Windows Opening and Closing in Slow Motion

[Stellarnight]

I have googled many users experiencing the same problems but they are either left unresolved or solved in methods that does not work for me.

I have an Alienware M14x, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

The situation is as such:
Everything runs perfectly well. There are no random BSODs nor is the computer operating slowly. The problem is that whenever i open or close a window, the window does so in slow motion. It takes like 5 seconds for the window to either fade in or out. When i try to play a game, the game itself runs in slow motion. There is no hit to the graphics or the sound.

I have such problems intermittently over the last few months but most of the time, the problem is solved by either restarting the laptop or turning on the power adapter so that the laptop runs on A/C power. The problem went away for quite a while until two weeks ago where it started all over again. This time, i was unable to solve the problem through the old fixes.

Last week, i thought i solved the problem when i did a clean install of both my Intel HD graphics driver and the Nvidia drivers. For a couple of days, the laptop ran fine. Two days ago, the problem came back but i solved it by doing the old restarting and plug in power adapter trick. Today however, both of these methods failed.

What i have done:
1) Ran Virus/Malware Checks with AVG and Malwarebytes. Nothing detected.
2) Ran SFC/Scannow. No problems
3) Did a Clean Boot. Problem persist.
4) Update whatever drivers i can and all Windows Update. Problem persist.
5) Used Event Viewer. No errors except for an error regarding DCHP.
6) Physical Memory from Task Manager is 53%. I have 4GB RAM. Using Resource Monitor, the biggest users of Memory is svchost .exe( Local System Network Restricted) and Chrome.

In short, i have no idea what is going on. If there is any more information i can provide to facilitate any kind helpers, i will be more than glad to.

EDIT: It's weird. I just uninstalled some programs which i don't use anymore which prompted a restart. Seems to be alright...for now. I will monitor developments for the next few days. If the problem goes away, i will mark this as solved. This kind of mirrors some of the other users solution to this problem. The problem for some of them seem to mysteriously go away.

Regards
Ben

 

[matts6887]

To me this sounds like a possible lack of enough ram. Even though the system is not acting slowly; the system could still be suffering from lack of enough available ram to run not just windows itself; but background programs and services, etc. so you might want to consider upping the amount of ram you have to at least 8gb. Especially if its for gaming use; you want to have more than enough for gaming rather than not enough at all.

 

[rvcjew]

what happens if you unplug all usb devices from your pc if you have any? and does your device manger show anything as well? sounds like a video ram issue or normal ram issue, are you gaming with chrome open? chrome for me takes up to close to 5GB's of ram at times.

 

[Stellarnight]

It is back again with a vengeance.

I am not entirely convinced it is a RAM problem because i had my laptop for about 3 years and this phenomenon is relatively recent. I have been gaming since the moment i got the laptop. Just this morning, i was gaming with modded Skyrim and it runs smoothly. Now in the afternoon when i booted up my laptop, the slow motion problem comes back. I am currently playing music from youtube and the music plays perfectly fine. The problem seems way too sporadic and random. Between this morning and now, there was no driver updates or anything. Basically nothing have changed.

The only USB device i have is a mouse. I don't game with Chrome either. The slow motion problems happen with or without Chrome so i guess Chrome isn't the culprit here. Just wondering is it possible that a old laptop battery nearing the end of its life cycle be responsible for this? I am guilty of still using the stock battery supplied. Perhaps the battery could no longer support the juice for smooth operations?

Edit: Restarted the Laptop. Added a Cooler, changed my power plan from High Performance to Power Saver, plugged in the A/C and the problem went away. I am even more confused now.

 

[rvcjew]

Sounds like some kind of messed up power management drivers I would reinstall those first. It could be the battery as well since it does not happen with ac right? Can you run your laptop with out the battery?