I need help reinstalling windows 10 and all required drivers for a Powerspec 1520.

I've reinstalled the system 2 or three times by now, and it runs great for a while, but then the entire system tends to slowdown, and it becomes virtually unusable for gaming. I have stable frame rates in the 80s -90s and then after a while of use, i have massive frame drops down to two fps for a second or two. After that slight stutter or drop, the frame rate goes back up to what it was normally, and then 3-4 seconds later it drops again. This process continues until I reset the laptop. Also this tends to happen sometimes when my computer is not in use at all. I'll leave for an hour, and when I come back, my desktop is stuttery and hangs every few seconds. 

I've seen online where it could be the graphical drivers, but I've performed a clean install of the Geforce RTX 2070 drivers and that didn't seem to do anything. Also I tried updating all intel drivers, and that didn't seem to do much as well. 

I've even looked into Task Manager to try and see if anything was causing the stutters or drops but nothing was showing up, nothing there could lead me to the problem.

I've followed the instructions provided by the drivers for the Powerspec 1520, installing all of them in an offline mode so windows does not install some other driver over the Powerspec drivers.

Also to note, I have a secondary hard drive for games and other programs that I installed into the laptop. It's a 2TB Barracuda Hard drive. And I've tried installing windows and all drivers both with and without that secondary drive, and those same stutters and drops occur.

I just feel like I am missing some drivers, or I'm doing something wrong in the installation process for windows 10 or the Powerspec drivers. 

I've also tried looking online for any installation guides for this particular laptop and I have not seen anything, so I'm hoping this forum can help me get my laptop up and running again.

Answers

  • @ButcherJ789 Good evening and thank you for reaching out to the Micro Center Community. I'm sorry to hear that you're having issues with this PowerSpec system. You mentioned when going into task manager, you don't see anything that could be causing the issue? Have you seen any processes listed in the high percentages? Is there also any particular programs that were installed that you'd be using at the time when this happens or may be running in the background when not using the system?
  • PowerSpec_MichaelB
    PowerSpec_MichaelB ✭✭✭✭✭
    First Answer 5 Insightfuls First Comment 5 Awesomes
    I've reinstalled the system 2 or three times by now, and it runs great for a while, but then the entire system tends to slowdown, and it becomes virtually unusable for gaming. I have stable frame rates in the 80s -90s and then after a while of use, i have massive frame drops down to two fps for a second or two. After that slight stutter or drop, the frame rate goes back up to what it was normally, and then 3-4 seconds later it drops again. This process continues until I reset the laptop. Also this tends to happen sometimes when my computer is not in use at all. I'll leave for an hour, and when I come back, my desktop is stuttery and hangs every few seconds. 

    I've seen online where it could be the graphical drivers, but I've performed a clean install of the Geforce RTX 2070 drivers and that didn't seem to do anything. Also I tried updating all intel drivers, and that didn't seem to do much as well. 

    I've even looked into Task Manager to try and see if anything was causing the stutters or drops but nothing was showing up, nothing there could lead me to the problem.

    I've followed the instructions provided by the drivers for the Powerspec 1520, installing all of them in an offline mode so windows does not install some other driver over the Powerspec drivers.

    Also to note, I have a secondary hard drive for games and other programs that I installed into the laptop. It's a 2TB Barracuda Hard drive. And I've tried installing windows and all drivers both with and without that secondary drive, and those same stutters and drops occur.

    I just feel like I am missing some drivers, or I'm doing something wrong in the installation process for windows 10 or the Powerspec drivers. 

    I've also tried looking online for any installation guides for this particular laptop and I have not seen anything, so I'm hoping this forum can help me get my laptop up and running again.
    Greetings & welcome to the forum, Butcherj789. My apologies for the very late response, for some reason I did not see this post until now. If you still need assistance, I am happy to help. First, a few questions to help narrow down some of the troubleshooting steps.

    When you reinstalled Windows, did you perform a clean installation? Or did you utilize the "Reset this PC" function? While the "Reset this PC" function is great, a clean installation is best for making sure everything is removed properly and that the drives are perfectly clean prior to installing the OS.

    Are you running the laptop in MSHybrid or Discrete mode? This laptop can utilize MSHybrid mode to use the Intel integrated graphics when not performing any demanding 3D workloads. Depending on the software you are using, it's possible that it may be getting confused with the type of workload that is being performed, and may be inadvertently switching between the two. I would strongly advise using Discrete mode, as it also allows you to take advantage of NVIDIA's G-Sync technology on your laptop. To better assist with this step, I'll be emailing you a detailed product manual that should go over those steps.

    Lastly, when these stutters/performance dips occur, does it happen after the exact same period of time, or is it random? If it's occurring around the same time, it's likely worth checking the temperature during the performance dips. While it's possible the laptop may feel cool to the touch, if it's thermal throttling, you'll experience some pretty gnarly dips in performance. Tabbing out to task manager might not catch the issue as you'll end up minimizing the game if it's in fullscreen mode, which will also reduce your GPU usage and thermals considerably. To properly monitor this, I would recommend the use of MSI Afterburner alongside Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS). Here is a quick guide on how to setup MSI Afterburner and RTSS for On-Screen Display: https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/3077/guide-how-to-install-enable-on-screen-display-in-msi-afterburner-rtss/p1?new=1
    Pay very close attention to CPU, GPU and RAM usage while gaming, as this will reveal the potential bottleneck if one exists. Temperature is also very important to keep in mind, as thermal throttling will dramatically impact performance. Once we have some extra information, I am confident we can work together to get to the bottom of this. I look forward to hearing from you!
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