My laptop's FPS has suddenly dropped to ridiculous levels ever since I unplugged the power lead.

[Danny Allison]

I have an Alienware M15x, and have been using it happily for about a year now. The other week I took the power lead out to use it in bed, and it suddenly started performing much slower than it usually does, and runs games at shit levels. For instance I have to run LoL on low settings to get 20fps.
I've tried re-installing windows and updating my graphics card, and also trying a different power lead. The problem seems to get worse when I take the power out, so I'm thinking it may be related to that, I don't know.

EDIT - Forgot to mention I've already got power settings on High performance, some people on other forums thought that might fix it.

 

[burdenbound]

My first guess was high performance mode. Can you monitor your CPU clock speed and make sure it's not being throttled? Look and cpu/gpu usage and any software alienware probably bundled in with it which might be throttling the system while not on AC power.

 

[COLGeek]

When you run a laptop (I too have a M15x BTW), the CPU and GPU will clock down to conserve power. That translates in longer battery life and less performance. As mentioned earlier, you can disable this "clocking down" by adjusting you power management settings. However, as the battery life for the M15x is poor anyway, changing those settings will shorten your available battery time even more than usual.

That being said, when you re-connect to AC power, I assume your overall performance returns to normal. Is that correct?

 

[Danny Allison]

When you run a laptop (I too have a M15x BTW), the CPU and GPU will clock down to conserve power. That translates in longer battery life and less performance. As mentioned earlier, you can disable this "clocking down" by adjusting you power management settings. However, as the battery life for the M15x is poor anyway, changing those settings will shorten your available battery time even more than usual.

That being said, when you re-connect to AC power, I assume your overall performance returns to normal. Is that correct?

Nope, not correct. It's very bad when the AC power is out, and only slightly better when it's in. Could you go through with me how you Clock down your system if that's okay? Thanks.

 

[COLGeek]

I am not at the same location as my M15x (will be this evening). I can take a look at it then. What GPU is in your M15x (they came with either an AMD or Nvidia offering, mine has the AMD HD5850m)?

Also, how are your CPU and GPU temps at idle and under load (need both for battery and AC use)?

 

[Danny Allison]

I am not at the same location as my M15x (will be this evening). I can take a look at it then. What GPU is in your M15x (they came with either an AMD or Nvidia offering, mine has the AMD HD5850m)?

Also, how are your CPU and GPU temps at idle and under load (need both for battery and AC use)?

The GPU is Nvidia, and I checked the temps using a program the other day and both whilst idle and playing LoL they were fine temperatures (Checking against my friend's laptop which is performing normally).

I haven't checked it when it's running on battery, I will later for you when I can. The problem is when I take the battery out, it doesn't even improve slightly when I put it back in without shutting down the whole machine. Sucks really bad.