BleepingComputer.com: City of Heros

I'm on a P4 2.0ghz Dell, 512 MB of I don't know what, a GF FX 5200 (128mb) graphics card and integrated sound. XP home.

I've been playing City of Heros, and I noticed it was laggy. I figured it was all the servers. Then I find /showfps 1, and my view of the world changes. I'm running at 10fps if I'm in an empty room alone. Once I go outside into the main city(s), I hit 3-4fps. I caught it at 0.15 yesterday during a fight, shortly after FreeRAM sounded to tell me I was under 20 MB of memory and my desktop crashed.

Virtual memory is set to 2 gigs cause NWN was p!ssing me off with it's memory crashes. I keep my sound settings on Software cause anything else makes my life not good.

No rookie to low framerate here, I used to play TFC on a 600 mhz Celeron with 64 mb ram and 4 mb integrated graphics without [much] complaint. And I know how fast things advance. But what I don't know is anything about hardware save 'More is Better'. I just figured putting a 128 meg graphics card in should solve my issues.

Sitting still with Zone Alarm and Popup Stopper in my system tray (not running game) I have 350 MB ram free, out of 512. My performance has gone to Hell in a handbasket since my mother used my PC, clicking 'YES' every time it prompted for cookies, mysterious downloads or a chance to win a free car. Adaware can't touch the stuff, neither can Spybot. I found ad programs on here that, literally, reinstall themselves. I can delete them (ones that arent protected somehow), sit back, and within 10-15 seconds they reappear.

So I try to reformat. Since all this happens, I get an error if I try to use any form of boot disk. And due to someone borrowing the discs for some reason, my Windows CD and about 8 of my 12ish discs I need to get this thing wiped and running again are AWOL.

SO, reformatting aside and budget for new hardware at about $50 give or take, is there anything I can do to get my framerate up? My ingame settings are at default, most of them go low-med-high or X%-200%, in which case I'm at Medium and 100%. Got the game after Mom FUBAR'd me, so I can't tell if that's what caused it.



On a related note, nowadays my default search engine has changed to one that wants to sell me stuff instead of MSN, which I'd like to fix. Also, about 1/4 links takes me to a page I'd never seen before, plastered with ads. I clicked Penny Arcade in my favorites, which works every day, and found out that I was the 1,000,000th person to visit that page and I could get a free PS2 if I send $200 to a PO box in Mexico.

Can you post a Hijackthis log please http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...p?showtopic=956

I think getting some of that adware junk off will help free up your internet connection and get your times back.

Here's the log

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...=ST&f=22&t=1836