[OnionKnight]

Hello! First of all, I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum to be posting my question in, so I apologize in advance if it's the wrong one!

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15R and I sometimes use it to play games (ie. Portal 2, L4D...). Now, I know that laptops aren't exactly ideal for gaming, but it's all I've got, and it works pretty well for gaming, even high end games. But whenever I play games, I ALWAYS have to have my laptop plugged in, because whenever it's unplugged my games start to slow down and lag. I've already tried to fix this by changing my power settings, but I still can't get the performance up to when it is plugged in. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks!

[ETech7]

There also might be settings in BIOS which regulate performance levels when laptop is running on battery.

[shylobster11]

Sounds like the battery is low

[Tanis]

Hi and welcome to TSG.

The BIOS maybe one of your only options if there are any options available there. Personally, I wouldn't play games on a laptop without it being plugged in. The extra power requirements of straining the GPU and CPU will drain the battery quickly anyway.

There are often many options / features within a laptop to try and limit power consumption when it is on battery power, these are the most likely cause of your stuttering and lag.

[backTrack5]

Maybe your laptop's GPU is switching to the integrated GPU(HDXXXX) when you unplug your laptop for power saving. Try to find a tweak in your GPU's control center to allways remain to the dedicated GPU.