Laptop stuttering when playing games

[Kotoriii]

Hello there,

I am quite inexperienced regarding hardware, so it may have been because of ignorance, that my laptop started to have problems.

Here is what happens:

I start to run a game (Assassin's creed 2, League of Legends) and start playing it, with mid-high to high graphic settings. Everything runs smooth for around 10 min. After that time, the game starts to stutter (the game starts to lag, but the sound also starts to make wierd noises) for half a second. But this happens every 5 seconds, so both games (and probably all, have not tried more at this time) are practically unplayable.
This didn't happen a couple of weeks ago. I played this games flawless, nothing ever happened.

In fact, the stutter lasts more sometimes, to the point where my laptop actually shuts down, withouth any prior notice. If it doesn't come to that point, the stutter event will last for about 10 mins. Then the game will run smooth for another 10, and after that, it starts to stutter again.

I have seen similar threads, but they seemed to involve other issues.

What I have tried to do:

1. Check I have installed downloaded something that might be causing trouble: No results. Haven't downloaded anything breathtaking before this stuttering episodes.

2. AV and Malware check with Avira Antivir and Malwarebytes: Nothing, everything clean.

3. Check the temperature when playing: It's normal. I have seen it going it hotter. So the shut down wasn't caused because of overheating.

4. Check the system event log: Nothing.

5. Run a HD error check: Nothing.

6. Defrag: Same problems.

7. Updated my graphics card with the latest driver (although Samsung would not state it as an update, I downloaded it sepparetely from the nVidia website): Same problems.

8. Lower the graphics to the lowest: Same

9. Check if it's wifi lag: Wait, I use an Ethernet cable. Nevermind.

10. Grunt, rage, hit the keyboard like that angry german kid: sigh...


My specs:

Samsung RF510 Laptop
Intel i5 M 460 Dual core with up to 2.53 GHz (with boost)
4 GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 Bits)
HD: Samsung HM500IJ with 500 GB storage space (about a 100GB left) with 5,400RPM (SATA interface) (NTFS)
nVidia GeForce GT 330 with 1GB of VRAM

May have forgot something, but that's all I can remember now.

Well, just to add: It doesn't stutter when I'm just browsing or chilling at my desktop. Never.
I have the feeling, that it has something to do with my video card, but no idea why. I have not touched the Nvidia Control Panel and the driver uptade didn't do much either.

Well, help will be greatly appreciated. I will post more info if you need it!

Thank you!

 

[Super Nade]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

It seems that your Graphics card is the bottleneck. Check HERE. Since you mentioned that everything worked fine before, I'd suggest checking the temperature of the card (try MSI Afterburner or RivaTuner) as you game. Does this happen when you run at ultra-low settings?

 

[Kotoriii]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

It seems that your Graphics card is the bottleneck. Check HERE. Since you mentioned that everything worked fine before, I'd suggest checking the temperature of the card (try MSI Afterburner or RivaTuner) as you game. Does this happen when you run at ultra-low settings?

Hello and thanks for th quick response. Well, I tried a different game, WoW, before downloading MSI. It worked just fine, no stuttering, no lag. Strange. Will post my results with Assassin's Creed and League of Legends with MSI later on tonight.

 

[Kotoriii]

Alright, here is a screenie about 10 min into the game of Assassin's Creed 2, on mid/high settings:



The ugly red square I tried to draw, is the stuttering event. Like I said, I'm not a hardware guy, but, doesn't the GPU usage look odd?

 

[Badbonji]

My laptop doesn't like the newest drivers generally and have to use the one provided by MSI most of the time. Have you tried reinstalling the stock driver? I take it you have checked but does the HDD activity go nuts during the stuttering?

 

[King107s]

83C is pretty hot man, how are your CPU temps under load?

Heat is ussually the issue for quite a few hardware problems.

 

[Kotoriii]

My laptop doesn't like the newest drivers generally and have to use the one provided by MSI most of the time. Have you tried reinstalling the stock driver? I take it you have checked but does the HDD activity go nuts during the stuttering?

I have tried doing that, but I get the same results. HDD activity is normal

83C is pretty hot man, how are your CPU temps under load?

Heat is ussually the issue for quite a few hardware problems.

It is hot indeed. But not hot enough to shut down (my other laptop used to shut down because of extreme heat (around 95 C lol!)). The temperatures it reaches have been the same since I bought the laptop. So, it shouldn't be heat. I have the wicked thought, that something may have "melted" in the GPU or CPU and is causing trouble

 

[Kotoriii]

Well, it may have to do something with the heat, since I played WoW for about 6 hours yesterday and it only stuttered here and there, but very isolated. Maybe the GPU wasn't put into stress. I just ordered a cooling pad. Will provide results after it arrives.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

83C is pretty hot man, how are your CPU temps under load?

Heat is ussually the issue for quite a few hardware problems.

QFT. Looks like overheating.

 

[Duner]

I agree, it sounds like overheating.

The saw tooth pattern you see in the GPU usage looks like it's throttling itself to prevent meltdown. You can see the similar pattern in the GPU temps, though to a lesser degree.

I've never found that cooling pads help that much. What I would suggest is to spray some compressed air through the cooling vent and see if that helps. If you have a friend who is capable, they could disassemble the laptop to reapply the thermal paste and remove any large hairballs that might be caught inside.

In the short term though, you could also use MSI afterburner to UNDERclock the GPU. Lower the values to something like 400 core, 900 shader, 600 memory. That should provide some more stability while you wait for your cooling pad.

 

[Kotoriii]

I agree, it sounds like overheating.

The saw tooth pattern you see in the GPU usage looks like it's throttling itself to prevent meltdown. You can see the similar pattern in the GPU temps, though to a lesser degree.

I've never found that cooling pads help that much. What I would suggest is to spray some compressed air through the cooling vent and see if that helps. If you have a friend who is capable, they could disassemble the laptop to reapply the thermal paste and remove any large hairballs that might be caught inside.

In the short term though, you could also use MSI afterburner to UNDERclock the GPU. Lower the values to something like 400 core, 900 shader, 600 memory. That should provide some more stability while you wait for your cooling pad.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I'm a fresh starter in a foreign country, so I don't know anyone who could do the job without taking an obscene quantity of money. Is it to difficult for an average gamer / tech savy to do with a walkthrough?

On the short term solution, I put the setting you sugested. I lowered all the graphics in Assassin's creed 2, but it still stuttered and in the end, shut down.

 

[Duner]

I wouldn't suggest doing it yourself. Try blowing out the exhaust vents with a can of compressed air first.

Was it still hitting 80+ degrees with the lowered settings?

Here's a tear down walk through for the R510, not sure if that's the same as RF510. You decide if it's too much for you.
http://www.tim.id.au/blog/tims-laptop-service-manuals/#toc-samsung

 

[arcanise]

just realized your shader clock isnt playing nicely with the core clock, these GPU's love it when the core and shader are in a 1:2 ratio, try to play with your games with your core exactly half of your shader.

 

[CompuTamer]

That looks like what happens to my when my computer starts swapping the game out of RAM into the page file and back. GPU usage drops and rises so much because the data that it needs it being moved from the HDD to RAM. I doubt that's what is happening since you have 4GB of RAM, and your computer is actually shutting down.

Is the computer by any chances in power saving mode? I know it's silly to ask, but i've made that mistake. Wondered why Portal 2 wasn't working right, and then remember i had the computer in power saving mode the day before.

As for the temps, most laptops hover around 80C at load when the GPU and CPU are both working. They commonly share a heatpipe, so all the heat is being dumped into one tiny heatsink. P95 only bring my CPU on my laptop to 65C. If i start up some sort of 3D game, it can get as high as 83C.

 

[Kotoriii]

I wouldn't suggest doing it yourself. Try blowing out the exhaust vents with a can of compressed air first.

Was it still hitting 80+ degrees with the lowered settings?

Here's a tear down walk through for the R510, not sure if that's the same as RF510. You decide if it's too much for you.
http://www.tim.id.au/blog/tims-laptop-service-manuals/#toc-samsung

Darn, doesn't look so bad, but it looks extremely time consuming. I wish I had a desktop...
I'm gonna try with the cooling pad first. If not, I'll try with some compressed air to clean the exhaust. And disassembling as last resort...

just realized your shader clock isnt playing nicely with the core clock, these GPU's love it when the core and shader are in a 1:2 ratio, try to play with your games with your core exactly half of your shader.

I'll try that tomorrow, thank you.

That looks like what happens to my when my computer starts swapping the game out of RAM into the page file and back. GPU usage drops and rises so much because the data that it needs it being moved from the HDD to RAM. I doubt that's what is happening since you have 4GB of RAM, and your computer is actually shutting down.

Is the computer by any chances in power saving mode? I know it's silly to ask, but i've made that mistake. Wondered why Portal 2 wasn't working right, and then remember i had the computer in power saving mode the day before.

As for the temps, most laptops hover around 80C at load when the GPU and CPU are both working. They commonly share a heatpipe, so all the heat is being dumped into one tiny heatsink. P95 only bring my CPU on my laptop to 65C. If i start up some sort of 3D game, it can get as high as 83C.

My computer is running on high performance. It can't be too healthy for laptops to reach that temperature :/

 

[Kotoriii]

Well, after the cooling pad shipment got delayed by some bs, I went to the store and bought some compressed air. Sprayed it through the PC's intake and exhaust. Well, results are astonishing. The GPU is now reaching only 69 C maximum. No more stuttering, even with high settings. With the cooling pad, it will be even cooler. I want to sincerely say a THANK YOU, to all of you!

 

[CompuTamer]

How old is this laptop? It's odd that that much dust built up that fast. Do you live in the desert?

Glad you got it sorted out though

 

[ZRock]

Dust builds up fast man! Especially when using it around a construction site, or a wood shop, or the middle east!

 

[arcanise]

or in yuma arizona >_<

 

[ratbuddy]

just realized your shader clock isnt playing nicely with the core clock, these GPU's love it when the core and shader are in a 1:2 ratio, try to play with your games with your core exactly half of your shader.

No. Stock for that card is 575 core 1265 shaders.