Vaio laptop performance drop

[-Shifty-]

Hello folks,

I bought this laptop about 1 year ago back when I lived in Switzerland (QWERTZ keyboard for the win). Due to family issues I had to move to California, so I got a 110V adapter for my 230V laptop charger. So, here's the specifications to get things started:

Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit
Intel Core i3 M330 @ 2.13GHz
4GB DDR3
ATI HD5650 1GB DDR3 RAM
500GB Hard drive, I forgot the RPM

Now, I think that pretty much covers the specifications. So lets talk about my problem. I know this is a pretty lousy rig to play games on, so I stick to BF2142, Battlefield Heroes, Left 4 Dead 2 and Civilization V. All of these games were very easily run on high graphics (Except CiV) up until a month or two ago. Lets take Battlefield Heroes as the best example.

Running the game on full graphics at around 60 FPS in even the biggest of fights. I could even record and still pull off 30 FPS. I even have a few videos I've uploaded to Youtube where you can see it ran pretty good.

Then out of nowhere from one day to the next my performance goes WAY downhill to 15FPS on the same settings as ever. I didn't install anything new on my PC or change any settings. I put the graphics on low and it still ran terribly.

I checked my other games and overall PC performance and I'm having the SAME problems!

So, I reformatted (nothing valuable anyway, just reinstalled my games, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox) and tried again. SAME problem! Only thing that I noticed is that my PC gets very hot, I think it was always like this though. Nothing extraordinarily hot, just thought I'd mention though.

At this point I have no clue what to do, I tried gamebooster to no avail.

Thanks for any help.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Vaio laptop performance drop

I would guess a fan is not working or clogged and the unit is heating up. Dont focus on software, you already ruled that out. Check temps and memory. Also check your hard drive.

Use your eyes and face to see fan movement and feel air.

Use memtest+ for memory test.

A number of different tools could be used to test the hard drive.

Also, did this start after the re-partitioning?

Crunch

[jimykx]

Re: Vaio laptop performance drop

This is very similar to my problem. I also think i have an overheating issue so i started using a laptop cooler (improvised one made by me) and it saves me some of the fps but i never recovered the fps i had before.(could play bfbc2 on medium now i cant even on low)


I think my fan died from dust acumulation, i wont open it up because its still in a warranty and i want to send it there again to see if they fix my problem now. What i reccomend is for you to open your laptop and clean the dust, it probably looks like the inside of a vacuum cleaner now

[-Shifty-]

Re: Vaio laptop performance drop

How do I open a laptop? :O

I've build dozens and dozens of computers in my computer courses in Switzerland, but I've never touched a laptop. No possibility of using my two year warranty without returning to Switzerland which is more expensive than buying a decent rig.

This is my laptop model: VPCEB1M1E



Lol, I wish my laptop looked that nice and clean :P

[jimykx]

Re: Vaio laptop performance drop

look under it
it has screws.
now you need a screwdriver
unscrew the screws
look at it's inside
clean! (with compressed air or a vacuum cleaner)
I'm not responsible for any damage you might cause to your laptop xD


a video :

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Vaio laptop performance drop

Before opening the laptop, just check for airflown and a spinning fan

Ive work/ed on MANY laptops and if you dont take them apart correctly, you end up breaking plastic pieces and tabs. So, one step at a time.

Start by taking off the keyboard. Usually the screws are marked on the bottom with a keyboard or arrow emblem and is usually no more than 4 screws. Sometimes the screws can be under another cover on the bottom. Once the keyboard is off, you can usually get to the fan without taking everything else apart.

Also, on the HP NC### series, they had wide fins on the heatsink on the processor and the fan would not get dirty, but this nice little layer of dirt builds up between the fan and heatsink, blocking airflow. So the fan looked clean and spun, but no air was coming out. Thats how you know you have blockage and you dont have to take it all apart to figure that out.

Crunch

[-Shifty-]

Re: Vaio laptop performance drop

Funny thing Jim, after asking that former question I realized I could just Google it and save you gents some time.