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Geek Culture / Weird Fps drops in PC games

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Kryogenik
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2009
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posted: 31st Jul 2010 09:53
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I live in Germany and I have two computers, an Alienware Aurora desktop and a vostro 1000 dell laptop. The laptop sucks, which is why I bought the Alienware (it can't quite play COD MW2 full speed on high quality though) and is why I haven't bothered dealing with the problem I'm telling you about in this post until now. Anyway, since I couldn't bring a desktop to the states, I brought my laptop.

Anyway, sometimes when I play a computer game, it will run at a steady 30 fps or so, and others it will run at half that. I don't mean that my fps drops when I the camera is looking at a lot of polys, the fps just drops randomly.

Just now I was playing tf2 on offblast running around. My laptop can run it on low quality pretty decent if my laptop has high fps. I was running around, shooting people, and then a fan in my computer started whirring and the game slowed down to the point that I could barely play it. It also does this in C&C renegade, another game I like to play, so I don't think it's a TF2 specific problem.

The thing that pisses me off about it is that it can run at a good speed but it drops for no reason sometimes. What could be causing these sudden drops in FPS? If it gets really bad, it can even make my computer turn off by itself Thanks.

cout<<"I'm learning C++, and this is all I know \n"
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charger bandit
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Location: Slovenia
Posted: 31st Jul 2010 10:32
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I am guessing there is serious overheating if it turns off itself. Try downloading SpeedFan and let us know what temperatures you have when playing a game.


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Kryogenik
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Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posted: 31st Jul 2010 20:51 Edited at: 31st Jul 2010 20:53
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I downloaded speed fan like you said and I played tf2 in windowed mode while glancing at the temperature every once in a while. At first I was playing at a pretty decent fps, probably 20-30, and my temperature was 80 degrees celsius. Then my fps dropped, and the temperature did too, going as low as 55 degrees celsius. So the hotter my pc, the faster the game plays, I guess Does that mean anything?

Edit Also, my temperature when just using the internet or something is in the low 70s.

cout<<"I'm learning C++, and this is all I know \n"
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Melancholic
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Posted: 31st Jul 2010 21:17
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Quote: "So the hotter my pc, the faster the game plays, I guess Does that mean anything?"


Not quite, the more your pc works(how fast it plays) the hotter it gets. It's possible that its getting so hot its underclocking itself to relieve load so it can cool down, then when an acceptable temperature is hit, its back to normal again, and fps's rise. Does this happen in cycles or randomly?


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Kryogenik
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Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posted: 31st Jul 2010 21:32
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Quote: "It's possible that its getting so hot its underclocking itself to relieve load so it can cool down, then when an acceptable temperature is hit, its back to normal again, and fps's rise. Does this happen in cycles or randomly?"
That makes sense. It actually does kind of go in a cycle. It plays at a good speed for a while gets slower and slower and then speeds up again. Is there a way to stop it from underclocking? Maybe an external fan could cool it down enough for it to run fast and not be at a critical temperature? Thanks

cout<<"I'm learning C++, and this is all I know \n"
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Aaagreen
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Posted: 31st Jul 2010 21:38
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Well you could give us the specs.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Kryogenik
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Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posted: 31st Jul 2010 21:50 Edited at: 31st Jul 2010 21:52
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Quote: "Well you could give us the specs."


Okay (they aren't very good, my laptop was the absolute cheapest one on the dell website, they don't even make it anymore).

2 GB RAM
1.9 GHZ dual core AMD Athlon 64 x2 TK-57
256 MB ATI Radeon Xpress 1150
120 GB Hard Drive (either that or 100, I can't remember)
Roxio 24x DVD RW disk drive, or something like that
Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card
Windows Vista

Cool Temp: 55 C
Hot Temp: 80 C

I've had it for about 2 years, it used to run C&C renegade at the high fps speed all the time. Anwyay, those are my specs.

cout<<"I'm learning C++, and this is all I know \n"
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Melancholic
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Posted: 31st Jul 2010 21:55
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Quote: "That makes sense. It actually does kind of go in a cycle. It plays at a good speed for a while gets slower and slower and then speeds up again. Is there a way to stop it from underclocking? Maybe an external fan could cool it down enough for it to run fast and not be at a critical temperature? Thanks "


The key to stopping this would be to keep the laptop cool, ive had this problem before. Make sure all the vents on the laptop are open to breath and not being covered. This didnt work for me for the more intensive things so i used a fan from an old(non working) computer, i just hooked it up to 2 9v batteries. Though not even this worked all the time. From the specs it sounds like an old laptop, so i woulde suggest trying to clean out the cooling system, im certain this will make a difference


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Kryogenik
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2010 22:15 Edited at: 3rd Aug 2010 22:17
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I heard that the cooling system uses something called thermal gel. How long does thermal gel usually last? Are there only certain thermal gels your supposed to use in different computers, or are they all the same? I want to know so I can go get it if I need it.

I found a complete guide to cleaning the fan for my laptop model, but you have to disassemble the whole computer to get to the fan I got as far as taking a small cover off the laptop and realized I didn't even have a small enough screwdriver for the screws, let alone an anti static electricity wrap, thermal paste and some compressed air to clean the dust off the fan. Where would I even get an anti static electricity wrap and thermal gel? Plus, the keyboard is connected to a flat band cable or something, how do you disconnect and reconnect it? I'm pretty confused Thanks.

cout<<"I'm learning C++, and this is all I know \n"
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Bugsy
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Posted: 4th Aug 2010 00:02
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hmm. maybe germany and america use different power systems and it's messing with how much your power supply gets?

imageflock.com/img/1272671763.jpg[/img]
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