Sudden decrease in laptop gaming performance

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Zairon

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#1 Zairon
Member since 2005 • 359 Posts

I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins on my new laptop. It by no means plays it great, but it runs smooth on lower settings. However when playing on it today on the exact same settings its really laggy and quite unplayable.

Does anyone know what it could be? Its not that I had other programs or applications open, nothing but the game. Theres barely been any change at all to the laptops state since I last played it, so I'm not sure what it is.

Any ideas appreciated, thanks

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Zairon

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#2 Zairon
Member since 2005 • 359 Posts
bump
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Blind0bj3ct

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#3 Blind0bj3ct
Member since 2008 • 534 Posts
Check your services in task manager. Make sure nothing else is running in the background and that your laptop isn't a burning coal.
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chrisrooR

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#4 chrisrooR
Member since 2007 • 9027 Posts
Overheating?
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Annihilation01

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#5 Annihilation01
Member since 2009 • 34 Posts

Viruses? Malware? Formats?!

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0penyourmind

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#6 0penyourmind
Member since 2009 • 193 Posts
Graphic card drivers?
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Zairon

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#7 Zairon
Member since 2005 • 359 Posts

Graphic card drivers?0penyourmind

I didn't think of this! Its a new laptop so I imagine the drivers will need updating, good thinking. I'll try updating them now thanks.

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kilaan

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#8 kilaan
Member since 2003 • 845 Posts

[QUOTE="0penyourmind"]Graphic card drivers?Zairon

I didn't think of this! Its a new laptop so I imagine the drivers will need updating, good thinking. I'll try updating them now thanks.

I doubt that is the issue as it was running well the day before. So the question you have to ask yourself is what has exactly changed since then and now?

Are you in the same area of the game you were in? I know in a lot of games I notice a noticeable decrease in performance just depending on what area I am in. One area would be flawless while the next area would be a slideshow.

I think there is a patch for Dragon Age, did you update the game lately? I know a lot of patches that break things more than they fix them.

Try starting a new game and see if the performance is still bad. I have played a lot of games where there is a bug in the code that the longer you play the game the more the game performance will decrease.

Have you or anyone else using your machine been to suspect websites? A quick spybot/antiviurs check might be in order.

Have you downloaded or deleted a lot of stuff lately? I defrag might do the trick. It could be a number of things even hardware failure of some sort but I would start with those.

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0penyourmind

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#9 0penyourmind
Member since 2009 • 193 Posts

[QUOTE="0penyourmind"]Graphic card drivers?Zairon

I didn't think of this! Its a new laptop so I imagine the drivers will need updating, good thinking. I'll try updating them now thanks.

Well, it's worth trying.
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kilaan

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#10 kilaan
Member since 2003 • 845 Posts
[QUOTE="Zairon"]

[QUOTE="0penyourmind"]Graphic card drivers?0penyourmind

I didn't think of this! Its a new laptop so I imagine the drivers will need updating, good thinking. I'll try updating them now thanks.

Well, it's worth trying.

While I do think its generally a good idea to keep all your drivers up to date.* That is clearly not the issue since it was running fine the day before and now it is not and I never heard of video card drivers just deciding to up and revert to an older version for no reason. Something happened to his comp from the first time he played to second time he played to make the game run like crap and he should focus on figuring out what that is. *updated drivers and just like game patches, I have installed some that broke more than they fixed.
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0penyourmind

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#11 0penyourmind
Member since 2009 • 193 Posts
Well I agree kilaan, but sometimes computers are not just that predictable, I don't care if it is logical or not, I'm just trying to help this guy, maybe updating drivers will make it all work again, maybe not, who knows? The point is, it's worth a try.
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deactivated-57af49c27f4e8

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#12 deactivated-57af49c27f4e8
Member since 2005 • 14149 Posts
check your power options. a lot of times laptops are on balanced as a default, you want it on high performance.