Okay, there is something wrong with this laptop. I've struggled with massive stuttering in games often, and blamed it on other things like background processes, bloatware, etc.

But I am now convinced it is none of those things. And instead is some sort of issue with... I dunno, maybe going from the laptop to the monitor? I can't play on the laptop screen to compare. I am bedbound, the laptop itself sits on a table a few feet from my bed while the monitor it is hooked up to is on a tray stand that I can move in front of me.

But something is not right. It's not just games, it's actually video too. Just to be sure, I just did a test with my old laptop (both are sitting on that table) by switching my monitors input from HDMI 1 to HDMI2.

Watching a news channel (CNN or Fox News) with the bottom line scroll really shows I'm talking about. On that old assed laptop, watching the same news channel all looks smooth. Watching it on this much newer and much much more powerful laptop, and the same scrolling jerks across the screen. Not fluid at all. And this is just simple streaming, not playing a game at at with nothing (from me anyway) else running. When i try and play a game, it is like something I've rarely seen, it just jerks and stops and jerks and stops and is completely unplayable.

What I've tried: 1)switching HDMI wires. Switching HDMI inputs. Updating graphics drivers. Minimizing any and all background stuff running. Switched the global setting in Nvidia control panel to always use the Nvidia GPU, and I think one or two more things I'm not remembering.

This is indicative of a fatal problem, isn't it?

And does anyone else use Firefox? Is it normal for it to show up 10 or 11 times on the task manager list when you use it? (screenshot) And now it's 14 of them (most recent screenshot)
Never mind. Guess it is normal. (the firefox thing, not the stuttering graphics).

Okay, so I got some help to move the other table closer and simply switched my display options to both the laptop screen and the monitor. Watching both simultaneously, the scrolling underneath on the laptop screen is smooth as butter. On the monitor, it stutters. So, that should mean the problem is getting from the laptop to the monitor, right? Is that a safe assumption? So what should I do? I've tried switching HDMI cables and which slot on the monitor I plugged them into. But it must be something, not necessarily performance related (as in the laptop is perfectly capable of handling streaming and games) but is instead a problem from the laptop to the monitor. I guess order some new cables and try those?

Pretty much normal for FF these days as I recall.

As to the second monitor thing, your laptop make / model specs would help.

The one thing that I'm quite certain is not the issue are the cables. If you get display at all, they should be fine.

And if it's the same computer, and it works on one monitor and not another, then it's also not the computer itself. It may be the port you use to connect that monitor though.

But first thing I'd look at are the monitor's capabilities and settings, mainly the response time and refresh rate. And whether the laptop sees it as what it is and doesn't try to use the settings of its built in one for the external one as well.

OldFatGuy, I know that this may seem a bit basic (and I have not used Windows as my main operating system in years), but, I do wonder if your symptoms are due to lack of a properly-functioning graphics driver.

Would you please run DxDiag.exe (or whichever name they now use) and post a screenshot of the output of the [Display] tab? The idea is to determine if Direct3d (and/or DirectDraw) acceleration is enabled.

Another idea: If the resolution and refresh rate of the external monitor are configured differently than those of the laptop monitor, you can try adjusting them to be the same as (or closer to) those of the laptop monitor to see what happens.

To change the resolution: Start button > Settings > System > Display.

To change the refresh rate: Start button > Settings > System > Display > Advanced display settings.

Without being in front of the machine, we can only speculate. Assuming it is not malware, the cpu could run hot and throttle back. I would recommend a laptop fan. But most are garbage. Most use a grill over the fans, which prevents air flow. You can test them by placing a face tissue over a fan. It does not move the tissue. Seriously.

Instead, you can buy a 12v dial/fan combo. Then place your laptop on a drying board/table for dishwear. Due to those with folding legs or brackets having slits in the table for air flow. Park the jet like fan in the direction under the laptop and that should cool the pc rather well. Another tool is a monkey grip. Using a bunch of rubber bands to tie the fan to the grip, you can anchor the fan and direct air to exact hot spots under the laptop.

If it is not heat, you may need a malware/rootkit scanner.

Yes, for the last year or so Firefox spawns a separate instance on the taskbar for each window and a separate task (in the Task Manager) for each tab inside each window. It sounds like a software problem.

The cables are fine, since both work (i.e., yield identical output) from the older laptop.

The problem is how the monitor is processing the video signal, since the laptop screen works. You haven't made it clear whether the newer laptop has graphical display problems on its built-in screen (not just the external monitor) but if the answer is No then it sounds like the graphics card doesn't (fully) recognize the monitor's specifications. (In the unlikely case that the answer is Yes, because the laptop screen also stutters, then at least one problem lies in the settings controlling graphics.)

If you haven't configured your laptop to recognize the external monitor it will be assuming the most generic default settings for it, leading to lower than possible performance. Do you have the driver supplied with the monitor? It should be available from the manufacturer's website, regardless.



edit: corrected the Yes and No alternatives incorrectly assigned in penultimate paragraph

Okay. This is what I've learned.
Given: I have two laptops, one relatively new (2020) and one very old (10-15 years old??). Both sitting on a table beside my bed, both with HDMI cables running to a big monitor (my old eyes need big) on a tray that sits in front of me in my hospital bed.

New laptop Lagging in games is... I dunno, lagging isn't even a good enough term, this thing jerks, and jerks, and jerks, it is totally unplayable, and this when i'm looking at the monitor. It's so bad, that even video stutters and is easily seen when watching a tv channel with scrolling stuff at the bottom, and it jerks across the screen. Now this is where it gets interesting.

I switch my Multiple Display settings from just the monitor to have it show on both monitor and laptop screen. Now I haven't tried a game yet because previous attempts were any game I tried it was so bad it was unplayable even gothic 2 which is a 20 year old game. But when watching a TV with scrolling on the bottom and looking at both the output on the monitor and on the laptop screen... the scrolling on the monitor is jerky, again, just with video. The scrolling on the laptop screen is smooth as butter.

See? It's as if the problem isn't the laptop itself, but somehow in the transmission from the laptop to the monitor.

I have tried switching HDMI wires, and ports, on the monitor anyway, the laptop only has one output HDMI port. Did nothing.

I have ordered a Display Port cable just to at least try that.

But I guess what I need to do is install a game and see if it's unplayable on the laptop screen without the monitor???? Would that be the next logical troubleshooting step? Unless I'm told that's a waste, I'll do that when the DisplayPort cable gets here.

But, is it possible there's nothing wrong with the laptop per se, but maybe a transmission to the monitor thing? I don't think the problem is the monitor itself, of course not sure, but when I watch those same news scrolling on the old laptop on the same monitor there is no jerking, it's smooth. If it were the monitor, then the jerkiness would be seen no matter which laptop sent the signal, right?

But, again, haven't tried a game yet with just the laptop screen, but when seeing the jerkiness on even a simple video feed on the monitor screen while NOT seeing that jerkiness on the laptop screen itself while the output is going to both could mean "Internally" at least the laptop is okay, but there's some problem getting from laptop to monitor. I dunno, spit balling here, but if that's the case then possible problems would be cables, ports, or the graphics card itself not sending a good signal externally????? Sound right????

Some things to try.

1) Try offline.

Since Windows 8? Microsoft has been pushing updates, and those updates are fueled by it's customers too. One gamer i know who was streaming complained about how his performance suddenly dipped terribly while his computer was uploading updates to other machines.

2) Change program priorities

Open the task manager, find programs that use a lot of CPU or resources and give them a lower priority, and the game or video specific program you are trying to use, give a higher priority. Not sure what you mean by minimizing background stuff... But if it's running with normal priority then it won't matter.

Also to note, Windows 10 has something like 120 default processes running, some of these things are useless. smart card support, printer spooling, disk encryption (when you never use it), etc etc. Disabling these will free resources for sure. Bringing to...

3) Reduce unneeded memory/virtual memory used

Virtual Memory swaps memory to the hard disk and re-loads it back up again. If the computer is doing any or a lot of swapping it can heavily hurt your speed, disabling Virtual Memory can be a great boost, but you can't exceed your max memory, (don't try unless you have 8+ Gigs of ram).

Keeping an eye on memory available and knowing how much a program uses and keeping it under your memory will keep a higher performance.

Having a small ramdrive for your temporary folder may also help a bit, so long as it isn't GoG installers eating your ram during install...

Based on your description, this may be a hardware issue (e.g., an issue with the HDMI port of your laptop), but I'm inclined to believe this a software issue.

I suppose you have already checked if Windows is detecting the external monitor correctly and that you have already changed settings such as resolution and frame rate to see what happens (if you haven't yet, you may give this a go).

I remember you mentioned elsewhere that your laptop is an MSI. I searched a bit, and looks like other people are having similar issues (like stuttering) when using an external monitor with an MSI laptop. See this thread, for example: The thread above mentions two workarounds that you can try:

- Option 1: Configure your display mode to "Extend" (press Windows Logo + P, then click on Extend).

- Option 2: Use the MSI Center to adjust the "GPU Switch" option to "MSHybrid" (note: not all MSI laptops have this option). The following page has instructions: You can find more on the web using keywords such as: msi laptop stuttering external monitor.

Attached. Hope this is what you were talking about. This is the OLD laptop, not the newer one that crapped out on me over the last weekend that I had to do an entire system reinstall. I'll get that one at some point. Sorry.

And here is the screenshot for the "new" computer (I got this in 2020, but became bedbound after ordering and before arriving and it sat in the box until spring 2023). Screenshot for this one attached.

ADDED: So this new one appears to be working better after this second reinstall of Windows. I'm noticing the scrolling along the bottom of a TV screen is no longer stuttering on the monitor.

Maybe it was all the porn sites I visited before...... lol

I'm gonna install a game and see what happens.

Well, it's like I've gotten a brand new computer. My God, this thing is working so awesomely now that I can see it was having issues even before the fatal episode of last Saturday that had me do a complete reset/recovery.

I'm seeing faster load times when I load a saved game for example. Faster download speeds (not sure why as I figured all of my download issues were wi-fi issues, but it must have had something to do with the computer itself because I am noticing much better speeds than I have ever had on this newer laptop.

I'm playing Gothic 2, and whereas it was unplayable after the first reset/recovery, it is now running BETTER than it did before last Saturday. I haven't seen a single, solitary small stutter or hiccup or anything... and trust me I've been looking lol.

I have some ideas on what might have happened but I'm not sure it would be worth me posting such a wall of text, but for now, man this is amazing. THIS is how this damned laptop should have been working all along.

Woohoo, Ive got a new laptop!!! lol
I think you're right given what I just posted above.