Like Vatis' but.....

[Hajo]

Ok here goes.....out of the blue while playing AH my framerate went nuts also.  reinstalled Windows98, not complete, just set up again....reinstalled video drivers, reinstalled sound driver.  Reinstalled the HiRes file, uninstalled AH did full download, reinstalled, downloaded HiRes file reinstalled.  went to system devices, removed video driver, modem driver, shut down and let windows 98 re install all.  Can play AH offline wiht no problems!  Framrate is great!  But when I attempt to play online, the framerate fluctuates from 75 to 8.  This happened all of a sudden, no new downloads, nothing running in the background that I don't know about, and system resources are 87%.  Ok members of the Aces High think tank...figure this one out <G>  I have a Creative GeForce2GTS video card.....and have had no problems with the video at all!  This just happened with no warning while playing.

[Quiet109]

You think that's bad???
Try a brand new, off the assembly line Gateway.
I get an average framerate of 12(26max;2min).
I'm in the process of upgrading to a Voodoo5.
We'll see if thing get better.

..........screwed.

[This message has been edited by Quiet109 (edited 12-25-2000).]

[TheWobble]

Hajo,
This is a problem I see time to time, although not ALL THE TIME
Last night I was in a H2H arena and for some reason whenever i would look in the direction of this one fiedl my fr would drop from 78 to 9, the field was a normal medium field with no aircraft on it, others were having the same problem aswell, I exited Ah and reentered the same arena and it was fixed.
 OK now for yer prob, I know you have prolly already done this but just in case...

reinstall DX8
if that doesent do it
reinstall vide drivers (sometimes the order they are installed dx first or secon can have an affect.

Check for any conflicts with vid card IRQ's

if this is an online only problem i would guess that you modem is at fault, is it 56k or Cable/DSL?

i used to be slave to 56k and whenever that little set of green monitors were on in taskbar it would make Ah jump and bump uglies, so i had to have the 2 monitors wacked.

Other than , what devices are using USB? If you on a Cable/DSL modem that is using USB i would venture to say that there is a 90% chance that they usb for the modem is eating system recorces and causing the slowdown, because that would explain the lack of slowdown offline, let us know if or what fixes this because now i REALLY want to know.
Good luck and Merry Christmas  

[Hajo]

wobble thanks for reply....I've done everything you've suggested and then some.  I've dumped the network icon from the taskbar, but that didn't help either.  I'm using a 56K ISA 3Com Modem.  I've reinstalled all drivers. I've uninstalled AH, downloaded and reinstalled AH, and the highres file also.  I'm using F16 CH combat stick, CH Pedals and the Pro Throttle, none of which are USB, and all has worked fine until last week.  When I reinstalled the video drivers it reinstalled DirectX also, reinstalled Modem drivers, and soundcard and gameport drivers also.  Set up Windows 98 again also. So to say the least, I am at a loss after playing the game for 6 months with no problems with this setup.

[SkViper]

I'm kind of new to what I am suggesting, but I have noticed a little less warp and few FR hits in the last week.

Spyware.  Theory: some geek is out there sticking his finger in your PC while you play.
There are a few web sites and some software out there that are trying to help.
How does it drop your Frame Rates?  Well, I'm not sure if this is correct, but if they are probing you Hard Drive, and your system is using enough hard resources that it is "Swapping" in the virtual memory, then the HDD and IDE buss is active and could slow your entire system for as long as they are probing.
As I understand it, this is only a few seconds at the most, but it is exactly that few seconds that I had been experiencing.

Here are 2 sites that may help. http://www.lavasoft.de/  http://grc.com/optout.htm

Both have software that you can use free to check your system.
I like the Ad-Aware from lavasoft myself.
Both programs found and deleted files that were not put on my HDD by me, and registry entries that directed this intrusive traffic.

Also, before I let the software clean my system, I noted the files it located and found them on my system using Explorer.
Out of curriosity, I turned off the software, and disconnected from the net.
Immediately upon disco, the files disappeared, and upon reconnection they were back.
They however have not come back since I let Ad-Aware clean things up.

I am not saying this is your problem, but it may be worth a look.

Regards,
SkViper