Whats Wrong With My Comp?!

Ok, so I fire up Unreal Tournament 2003 for the first time in a while, and it plays like crap; the game is EXTREMELY choppy to a point where it's unbearable. So I try Jedi Knight II and see how that runs. I've never had a problem running this game before, it's always been silky smooth frame rates--but I try playing it now and the entire game plays with horrible choppiness. I figure it's a video driver problem, so I reinstall my drivers, install the newest ones, yada yada yada; but nothing helps. I've tried adjusting all video levels, but it's all the same, even with low quality details and 800x600 rez. I've tried defragmenting, cleaning up the disc drive, RegCleaning, and just last night I reinstalled Windows. EVERYTHING I've tried has not helped at all! Is there something seriously wrong with the actual hardware inside my computer, or is is something simple that I may have skipped over? Please guys, I'm desperate; my computer's running like *** and I have no idea how to fix it

chances are great a midget has thrown crap onto your motherboard. what?????

Are you using the driver defaults on the grfx card? When you reformatted did you remember to reinstall the mobo drivers, specifically the agp driver?

Do you have KaZaa in the background. If you have it running when windows starts or you run it to download stuff and play games, they will be very choppy. I get the same thing when I have kazaa running and try to play games.
if you do have it running, then close it and make sure that you also close it if it is on the trey (next to the time)

hope that helps.
43.45 for nvidia are great drivers. Unreal II runs smoothly now.
I run UT2003 in system 1 (sig) witch is close to your system

Yes, I'm using the driver defaults, and have even switched it to the lowest quality so I should be getting the best performance, but to no positive results--I'm using 43.45 drivers too.
No, I don't have Kazaa running at all whenever I play games, nor is it in the system tray, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Do any games run well? Any overall system performance issues? Maybe a DirectX problem?

If you're running Windows 2000 or XP, right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. Are there any apps running in the background? On the Processes tab, are there any non-system processes running?

I've cleared pretty much all apps running in the background except for the essentials. I ran DirectX Diagnostic and everything is working fine. To tell the truth, I first started experiencing my problem after I installed Directx 9 awhile ago. But after I restored my computer, it switched back to Directx 8.1.
Funny thing is, I ran 3dmark2001 and everything seems to run normal--maybe a little choppiness--but I can definitely see the screen getting choppy during the Pixel Shader test for whatever reason. I still get a normal score (7600) so...beats me.
Any more suggestions, guys?

4 in 1 drivers? Have you updated them recently? (If you have a Via Chipset.)

At this point I'd try 3 things in the following order.

1) Check for heat issues. Make sure nothing is going off the charts heat-wise.

2) Pull out your sound card, NIC, and any other non-essential devices to see if that clears up the issue.

3) Swap your video card for another working video card, even a crappy one, and see if that changes things.

capstah gave some good suggestions, I would start with testing a different video card also...;)

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4 in 1 drivers? Have you updated them recently? (If you have a Via Chipset.)

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What are 4 in 1 drivers?

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Originally posted by Unibrow


What are 4 in 1 drivers?

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chipsetdrivers

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What are 4 in 1 drivers?

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Most likely your problem if you don't know what they are.:D

How do I upgrade them? Is it on the motherboard manufacturer's website? I'm...confused