Ping Plotter

[The Fugitive]

Frame rates don't have as much to do with connection. Have you added any new programs recently? Have you updated one recently? Hit cntrl, alt and delete at the same time and then click on the processes tab at the top. 20-30 is ok, any more are you'll start having trouble.

[Skuzzy]

Actually, there is a way for frame rate to be impacted by the Internet connection.  If you run other network programs such as iTunes, or any type of P2P program, the hits on the CPU to handle those problems network activity can drain resources from the game, causing the frame rate to drop.

This will also be reflected in the game's "Net Status", "Variance" line.  If the line is bouncing about, then there is a good chance there are background processes, possibly network related, that could be taking the CPU away from the game for long periods of time.

[Thing]

Where do I look to find the problem skuzzy?

I installed a new video card and upgraded to a gig of ram last year.  I run alacrity before playing AH and shut down itunes.

I checked my processes and I still have 35 processes running.  I cant figure out what is draining my cpu.

  Thing

[Skuzzy]

If your computer has Windows XP on it, you should be able to get the background process list down to 19, or so, very safely.

I did it the old fashion way.  Google the name of each process to see what it is, if it can be shutdown, and how it can be shutdown. 

[Denholm]

Go to Start>Run. Type in: services.msc

After Pressing OK locate the following, double-click it, and stop it:

Alerter (Might already be stopped)
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
ClipBook (Might already be stopped, you can actually disable this one)
Machine Debug Manager (Might not be on your computer system)
Messenger (Might already be stopped, you can actually disable this one)
Office Source Engine (Might not be on your computer system)
Security Center
System Restore Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper (You can actually disable this one)
Themes (Yes, your computer will look strange after stopping this one)
Volume Shadow Copy
Windows Time

After closing Aces High you can use the same process to start all or some of those services. I would only start the following:

Security Center
Themes

Hope this cuts down on some of those extra processes. Just a side-note of caution. Disabling a service means it WILL NOT start the next time you turn on the computer. If you disable a system-critical service you can seriously mess up your computer! Therefore I suggest you do some research on any service you intend to disable before disabling it.

[moot]

Office Source Engine:  Sounds like you wouldn't need this, if it's really only needed for MS Office, but its description says it's required for Watson error reports.  Don't you need those?

[Denholm]

I set that service to Manual then Stop it meaning if it's requested, it can start normally. However, if it's running at the time you want to play Aces High you can Stop it. After all, you won't be logging your kills using Excel while in the middle of a dogfight.