Laptop slowdown issue during Gaming

[Rapax]

Ok, I have no-name Laptop basically, put together through an online company. The stats are as follows:

Win XP Media Center SP 3

Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2,33 GHz

2 GB RAM

NVIDIA Geforce Go 7950 GTX

DirectX 9.0c

Realtek HD Audio output

So my problem is, I am experiencing slowdowns while playing graphically demanding games. Now of course you are gonna say "well your machine can't handle it" but the problem is that these slowdowns are not constant but seem to occur randomly.

Games like GRAW2, DIRT or even SoF3 can and should be handled with ease by my machine and normally they do. Like the games run smoothly when all of a sudden everything slows down and becomes sluggish, making it an annoyance to play, only to revert back to fluid gameplay a few minutes later. Changing any of the graphics options in the game don't change anything about that either. GRAW2 e.g. slows down randomly whether I play it on the highest or the lowest of resolutions.

I make sure my Laptop is sufficiently cooled, leaving enough space for air ventilation and since this is something I only notice with games, I'm suspecting this to be an issue with my graphics card/driver. I installed the latest nvidia driver today, the 175.32 with the modded inf but nothing changed.

So is this something that's down to my graphics driver? Should I install another one? Is there a better one?

I'm not expecting a clear solution, but some kind of input would be nice as it is really annoying the way it is. Smooth-sluggish-smooth-sluggish....

Cheers

Edited September 20, 2008 by Rapax

[Andrew55]

Try the 177.92 drivers with modded inf. If your problem stll persists then an alternative solution will be considered.

[coolcop06]

sounds ALOT like the symptoms i was getting before i got my mobo/heatsink replaced due to heat issues.

im not saying this is your problem for sure but you should check your temps in game and see what they are at... if theyre 90c or above i would say that could be the issue.

also are you overclocking? maybe your pushing it a little too hard??

and finally have you disabled powermizer? try that too.

[Rapax]

Try the 177.92 drivers with modded inf. If your problem stll persists then an alternative solution will be considered.

I did, no change unfortunately. It seems the drivers don't matter after all, somehow.

also are you overclocking? maybe your pushing it a little too hard??

and finally have you disabled powermizer? try that too.

No overclocking, I haven't tempered in that direction in any way. I also turned off the powermizer (which I didn't even know existed) but it's all the same really. I don't think it's the temperature either since the problem isn't predictable or follows any recognizable pattern.

I'm currently playing the Witcher and it's been very confusing on that one. Usually it follows a pattern of 5 min smooth, 5 min sluggish. Then I also had the occurence that it ran smooth and only every now and then sluggish for 10 seconds. Most confusingly of all, I had one night where it ran smooth the entire time, no sluggishness at all, making me suspect that the problem was solved somehow. That also convinced me that heat wasn't the issue cause evidently my laptop could run it smoothly for hours and hours. So then I turned my laptop off and next time I play, it becomes sluggish again.

I realize that all of this isn't making any sense as far as finding the problem is concerned but that's exactly what makes it so annoying. There's no pattern, no way to recreate the problem. It just happens or it doesn't and I haven't got a clue what's causing it since it simply doesn't follow any system. Could it be some kind of software that's causing it? Intentionally or unintentionally?

[Rapax]

Ok well, other question: Are there any specific benchmark tests or something of the sort that help me determine whether my system/graphics card is as fast as it's supposed to be? Maybe it's an issue I have to take up with the company who built it.