Query

[sAlt_sHaKer]

Can somebody help me with this?
I don't understand why, but the performance of my PC seems to be getting from bad to worse. For example, when I played Microsoft's Midtown Madness (a driving game)on my PC a few months back, everything seemed to run smoothly. But recently, the game runs very choppily. For example, whenever I'm making a turn at a junction, the framerate drops drastically. The framerate also drops very badly whenever there are many 'moving objects', such as pedestrians or cars, on the screen.
I don't understand this. I haven't made any modifications to my PC during this period, except updating my video card driver. And I meet all the requirements of the game.

Here are my hardware specs.:
Intel Pentium II 333MHz
64MB RAM
ATI Rage 128 16MB graphics card
4.3GB Harddisk
36x CD-Rom

Please advise! Thanks!

[Tiretool]

What are the graphics detail options set to? If they're on full try dropping them down a knotch. If you're set to 32 bit color, try dropping down to 16 bit. Get back to us with some results.

[sAlt_sHaKer]

I've tried setting the graphic detail level to low, and colour to 16-bit. I've even changed the sound quality to Mono. But it still doesn't run smoothly.

[madthumbs]

How much available space is left on your hard drive? If it is less than 600megs, that may be the cause.

Press CTRL+ALT+DEL, and tell us how many programs you see listed (press cancel to backup)

Have you changed your gaming controller? Are you using any game device configuring software? (I've seen Logitech controller set up software while running slow down games).

Did you set your desktop resolution to a higher res? Drop it back down if so.

Screen savers, wall paper, crowded folders on desktop, background programs, auto insert notification, etc can slow down your gaming performance, especially with a slow cpu.

I have midtown madness 2, and think it runs smoother and faster than the original, has anyone else found this to be true?

[sAlt_sHaKer]

well I've partitioned my harddisk into two partitions.
C: has 641 mb free, D: (where the game is installed) has 804 mb free.
I have 22 programs running (after pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL)

[Xayd]

22?!?!?!?

I think you just answered your own question. For games, the ONLY programs I leave running are Zonealarm, Systray, and Explorer.

Xayd

[Tiretool]

LoL

Yeah... those other 19 programs are sucking up all your system resources (clock cycles, memory, hard drive traffic, etc.) You need to go to the start button, click on run and type msconfig, then go to the startup tab and uncheck all programs that are unnecessarily being started when windows starts. That should nip it in the bud.

[sAlt_sHaKer]

whoops
silly me.
but hey, how do I know which programs are important?
I have a program called Atiptaxxx.exe
I presume it's something to do with my video card by ATI, so is it important?

[alan]

If you are worried about shutting down an important program, I would start by exiting all programs (Office toolbars, email, AOL, ICQ, etc). Other programs may be running in the background. Go to all those little icons by the clock and exit out of those. Right click on those icons and see if there is an option to close or exit. If you're like me I have things like Palm Hotsync, GetRight downloader, PopUpKiller and loads of other utilities running. This should eliminate all extraneous programs and background programs without wondering if it were important. Your Task Manager may still show a bunch of stuff that you do not undersand but at least you shut down all the ones that you know are not needed fo run your system. When you are done gaming you can probably turn each program back at the Start/Program/etc.... or simply reboot.