M14x Slow?

Hey guys,
I have had my M14xR1 for almost a year now, and I am having a bit of trouble running certain games that should run fine on my pc. I get low FPS on war in the north, when my friend with the same laptop does not have a problem running the highest setting. I have also had to lower my settings for The Witcher 2 as well. I don`t really mind that much, but for all that money, I want it to run good. my specs are i5 2410, 1.5 GT555, 6GB Ram, 500gb (7200), and the 900p display. Can someone tell me how to fix this?
Thanks

 

What drivers are you using for the video card?
How are temperatures while playing ?
Have you defragged your Harddrive ?
Have you made sure you whitelisted everything?
Are you running Physx with the Gpu instead of the Cpu?
Is your refresh rate 60hz matching the dekstop and Nvidia control panel etc
Are you making sure you have no unnecessary background programs running while you play?

 

I have just installed the lastest drivers today.
The temperatures are good but after a few hours it gets hot.
When you say whitelisted, do you mean through the control panel?
I have yet to defragge it, but it has about 70 gbs left, does that make a difference?
And Im not sure whether my Physx is running with my gpu or cpu.
Im not sure how to check my refresh rate.

I am a noob at this kind of stuff, I know how to defrag and stuff, but I really appreciate your help.
Thank you very much!

 

I tried to open up my NVIDIA control panel, and I got an error message saying you are currently not using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU. The only reason I could think for this happening is because I am using an Alienware desktop theme?
Thanks

EDIT: Restart fixed that

 

Sounds like its using the integrated gpu.... try going into the bios and forcing the gt555 on.

 

In general settings , look for the option "adaptive" on power management mode and click prefer maximum performance. For the Physx go to "Set Phsyx configuration and instead of "Auto" Click on nvidia GPU. Go to Change resolution and click 60hz. ( All of this in the Nvidia panel)
When i refer to white listing i mean going to the Nvidia panel and searching for the game's icon and making sure it is running on the Nvidia GPU.
Also for the defragging , its not REALLY that important but i would reccomend doing it once in a while even if you have some space left.
Lastly , type msconfig on Start and go to services. make sure you disable most of the stuff that isn't microsoft or Nvidia/intel . Like programs you dont want running.
Also when you game make sure you match the settings your friend is using in game if he has good performance, turn Vsync off , disable AA and stuff that may hamper the performance of your game. Although the m14x is a tough pup so i dont think that's really the problem.
Although i do believe your m14x may not be using the Nvidia GPU. but seems like you fixed it.

 

Thanks that helped a lot. I really appreciate your help. One small problem, when I changed to 60hz instead of 40 my toolbar icons went all fuzzy? It doesnt really bother me, but I didnt know if I did something wrong?
Thanks for all your help

 

Fuzzy? hmmm care to link me to a screenshot of the problem? I didn't have that happen to me. Where did you change the setting? Through the Nvidia panel or the desktop

 

That's normal, they will change if you do that on the resolution, I'm glad that everything worked for you