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I started FIFA11 just as any other day. But now the FPS was very low. I saw on the desktop gadget that all 4 cores on my i5 were at 100%. I tried to play nonetheless but it was unbearably slow. So I quit and checked the Windows action center which showed 2 problems: that something was wrong with fifa11 and the ATI hd 5650 graphics card. But clicking it only took me to a survey online. Yet to hear from HP.

All subsequent attempts at playing any game resulted in CPU usage surging to 100% and Laptop coming to a crawl. I guess it's a driver issue. Will re-installing the driver for the ATI Gfx card solve the problem? What if its a hardware issue? How to tell if its a hardware issue?

My specs: core i5 processor; 4 GB RAM; switchable graphics: ATI HD 5650; Model: HP pavillion dv6 3143se which HP says has been discontinued. so it took a while for me to get this support page:

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2 Answers

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100% CPU means that SOMETHING is running all out. Check the Task Manager to see which process is taking up the CPU.

If it's the game, the graphics settings may have been changed causing it to work to hard... Try lowering them.

If it's a "helper" application in the same folder as the game, the game my be trying to update itself. Just let it finish before playing.

In situations like these always ask yourself "What changed?" The game settings? A driver or its settings? Did you add another application? Could you have contracted a virus?

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The game was running at max settings as always. I didn't meddle with the driver. I scanned the pc with malwarebytes' anti-malware which didn't show any infection. I was downloading a torrent at avg speed of about 100kBps when i tried to start the game. I left the pc and came back about 3mins later i saw that the fps was low which was unusual. Almost nothing changed. could any power fluctuations have caused something to fail in the hardware inside? Anyway i'm downloading the drivers and will install them again and see what happens. – Astromaz3 Jul 21 '11 at 14:55
Unlikely, power fluctuations usually freeze or restart the OS or outright kill hardware, not cripple it. – Chris Nava Jul 21 '11 at 17:14
I tried re-installing the ATI drivers but still the problem persisted. The game would work fine but after 2 mins CPU usage would surge to 100% and hence lagging would occur. Didn't want to mess around with the laptop since its new. So i performed a windows system restore to an earlier date and the graphics problem seems to have ceased. Will post if anything happens. Now even when playing game CPU usage rarely crosses 50%. – Astromaz3 Jul 21 '11 at 20:57
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I updated the Graphics driver to the latest one that HP support would provide. The issue is now solved.

The problem with switchable graphics laptops is that only the manufacturer can provide the graphics driver updates. What ATI provides simply will not install.

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