Fallout New Vegas- Framerate issues

I play fallout New Vegas on an Alienware M15x and the framerate is causing problems. The game ran smooth as butter through the first 10 hours, then the occasional crash set in, which doesn't bother me. But suddenly, the game crashed to where I couldnt even access the task manager, so I had to do a force shutdown. Ever since then, the framerate has been crap, it is only a problem (with exceptions) when I am outdoors, so unless I look at the ground or at the sky, the framerate is really rough. Any suggestions?

I dont have any mods, this never usually happens with other games, and I bought it from gamestop.

I just need a solution to the problem. Not why the problem exists, but how to fix it.

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I just played L4D2 and it has the same problem. Is that bad?

I just need a solution to the problem. Not why the problem exists, but how to fix it.

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GBASWFan

Yea, but I played L4d1 and it didn't have that problem.

Portal 2 is doing it now. Maybe its a steam issue. Let me try a nonsteam game.

If it is a driver issue, is it possible for some games to work while some dont. I am going to update my graphics driver.

If my driver is to weak, then why did the games work before?

OK, I tried to update my INVEDA card, but it couldnt find a compatable hardware

Nevermind about the above comment. I chose the wrong kind of driver. It is updating as we speak. Dont know if it will help though.

That didnt do $#!%. Any recommendations, or should I just return the game?

I even loaded an earlier save. Unless the next bit of advice I get works, I am going to give up.

I fixed my stutter in FO:NV by downloading a DX9 DLL I found people talking about on gamefaqs I think it was, worth noting it hasn't CTD since as far as I can remember. Having said that if you are having issues in other games I would start by checking my temps.

How do I check temps on windows 7?

If it's happening on all of your other games then your GPU probably crashed. Have you been overclocking your GPU?

I figured out what is causing it. The laptop does fine when unplugged, but when I plug it in, the performance actually worsend. When I unplugged it, all my games worked better. Unfortunatly, the battery life is short, so is it a problem with the charger, the battery or what? I left the laptop plugged in when the electricity went out in a lightning storm, which may have caused this problem. Any ideas?