Poor performance Dell gaming laptop

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Poor performance Dell gaming laptop

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 32

#225751 4-Dec-2017 14:06

Hi all,

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron gaming laptop. The performance is good for games, but it stutters/pauses momentarily when doing simple tasks like browsing the web in Firefox. I suspect something is happening with the integrated graphics but I'm not sure what to do.

I've contacted Dell support, but if they can't fix it soon I might send it back.

The laptop has:

7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7700HQ Quad Core (6MB Cache, up to 3.8 GHz)
GTX 1050
16 gigs ram
SSD and normal HDD

I feel it shouldn't struggle with web browsing!

Does anyone have any bright ideas?

Thanks in advance

Item

1739 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 726

Subscriber

#1912675 4-Dec-2017 14:23

There should be a way to test your theory on the graphics switching by disabling it - try both cards "fixed" and see if you get the same issues on both/either?

Assume you have the latest NVIDIA and Intel drivers as well?

Is the hard drive set up as two individual drives - one with boot and one as storage - or are they running as a combined RAID/striped setup?

Is the issue Firefox specific? Does it still happen in Edge or Chrome?

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2153
Inactive user

#1912677 4-Dec-2017 14:25

Click Start and then Control Panel. ...
Double-click NVIDIA Control Panel.
Click View and next Add "Run with graphics processor" Option to Context Menu. ...
Select Run with graphics processor for everything.

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 32

#1912680 4-Dec-2017 14:28

Item:

There should be a way to test your theory on the graphics switching by disabling it - try both cards "fixed" and see if you get the same issues on both/either?

Assume you have the latest NVIDIA and Intel drivers as well?

Is the hard drive set up as two individual drives - one with boot and one as storage - or are they running as a combined RAID/striped setup?

Is the issue Firefox specific? Does it still happen in Edge or Chrome?

Yeah I will try "fix" it to the GTX1050 and see if that works.

Yep updated the drivers recently.

I'm not sure on the drives question - they appear as two separate drives in explorer.

It doesn't happen in Chrome as far as I can tell... but it also affects other aspects of the computer when I open programs etc.

xpd

Geek of Coastguard
14116 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4579

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1912681 4-Dec-2017 14:29

Boot from a Live CD and see if any issues - if not, then would suspect software/driver issue.

XPD / Gavin

LinkTree

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 32

#1912682 4-Dec-2017 14:29

Coil:

Click Start and then Control Panel. ...
Double-click NVIDIA Control Panel.
Click View and next Add "Run with graphics processor" Option to Context Menu. ...
Select Run with graphics processor for everything.

Thanks for the instructions - couldn't figure out how to do this earlier. I will try when I get home.

Item

1739 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 726

Subscriber

#1912724 4-Dec-2017 15:05

howdystranger:

It doesn't happen in Chrome as far as I can tell... but it also affects other aspects of the computer when I open programs etc.

Does the cursor "spin" and think or does it just freeze/lurch a bit? If you have performance monitor open, do you see anything spiking in terms of resource? Did it come bundled with any crap that could be removed (McAfee trial version etc?!)

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 32

#1912736 4-Dec-2017 15:34

Item:

howdystranger:

It doesn't happen in Chrome as far as I can tell... but it also affects other aspects of the computer when I open programs etc.

Does the cursor "spin" and think or does it just freeze/lurch a bit? If you have performance monitor open, do you see anything spiking in terms of resource? Did it come bundled with any crap that could be removed (McAfee trial version etc?!)

The cursor doesn't spin - it just freezes/lurches a bit. When I've watched performance monitor nothing unusual seems to be happening.

Yeah I removed McAfee and a few other things, but there are still lots of Dell utilities etc...

garbonzai

317 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 51

#1912802 4-Dec-2017 17:09

If this only happens in Firefox, then try (layers.acceleration.force-enabled)

Change from false to true.

Link that tells you how to do it->

https://cialu.net/enable-hardware-acceleration-firefox-make-faster/

this is for Linux, but same instructions.

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 32

#1912867 4-Dec-2017 18:49

howdystranger:

Coil:

Click Start and then Control Panel. ...
Double-click NVIDIA Control Panel.
Click View and next Add "Run with graphics processor" Option to Context Menu. ...
Select Run with graphics processor for everything.

Thanks for the instructions - couldn't figure out how to do this earlier. I will try when I get home.

Hmm I can't see the settings you're referring to. I have however changed the preferred graphics processor to the NVIDIA one.

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 32

#1912970 4-Dec-2017 21:12

Update: even thought the Dell website said I had the most recent version of the Intel graphics driver, I reinstalled it and it seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks for your help and time, and I will post again if it hasn't fixed it!

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2153
Inactive user

#1913080 5-Dec-2017 09:16

howdystranger:

Update: even thought the Dell website said I had the most recent version of the Intel graphics driver, I reinstalled it and it seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks for your help and time, and I will post again if it hasn't fixed it!

I generally remove the Intel integrated drivers and force the use of the Discrete GPU.

Made a massive difference on my old laptop with a 950.
Cheers