'd fixed the problem, I've noticed that it isn't just Youtube.... there has been a massive dip in system performance. Railworks for example takes an age to load anything and will only run at 14fps.
Everything feels like the power cord has dropped out the back of and its been switched the "power saver" mode. This isn't the case, the power settings are set to "high performance" and the adapter is plugged in... (and switched on )

I've tried a re-format which has pretty much depressed me into thinking that its a hardware issue....

Is there any way to find out what exactly is about to die?

I have a Dell M1730 (not under warranty anymore! )
Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 @ 2.60 GHz
Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT
4 GB of RAM

I've updated the graphics card drivers and made sure everything is up to date.

I hope someone can advise!

Thanks

47522 wrote: Everything feels like the power cord has dropped out the back of and its been switched the "power saver" mode. This isn't the case, the power settings are set to "high performance" and the adapter is plugged in... (and switched on )

Just a thought... How does it run using the battery? We've had a few HP laptop power supplies recently which completely knacker performance. Unplug them and the laptops run 10 times better. Strange but true.

Cheers

Bob

Common causes of slow performance are:

• Virus infection
• spyware
• Windows Updates (checking if you need any in the background or installing them)
• Laptop overheating and therefore slowing itself down to prevent burnout.

If the hard drive is constantly be used then I suspect virus. If the fan is on full most of the time then overheating. The fact that problems seem to be related to graphics mean that it might be a heat issue. When you push the laptop (playing videos / games) it produces more heat and therefore slows it self down to protect itself. Get yourself a can of compressed air (computer shops often sell them) and try to get all the dust out of the fan/heat vents. If your brave open it up and see how much dust has collected.

I fixed a laptop last week with this exact problem. Effectively dust ball just inside the vent. Could not be seen but was blocking most of the air movement. Removed it and laptop much better afterwards and not crashing any more.

There are of course many other things that could cause it. It is a bit of a dark art

Windows Update has been very active the last few days with something like 15 updates for W7 on the laptop and 16 for Vista on the main PC.

bigvern wrote:Windows Update has been very active the last few days with something like 15 updates for W7 on the laptop and 16 for Vista on the main PC.

. . . and this caused me to generate a potentially major problem.

I closed my laptop down when it was midway through the updating process, and when I started up later that evening it wouldn't!!! Messages came up about needing to repair, and as far as I can tell it restored itself to a previous working state. Thankfully no significant data loss, etc. - I hope!!

Another "lesson learnt from experience (LFE)" to be added to that extremely long list!

Alec

PS Minimise the number of items on the desktop as this can slow start up. Also a cleaning routine is important to clear out all the bits and pieces, in particular those from internet perusal!!