# [SOLVED] Alienware M15x laptop suddenly extremely slow



## Nazsha (Mar 31, 2011)

Hi,

Last summer, I bought myself an Alienware laptop, mainly for gaming, but also for 3D animation in my school works. It worked fine, until very recently: Since it has a 15-inch screen, I purchased an external 24-inch LCD display, connected by a VGA cable to my laptop. I started playing games (Crysis, Fallout: New Vegas, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Half-Life 2, GTA IV), and noticed a severe lag in all of these games, even with the visual settings at the bare minimum. I ran the Windows Experience Index, only to see that the Processor Subscore had dropped from 6.7 to 4.0! The other Subscores are the same (6.9, 5.1, 5.5, 5.9). Defragmenting my Hard Drive changed nothing at all. Is it because of the external monitor? Is there something I can do to fix this?
I'm not a great computer guy, but here are my system specs:
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium, SP1
Model: Alienware M15x
Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU Q720 @1.60GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB
System type: 64-bit OS

Many thanks in advance,
Nazsha


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## JMPC (Jan 15, 2011)

*Re: Alienware M15x laptop suddenly extremely slow*

If the processor score has dropped it may be due to overheating. Try to power off the laptop until it's completely cool, then boot into Windows and run the Windows Experience Index again while the system is still cool.

You can also use a program like CPU-Z to show the processor speed and something like Core Temp to view the temperatures.


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## tsujp (Mar 2, 2008)

*Re: Alienware M15x laptop suddenly extremely slow*

Hello and welcome to TSF!

There is a chance that if you exposed your CPU to extreme temperatures for prolonged periods of time that it has been permanently damaged. As far as I know this is not covered in your warranty since the company, Dell, would consider this to be your fault as you let the laptop overheat by using it incorrectly. As in, not powering it down for a break or using a cooling pad to decrease its operating temperature.

Extensive use of high end 3D applications or games for prolonged periods of time *will* increase the temperature of the CPU and GPU and in general inside the chassis of the machine itself and laptops don't have the freedom and space for extreme cooling methods that desktops do so this can be a problem when a lot of heat needs to be released.

I think it would be good to check with JMPC what your processor speed is now compared to when you bought it.

Also, how long were you playing these games for at a time and using the 3D applications before you noticed this drop.

I.e. Did you play a game for 5 hours then notice failure, or use a 3D application for 5 hours and notice a failure.

And did the laptop ever feel hotter than normal operation? Did it ever make strange sounds or beeps?

Good luck,

Fluidz


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## Nazsha (Mar 31, 2011)

*Re: Alienware M15x laptop suddenly extremely slow*

Hello, and thank you for the very quick answers!

I shut down my laptop for something like twelve hours. After restarting it, I immediately started the Windows Experience Index: The Processor Subscore went from 4.0 to 7.1! The others also rose quite a bit.
@Fluidz: I believe I was using 3D applications, but what's wired is that the lag was only felt while playing Steam games. Also, I never played games for more than, say, three hours in a row. My laptop never felt hotter than usual, and no strange sounds were heard.
Also, since my Steam games are on a different partition (my OS in on C: and my games are on F, I followed some of the advice given here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f59/optimising-your-system-for-games-349169.html. 
The "Paging File Size" was at "No Paging File". I set it to "Custom Size" and put a reasonable value in, and now the few games I have tried playing have no lag whatsoever.
Thank you very much!
Nazsha


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## tsujp (Mar 2, 2008)

Glad your problem is solved.

Thank you for marking the thread as solved as well 

Enjoy using your machine!

Fluidz


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