Win 7 has a different/newer benchmarking for 'experience' as it is in anenvironment where hardware has improved in performance.

In other words....the world has moved on with newer/better hardware...but your laptop has not changed [obviously].

These days...to get a high rating in the harddrive section you will NEED a SSD.  Those old spinning platters just will not cut it anymore....

First thing I would check is the drivers for the processor.  Also you might want to flash the bios if there is a new set available.   I am pretty sure you are right about the Windows Experience Index... It used to go to 6 but now tops out at 10.  I  would look in device manager to see it there are any problems listed with the processor there as well.

Thanks everyone for your help, my HD score was 4.2 and remained 4.2 but the processor dropped from 4.6 to 3.6 and I just don't understand how a processor could drop like that. I flashed the bios, downloaded a driver app from AMD and its returning all my drivers as up to date on every peripheral in my machine.

My primary concern is I've been waiting 2 years for Elemental and the beta version is clocking my CPU between 70 and 100% and regularly crashing. I hate to get a new machine to play a game but I can't even upgrade the processor. The highest AMD went in this line was the Turion ML 44 and that only raises the clockspeed by .4 ghz which I don't believe would get me much performance improvement. I'm not aware of any other processor that would fit the chipset and while I've built towers and minitowers before, I'm not as comfortable rebuilding a laptop.

Just a little frustrated that this machine is only a few years old and already outdated. More than that I'm suprised at the dip in performance I've seen in games (Civ 4, NWN 2) since installing Win 7. I should stick with home made towers instead of prebuilt laptops.

I did have  problem right after purchasing the laptop and it would shut down unexpectedly at least once a week. The problem increased during the summer and I figured out it was an overheating problem. I reset the chip using Arctic Silver instead of the generic cooling gel it came with, and bought one of those external fan bases. That resolved the overheating problem and ended the shut downs, but I wonder if the constant overheating didn't do some permanent damage to the CPU where it still runs but is slower.

Just to add more confusion to this, when I got home from work last night just for grins I booted my laptop, tried everything everyone had suggested with checking the drivers, flashing the bios, etc and then ran the Windows experience index. All values stayed the same except the CPU which jumped from 3.6 up to 3.8,.....then I ran it again this morning and the CPU value has now dropped to 3.2. I'm beginning to think the CPU is soon going to be a really little paperweight.

Thanks for the suggestion Swerd, I am running 2GB of Ram which is the max the mother board will support and that seems to be fine, RAM is getting an index rating of 4.4. Graphics is 5.9, HD transfer is 4.2, its only the processor thats messing with me right now.

Read this thread that addresses your CPU performance problem.

That definitely sounds like it could be it, and from what I read if there is not an updated bios I could be SOL. Its an Nvidia motherboard so I'll have to see if there are any bios updates.

thanks to both of you

Where do you live. If you live in UK there is a company that custom builds Laptops as well. I would think they can send one all over the world but in case something goes wrong you might have problems with shipping back and forth.

I build my desktop with them and it works like clockwork. And when I start to upgrade again I will definitely buy parts from them.

Here is the link.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

I ordered parts but assembled PC and installed programs myself. I just ordered all the parts from one shop.... Got it cheaper....

PS OH I checked site again and the thing is that they don't deliver outside UK or Ireland

If you want the convenience of a prebuilt system + the customized parts, go with a customized barebones solution where you pick out the motherboard, ram, proc, case, and power supply for them to assemble and test.  I've gotten multiple computers in the past from Mwave with them doing this, but I don't see the option anymore for 1 piece (still there for 2, pick a proc and add MB+Ram, pick a case, and add fan+power supply).

Check the ventilation. Modern processors slow down to prevent overheating. I was reinstalling a notebook for my friend, and after cleaning the airways, the performance increased noticeably.

jstrebel, it probably is the bearings in the fan in the cooling pad having worn and or seazing. I have had quite a few fans seaze up over the years, so just blaim the bearings and replace it.

harpo