Area 51 mx518 processor restriction ?

nix

EDIT: errr m15x not mx518 ;D

Ok i recentley upgraded my vista 32 bit to SP1, which at first seemed fine and grand. However a day later i noticed the games i was playing were struggling fps wise (counter strike source, age of conan) But im pretty sure my gfx card is working fine.

However the problem it seems is with the processor, something is restricting it from working to its full capacity.

I downloaded "cpu-z" and the processor speed never goes above 1595.7 MHZ which is silly as im packing 2.50GHZ duo.

Anybody know what i could adjust to fix this problem ? I'm not sure if SP1 caused the problem, i didnt notice the drop in performance until like 24hrs after installing it.

Also im not very good at this stuff so if someone could dumb it down a bit

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Voodu Child

The Area 51 M15x has had very widespread reports of 'downclocking' due to excess heat. This is where the GPU generates too much heat for the fans to remove, so it goes into a lower performance mode to help cooling.

They released some bios updates to run the fans more aggressively in attempt to counter the problem, it might be worth checking that out.

Obviously you're talking about the CPU in this instance, so it may or may not be related. I'd suggest monitoring the GPU as well, to see if it downclocks during a gaming session.

I'd also suggest posting in a forum where you're likely to find a lot of M15x owners; there's probably only a couple here. Try this one, as they have a dedicated Alienware section. The guys there should be able to give you more thorough advice on what to watch for.

conzy

Never goes above 1.6ghz at idle? or load?

If its idle it wont go over 1.6ghz because the power saving features drop the voltage and multiplier to save energy. Try run a game and tab out and check cpu-z and it should be at 2.5ghz