Dell XPS2 problem: Slow....looks like its the HD. How can I fix this?

[DaMaDo]

I got my Dell XPS2 and the first thing I did was to reformat and do a clean install.

All the drivers are installed from the website in order to get the newest ones.

I get 22,030 on 3dmark2001 but when I go to play any games like WoW or the demo of battlefield 2, it stutters a LOT. The HD is running like crazy every time it happens. The games also take a very long time to load.

I am on DMA, not PIO mode, I have defragged with the latest version of diskeeper, and I have tried disabling AVG anti virus and MS antispyware which are the only other programs I have installed at this point besides the games. I have the page file set to 766 (the recommended setting but have tried higher also).

This is the 2 ghz, model with 512 RAM (waiting for my 1 gig stick), and the HD is the hitachi 60 gig 7200 rpm model.

Any ideas? My 3 year old IBM can run WoW with no problems at max graphics and the XPS2 stutters like crazy even at minumum graphics at 800 x 600

[OldMX]

I have 2 hd's on my computer, one for windows and programs and the second one for games, i recommend installing all games in second hd and use the first one with a fixed size pagefile of 1500mb or something big.

good luck

oldmx

[Talonz]

Run HDTach, see if you get normal results. I have had harddrives that report DMA mode, only to find that they were running in PIO mode.

[DaMaDo]

Here's my HDTach results:

http://www.damado.com/pics/hdtach.jpg

[shoman24v]

There is nothing wrong with your HD.

[codegrinder]

i have an xps2 as well. i have no problems with wow or battlefield2, doom3, farcry.


ive noticed sometimes if i start the computer up without it plugged into the wall it runs at 800mhz even if i plug it in, i have to reboot it to get back to 2.13. in fact all dell laptops i have owned have done the same thing. :rolleyes:

here are a few things to check. (im sorry if they seem stupid, but i dont know what you know by your post)

1 some games i have played at 1024 or lower were jumpy and stuttering like i had a shitty video card, but when i changed the resolution to 1600 or higher they worked great.

2. updated drivers from laptopvideo2go ?

3. its going to studder with bf2 with 512/ 512 is a minimum for it. mine studdered in farcry untill i got 1 gig.

[codegrinder]

btw, wouldnt this go in the mobile forum?

[DaMaDo]

Codegrinder, I think you're on to something....looking at system properties, I'm at 2.0 ghz/ 2.0ghz then when I launch any games, it goes to 2.0ghz/798 mhz....its scaling down when I launch a game.....how do I stop this?

I am plugged in the whole time.

[codegrinder]

Codegrinder, I think you're on to something....looking at system properties, I'm at 2.0 ghz/ 2.0ghz then when I launch any games, it goes to 2.0ghz/798 mhz....its scaling down when I launch a game.....how do I stop this?

I am plugged in the whole time.

did you install any of the dell applications? thier software will control the speed step somewhat better then windows.



this is a list of what i have installed on my machine /w NO spyware shits.
Dell QuickSet
Intel Mobile Chipset
SIGMATEL STAC 975X AC97
Conexant D110,MDC,1.5,v.92
Alps GlidePoint/StickPointer
Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated Controller
Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
Dell Notebook System Software, v.3.11.0, A18
laptopvideo2go drivers


in the quickset there are power managment settings that will help battery life and the speed step management too...

[DaMaDo]

Thanks Core, got all those installed and its not scaling down...still stuttery, but only half as bad now. Still wierd to me b/c my 1.6 pentium M laptop with a ati 9300 vid card can run it at 1600 x 1450 super smooth...it has 1 gig of ram tho...so maybe that's it. My 1 gig stick should get here wednesday so hopefully that fixes the rest of the stutter. The hard drive light is still constantly on when it stutters. Maybe since I have 512 ram, its using the page file excessively?

Just to make sure I did it right. I went to quickset, xps game interface, power scheme and chose maximum performance from the dropdown. That's all i had to do right?

I have all the same software installed that you listed.

[codegrinder]

yea. do you have service pack 2 installed as well?


the 512 may be doing it like you said because of the page file, also. when you get the 1gig stick it may slow down loading times ect.. but the game should run faster.

the laptop will be coming out of dual channel mode ext..

[DaMaDo]

Yes, everything is updated, I got the laptop2go 77.62 drivers too now.

I'm going to try the DHAM2 program to make sure my HD is on performance mode instead of quiet mode.

Just ran 3Dmark05 and for 5187....the stuttering in games makes no sense to me =/

[codegrinder]

that what i got. or close to it /w 512. should be right on. does 3dmark studder?

[DaMaDo]

3dmark2k1 doesn't but 05 gets 0 fps at some points hehe

I believe I fixed the problem though =)

I booted into DOS and ran the DHAM2 utility (from dell's website) and did the -s to find that the hard drive was running in quiet mode...so i did the -p and put it into performance mode....MUCH better now =) .....at least in WoW, I'll try out more games tomorrow.

I must say I definitely know when the hard drive is working now hehe.

[Selecter]

BF 2 takes over 900 MB of RAm on high quality video settings.

[codegrinder]

re do the hd tach and post up please. i want to see if it helped

[DaMaDo]

Sorry it took me a couple of days, but here it is in performance mode. I guess not much of a difference....the memory upgrade was what completely fixed all my problems. I am at 1.2 gigs now and I ordered a second gig yesterday =)

I'm going to put it back into quiet mode and test again since this is win xp now and last time I did it in win home. I don't know why it looks like such a small difference in the numbers, but it really did make a diff in WoW. I'll keep testing.

http://www.damado.com/pics/hdtach2.jpg

[codegrinder]

some of the patches that came out from ea fixed this for me...

[ComputerBox34]

Sorry it took me a couple of days, but here it is in performance mode. I guess not much of a difference....the memory upgrade was what completely fixed all my problems. I am at 1.2 gigs now and I ordered a second gig yesterday =)

I'm going to put it back into quiet mode and test again since this is win xp now and last time I did it in win home. I don't know why it looks like such a small difference in the numbers, but it really did make a diff in WoW. I'll keep testing.

http://www.damado.com/pics/hdtach2.jpg

I was just about to say that was your prob. 512 MB is not enough for gaming. It's impossible to get BF2 running well with BF2 at 512 MB unless you have everything shut off except basic services. If it was a problem with the HDD, you would of noticed problems in XP as well.

[zandor]

Looks like quiet mode cost you about a millisecond of seek time. That's all I'd expect it would do. They really can't slow down the spindle speed of the drive, so all quiet mode does is make it chatter less when it's seeking by making it seek more slowly. Since it still runs at 7200, I'd expect the effect on sequential reads to be very small. If track to track seeks take a little longer, you could take a little hit.
You'd be suprised how many drives have a "quiet mode" that reduces seek times. Even my Seagate Cheetah 15k.3 SCSIs have a quiet mode.

[Nasty_Savage]

You needs more ram!

[DaMaDo]

The ram was the trick, I'm at 2 gigs now and its fast as hell =) I can play BF2 at 1600x1200 with all settings on high and its super smooth.

[XeRo_Dark]

Please read the rules, this forum is not for bashing people who buy prebuilt systems. - Morley