Thanks Skuzzy. I will log on tonight, with fingers crossed, and will see if anything is better. I did shut down my firewall last night to see if it would help.. no dice. Since I bought this new box, I never had to shut anything down to play with perfect FR with all settings set at max (in the game). Last night was a horrible mess. I'm hoping the real reason is what you suggested, the ice storm. Lastly, what advice do you have for those who are stuck with Windows 8. I cannot play my other games like Company of Heros now.. is there an easy fix or am I stuck?