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Dell 1735 No games playable

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Hey all i have a 2 year old Dell 1735 and have lately been having problems playing any game. Most recently i've been trying to get Starcraft 2 working but it bogs down to 1-2 fps after about 5 minutes of playing and bogs the computer down so badly I usually have to do a hard powerdown to get out of the game. The same problem occurs when i try Dragon Age and Mass Effect 1 as well. The only thing Dell did for me was update the video drivers (which i did hours before calling them) and try to sell me an extension on the warranty. This will be the last Dell I ever purchase.


Here's my specs.
Dell Studio 1735
4gb RAM
Core2 Duo T9300 2.5ghz
ATI mobility Radeon 3650
Windows 7
DX 11

I suspect overheating may be an issue but i can't find any info on what temps for gpu and cpu should be while gaming.

Any help is much appreciated.

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At this post it said that max temp for that chip is 108c. http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aft... There where tips on that forum thread for trying to reduce heat. One was cleaning out the laptop of dust.

If you think its heat then get a program like realtemp http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp Check Temp when you first turn on computer. Then find a game that can run on your computer with out freezing. After playing for a while check temp again. I am not laptop kind of guy but if temp was 85c I would say heat :sweat: 

I don't know much about DirectX 11. But I think that card you are using is DirectX 10.1. If that makes any deference StarCraft II is DirectX 9. Just an after thought.

thanks for the info. I've tried using speedfan a few times and i've never seen it above 75c. I don't know much about direct x either but i was under the impression they were backwards compatible with each other. There is not much dust clogging the vents or the heatsink. Any other thoughts would be much appreciated.

Definite your video card is not the best either. Most laptops, unless built specifically for gaming, are just terrible when it comes to games, at least the more recent games.

But another issue is, even though you have 4 gigs of RAM, that is being shared with your GPU. Again, most laptops have GPUs that do NOT have dedicated memory like normal video cards in PCs. In your case, windows and the GPU must share the 4 gigs of ram you have.

Now, in PCs, they still DO share the system memory, but because most GPUs have dedicated memory, they don't have to take as much of the system memory. That memory is used for textures, so if you have high settings on the game, you are eating up a LOT of memory on your system.

Have you tried reducing the resolution as well as the detail?

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I set every setting as low possible. I also set windows 7 to run for best performance, checked all my processes in task manager to make sure nothing unnecessary was running. After filtering through other posters complaining of similar problems, i'm tending to think it could possibly be a memory issue. Is it possible a RAM upgrade would fix the problem? At this point i'm really not sure what the next course of action i should take is. I have such little patience for Dell's tech support.

It is a memory issue, but it's a "lack" of memory. As I stated, with laptops, the integrated video cards share the system memory. They do not have dedicated memory, so your system and the GPU are contending against each other or memory. What's probably happening is that the system has to swap out more often because there is less system memory available due to the graphics card needing system memory for textures and such.

You need to check the minimum specs for those games. Run 3DMark on the laptop as well and compare the scores with scores from the video cards those games state should be used.

Unless you can feel the laptop getting very hot (as in you can barely hold your hand over the vents) you don't have a laptop issue but a game you want to play is too high-end for your system issue.

I'm within the bounds of the games. The problem is games such as Mass Effect i've played on this computer with no problems. The latest game i tried to play was portal with no success and i've played that on that computer before with no issues.

My 3dmark result was 2753... =( very poor. I'm gonna have to suck it up and really go through all the hoops with dell i'm afraid.

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Well, if Prime95 is causing your system to heat up and shut down, that sounds like it's not keeping your laptop within the temperature bounds and is shutting down to protect it.

Same with the pre boot diagnostics. If it's still under warranty, I'd take it back in and have it checked out or replaced.

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