drop in framerate ?!?

[spider]

My p/c is really slow for some reason (big drop in games frame-rate)
I ave not chaged any settings/hardware/drivers
I ave even done the dreaded "Format C:" ... still the same !!
I am totaly confused on what could cause this ????
I have tried newest drivers/older drivers for all components with no luck

Athlon XP 2500+ (barton)
gForce4 ti4200
1 gig ddr "333"
80 Gig Maxtor DM9
VIA kt3 chipset

Anyone ?????

 

[Nizmo]

Have you checked you computer for viruses,spyware?

 

[VIPER_1069]

what version of the gForce4 ti4200 is it you have !? 64mb or 128mb ?

i would assume 128mb ?!

anyhow have you installed anything that may of changed the drivers !?

have you changed direct X ?

has the drive you have your swap file on ( usually C: ) got enough free space on to be effective !?

have you changed the size of your swap file lately !?

have you defragged the drive that contains the swapfile recently !?

theres a FREE tool here

that will defrag the page file on reboot

One of the limitations of the Windows NT/2000 defragmentation interface is that it is not possible to defragment files that are open for exclusive access. Thus, standard defragmentation programs can neither show you how fragmented your paging files or Registry hives are, nor defragment them. Paging and Registry file fragmentation can be one of the leading causes of performance degradation related to file fragmentation in a system.

PageDefrag uses advanced techniques to provide you what commercial defragmenters cannot: the ability for you to see how fragmented your paging files and Registry hives are, and to defragment them. In addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP hibernation files (where system memory is saved when you hibernate a laptop).

PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003.

 

[spider]

Yes its the 128 mb version.
I have the page defrag tool already + swap file has never been altered.
Computer is Virus/Spyware free !

The only thing i can think of is that on the day it happened i done a wash with "window washer" and it wiped all the icons/folders from my desktop for some unknown reason as i use this all the time.
Anyway i have done a full reinstall of xp since then.
i have cleaned my pc from dust etc. & reinstalled all latest drivers.
I have another HD running xp also & ive got the same problem on that drive !!
I have got 1 gig of memory so the page file shouldnt be the cause of this.
My PSU & CPU are pretty new so ive ruled them out.
DirectX 9.0c is installed & working correctly.
I am totaly clueless of what it could be ?!?!?
I would say its a ti4200 hardware issue !!