Please can some one help me <3

[FraserPike]

Hey all!!
I have such a problem with my laptop, and no one can figure it out (including manufacturer). If any one has any idea, i beg you please help.

I have had my laptop for a while. Quite expensive. I mainly use it for gaming. Recently i have run into a issue. Every time i stick on a game, the game will crash within 2 minuets. Not the computer, just the game. (This is ALL games).

I thought it may be a heating issue, as my laptop kept throttling, and getting to 90-95c. (even on idle), however i spoke to Dell (alienware), who made me reinstall windows 10, and lots of weird things. Still didnt help. So i took it to a repair shop. They did tests on every thing (all fine), they updated a few things (Bios and stuff), opened up the computer and cleaned fans, and heat sink and put thermal stuff on every thing.

Still, the games crash within 2 minuets. Temps seem to hold at 70c now.
Sent the laptop to Dell, they ran a tone of tests, (the same as the computer store pretty much), and still laptop is being poop.

A month or so before ALL games crashed within 2 minuets, i had a bad screen tearing problem with ALL my games. I had never seen it before. I had to turn V-sync on, on every game in order to get rid of this weird tearing. And now a month later games just wont run.

(SIDE NOTE) - My laptop battery is dead. My laptop will instantly turn off if i unplug it. The battery died roughly 6 months ago. Both the store and Dell have told me that would not affect games. And the battery is not the problem.

If i turn on steam, and go into any game, my laptop does sound like it is about to take off. The fans speed up insanely.

Laptop specs.

System Model - Alienware 17 R2
System Type - x64-based PC
System SKU - Alienware 15
Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4980HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Pr
Installed Physical Memory - (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory - 7.89 GB
Also have a Nvidia gforce 980M
And the power adapter thing is 180W (?)

(Side question) - I know the dead battery cant cause the problem. But could having a dead battery with a bad PSU cause this problem? I read some where that i should have a 240W PSU, not a 180W.

Please, if any one might have a idea, i beg you help me. 2 months without gaming is killing me. I mean, what do people do when they are not gaming?
Thank you for reading!! <3

 

[4K8KW10]

Hi,

In general, it is a poor idea to use a laptop for gaming. I would always advise against such a practice.
If it is only the games affected, then something happens with the graphics card.
Have you tried to do anything to the graphics card? For example, undervolt it and set lower frequencies?

If you can sell this laptop, just sell it, take the money and buy a proper desktop machine.

 

[spoffle]

Hi,

In general, it is a poor idea to use a laptop for gaming. I would always advise against such a practice.
If it is only the games affected, then something happens with the graphics card.
Have you tried to do anything to the graphics card? For example, undervolt it and set lower frequencies?

If you can sell this laptop, just sell it, take the money and buy a proper desktop machine.

This is nonsense. @FraserPike ignore this guy he doesn't know how to be helpful.

It sounds like it could be an issue with power draw. I know that the shop and Dell have told you that it will be fine with a dead battery, but that isn't always the case.

Some laptops, especially gaming ones, draw off the battery and power at the same time. Given that the games are crashing, but not Windows, suggests that you could be having an issue with power states. Where the GPU is trying to go into high power state, but can't, so the driver is crashing and hanging the game.

So even if it isn't a matter of the battery it could still be a power draw issue if your power supply is weaker than it should be.

 

[FraserPike]

This is nonsense. @FraserPike ignore this guy he doesn't know how to be helpful.

It sounds like it could be an issue with power draw. I know that the shop and Dell have told you that it will be fine with a dead battery, but that isn't always the case.

Some laptops, especially gaming ones, draw off the battery and power at the same time. Given that the games are crashing, but not Windows, suggests that you could be having an issue with power states. Where the GPU is trying to go into high power state, but can't, so the driver is crashing and hanging the game.

So even if it isn't a matter of the battery it could still be a power draw issue if your power supply is weaker than it should be.

@Soffle , Thank you. I think that is the best advice i have had in years. And brilliantly explained! Thank you so much. You confirmed my theory. You are the best!!
I will get a 240W adaptor and see if that helps. Wont get the battery replaced as of yet. As Dell want to charge me £180.
Thank you! <3

 

[4K8KW10]

This is nonsense. @FraserPike ignore this guy he doesn't know how to be helpful.

There are multiple discussions everywhere on the forums and people agree to agree that a desktop machine is better and cheaper for gaming than a laptop.

We will see, but if it isn't the power supply..... then you need to excuse. I will wait for your excuse.

 

[FraserPike]

There are multiple discussions everywhere on the forums and people agree to agree that a desktop machine is better and cheaper for gaming than a laptop.

We will see, but if it isn't the power supply..... then you need to excuse. I will wait for your excuse.

@4K8KW10 , dude i think you are missing the point slightly. Spoffle was simply calling you un-helpful. For the fact you decided to tell me things that wont help. I have a laptop. Telling me to not have one does not help my Current situation or topic.
Like i said, Dell and a independent repair shop both looked a graphics cards and updated and tested every thing. All came back fine.

 

[Journey]

I am not sure if you have tried running a graphics based test, e.g. 3D Mark Fire Strike, or Unigine Heaven, to see if that causes the system to crash. It could be the fact that the GPU is moving into high power mode (3D) and the memory or the GPU itself is failing or has partially failed. It's worth trying one of these to see if it has the same result, if it does you could also use MSI afterburner to set a lower clock state for the RAM/GPU to see if the trend continues.

 

[spoffle]

There are multiple discussions everywhere on the forums and people agree to agree that a desktop machine is better and cheaper for gaming than a laptop.

We will see, but if it isn't the power supply..... then you need to excuse. I will wait for your excuse.

But no one cares about that due to its irrelevance. He has a gaming laptop already. Telling him that desktops are "better" isn't being helpful. We all know desktops are faster and better value for money, but that literally doesn't matter if it's a laptop you want or need.

To top it off, telling him to sell up and get a proper gaming computer is even worse and utterly bizarre that you thought you were helping.

@4K8KW10 , dude i think you are missing the point slightly. Spoffle was simply calling you un-helpful. For the fact you decided to tell me things that wont help. I have a laptop. Telling me to not have one does not help my Current situation or topic.
Like i said, Dell and a independent repair shop both looked a graphics cards and updated and tested every thing. All came back fine.

If the diagnostics show that the hardware is fine, I would be very surprised after a reinstall of Windows, that isn't a power issue.

 

[FraserPike]

I am not sure if you have tried running a graphics based test, e.g. 3D Mark Fire Strike, or Unigine Heaven, to see if that causes the system to crash. It could be the fact that the GPU is moving into high power mode (3D) and the memory or the GPU itself is failing or has partially failed. It's worth trying one of these to see if it has the same result, if it does you could also use MSI afterburner to set a lower clock state for the RAM/GPU to see if the trend continues.

Thanks Journey. I do seem to have some weird Heaven benchmark thing on my desktop, which i am presuming the computer repair guys installed and tested. They were certain the graphics were ok. But i will definitely take the laptop back to them on monday.

But no one cares about that due to its irrelevance. He has a gaming laptop already. Telling him that desktops are "better" isn't being helpful. We all know desktops are faster and better value for money, but that literally doesn't matter if it's a laptop you want or need.

To top it off, telling him to sell up and get a proper gaming computer is even worse and utterly bizarre that you thought you were helping.



If the diagnostics show that the hardware is fine, I would be very surprised after a reinstall of Windows, that isn't a power issue.

Thank you Spoffle. I think you are absolutely right. I will get the repair guys to do another look into it. And buy a new psu this weekend. And hope for the best

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Intel Xtreme utility , run the stress test .
Hopefully it's just power draw , worst case GPU , but would hate for it to be both .
I tend to run the above and Unigine Valley together . One taxes one part of the system . If each one passes in turn but fails when both are running , they you Def know it's the power draw above

 

[FraserPike]

Intel Xtreme utility , run the stress test .
Hopefully it's just power draw , worst case GPU , but would hate for it to be both .
I tend to run the above and Unigine Valley together . One taxes one part of the system . If each one passes in turn but fails when both are running , they you Def know it's the power draw above

Forgive me, but none of that made much sense to me
I am very stupid with computers.
I do have Intel Xtreme Utility. Dont really know what to do with it though. There is a option for 3 stress tests, (CPU stress test, memory stress test and Grphics stress test). I have done all three of them, and they all came back fine, with no problems.
I am not sure what Unigine valley is, and what i would be looking at to be honest.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley

Install and run 1080p

 

[FraserPike]

https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley

Install and run 1080p

Will do! Thank Orbitalwalsh!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Will do! Thank Orbitalwalsh!

Just as @Journey highlighted. Run it and see by its self .
Let benchmark complete - if it does.... And if it does , run Intel Xtreme CPU stress together with unigine

I'm sure dell power bricks are 330w for Alienware ?

 

[FraserPike]

Just as @Journey highlighted. Run it and see by its self .
Let benchmark complete - if it does.... And if it does , run Intel Xtreme CPU stress together with unigine

I'm sure dell power bricks are 330w for Alienware ?

My brick is 180W, but i read online that lots of people were given 180W when they were meant to get 240W. So i dunno.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Shop in Scotland sells refurb 330w dell units . Can't list name but worth googling that power brick to see if it's the same price as 240w unit

 

[FraserPike]

Just as @Journey highlighted. Run it and see by its self .
Let benchmark complete - if it does.... And if it does , run Intel Xtreme CPU stress together with unigine

I'm sure dell power bricks are 330w for Alienware ?

so i ran Unigine benchmark. Was fine no issue. Had one fps drop to 13. But that was about it. Then did the benchmark again with a Xtreme CPU stress test. had them both running at the same time, and again, it ran perfectly fine. No issues what so ever. Ran like a dream.
So i have no clue what to think.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

What more recent games have you got on your steam ? Some have benchmarks to get test your settings and frame rates. You can try running some of those to see if they crash .

Also, what's your power plan in Windows set to ?
And also your power setting in nvdia control panel

 

[FraserPike]

What more recent games have you got on your steam ? Some have benchmarks to get test your settings and frame rates. You can try running some of those to see if they crash .

Also, what's your power plan in Windows set to ?
And also your power setting in nvdia control panel

Most recent game would be Frostpunk.
Power plan on every thing is set to High performance.
I just got the Mrs to install Origin, and play Sims 4. No crashing. Sims 4 worked perfectly fine. However i am guessing that is because its not a taxing game? In the process of installing another game (Banished). As that is one of the least taxing game i have on steam.

 

[Eeekster]

OK, I had a problem after moving to Win10 from Win7 (upgrade) - games kept crashing - I did a hell of a lot of searching but the weird solution was to change Windows 10 game settings (my laptop is old and crap anyway). Probably wont help, have no idea why it did for me, but worth a go as can just change back if no effect:

Disable Game Mode by default

1. Open the Settings Menu by clicking the cogwheel icon to the left of the Start menu.
2. Click on Gaming.
3. Click on Game Mode.
4. Toggle Use Game Mode.