Issues with Lag on a decent laptop

[mdspoula]

I am experiencing lag problems in WOLK. I never had issues in the first two parts of the game. Whenever there seems to be more than 2 or 3 mob fighting in a view I get a CPU spike. I alt tab to task manager and 80-90% of my CPU is spiking. It still shows me with 300M free in RAM so I don't think it is a ram issue.

I have a D630 with the following hardware:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.00GHz, 2M L2 Cache, 800MHz) Dual Core
1.0GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 1 DIMM
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.00GHz, 2M L2 Cache, 800MHz) Dual Core
:cry:

Thanks in advance.

[Kalos]

I'm assuming that the laptop you are referring to is the Dell Latitude D630. It has Intel Intergrated graphics, basically it couldn't be worse. Bottom grade graphics hardware delivers bottom grade graphics performance; certainly this is a hinderance.

However this processor useage is remarkably high. Can you check your power management software, see if it has throttled the processor down. It would be wise to set it to Maximum during the game, and keep it lodged high.

[mdspoula]

Well it actually has the integrated nvidia quadro graphics in it so I would think that it should run better than the bottom of the line integrated intel graphics chip. However I tried your suggestion which I thank you for and it seems nvidia hides a powermizer program that is ecofriendly but not good for games. It ran better but still had some lag on WOLK. I am even running with all the effects turned to low and it still gets laggy. I have also upgraded to the latest Nvidia drivers. Thanks for the tip.

I'm assuming that the laptop you are referring to is the Dell Latitude D630. It has Intel Intergrated graphics, basically it couldn't be worse. Bottom grade graphics hardware delivers bottom grade graphics performance; certainly this is a hinderance.

However this processor useage is remarkably high. Can you check your power management software, see if it has throttled the processor down. It would be wise to set it to Maximum during the game, and keep it lodged high.

[Kalos]

Well it actually has the integrated nvidia quadro graphics in it so I would think that it should run better than the bottom of the line integrated intel graphics chip. However I tried your suggestion which I thank you for and it seems nvidia hides a powermizer program that is ecofriendly but not good for games. It ran better but still had some lag on WOLK. I am even running with all the effects turned to low and it still gets laggy. I have also upgraded to the latest Nvidia drivers. Thanks for the tip.
The Optional Quadro upgrade would have been nice to know of in your initial post, but it is indeed far better than the Intel Intergrated stuff.

Did you find the general power management profile settings as well? Usually there is one that regulates things like screen brightness, the delay to screensaver, and most importantly the processor itself. My laptop for instance spends 90% of its life throttled down at 800 Mhz, when it's capable of more than double that, all in the name of saving power over performing. Did you find this setting and tune it upwards as well?

[mdspoula]

Sorry about that I thought I pasted in the correct video card and didn't paste anything accidentally. I looked under general Power Options and there was nothing there. However I do know other laptops like my acer have a power management application that throttles down settings. On this dell I haven't seen anything in my programs or control panel. I also checked dells drivers and downloads page and didn't find anything for managing the power settings there. I will search what it could be called.
Thanks,

The Optional Quadro upgrade would have been nice to know of in your initial post, but it is indeed far better than the Intel Intergrated stuff.

Did you find the general power management profile settings as well? Usually there is one that regulates things like screen brightness, the delay to screensaver, and most importantly the processor itself. My laptop for instance spends 90% of its life throttled down at 800 Mhz, when it's capable of more than double that, all in the name of saving power over performing. Did you find this setting and tune it upwards as well?

[Clavina]

On Dells the power management is called the Dell Quickset utility and if it is loaded it will be a yellow and blue QS icon in your system tray.

If you have not messed with the power settings yourself and you use the laptop with the ac power plugged in then it shouldn't be throttled at all. This the way all Dell's are set by default. The easiest way to check is to right-click on My Computer, go to properties, at the bottom of that there's a section called Computer with your processor and memory information. If the Ghz numbers are the same then it's running at full speed, if one is lower then it's throttled. For example my work computer says Pentium 4 CPU 2.80Ghz 2.79Ghz 1Gb Ram. From that I can tell the processor is running at full speed.

[mdspoula]

Thanks, Clavina that gives me something to look for. I don't believe that I have seen that installed. On a side note I went into the BIOS last night and it would let me in for about 30 seconds and shut down. I find this behavior strange and I wonder if the motherboard replacement dell gave me a week ago due to a dead video chip might be to blame for the lag as well as the shutting down. I am gladly taking all suggestions. Thanks
On Dells the power management is called the Dell Quickset utility and if it is loaded it will be a yellow and blue QS icon in your system tray.

If you have not messed with the power settings yourself and you use the laptop with the ac power plugged in then it shouldn't be throttled at all. This the way all Dell's are set by default. The easiest way to check is to right-click on My Computer, go to properties, at the bottom of that there's a section called Computer with your processor and memory information. If the Ghz numbers are the same then it's running at full speed, if one is lower then it's throttled. For example my work computer says Pentium 4 CPU 2.80Ghz 2.79Ghz 1Gb Ram. From that I can tell the processor is running at full speed.

[Kalos]

A crash during a BIOS screen is extremely rare, it suggests something fundamental is wrong with the laptop. I'm actually short on suggestions on what to do to be sure, but have you tried entering the BIOS several times and had it consistantly crash on you?

[mdspoula]

Yes, last night after playing WOW I entered BIOS. After a minute in BIOS it would shut off on me unexpectedly. It repeated this around 10 times before I gave up. This morning it booted into Windows just fine so I figured my replacement motherboard Dell put in last week is a dud. I am going to call them as soon as I can. Evil Dell:evil: