Major Problem - Please Help as a Matter of Urgency...

[Louis103]

(I don't know what my system specs are because I don't know how to get that information so if someone could tell me how to attain my computer's specs then I will post them.) My machine is a good laptop with a wireless broadband connection.

I began playing BF2 about three years ago and had no problems whatsoever: my ping was low, I had no lag and the loading times were fine. I stopped playing the game for about a year (I uninstalled it) until recently when I saw the light and reinstalled it a couple of days ago.

Upon installation (with full patch v.1.41 and Highway Tampa) the game takes ages to load both single and multiplayer (about 20 minutes for low populaion servers and on 64 player servers it says Network Corruption Error after about 10 minutes of verifying client data). When the multiplayer does load, my ping is off the charts and the lag is immense; stuttering and freezing continuously.

I have tried a cornucopia of things to remedy the situation: updated Punkbuster and all DirectX associated things; done a system clean; closed background programs with EndItAll; prioritised BF2 with Punkbuster; renamed the pre-game videos in Program Files to save memory; updated firewall etc; basically everything ever suggested by any forum ever.

I haven't bought any new hardware (graphics cards etc) for the laptop as it was working really well a couple of years ago.

One thing that might be related: at the time of installation my brother aqquired a new laptop with wireless internet access, which made it three laptops in the house - could it be intefering?

What the hell can I do? Any help is appreciated...

Many thanks.

I found the specs, by the way:

HP ZD8000 Review Unit System Specs

Mobile Pentium 4 520 2.8GHz, with Hyper-Threading
1GB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz(512x1) from Micron
Toshiba 80GB hard drive 5400 RPM
LG GWA-4080N DVD+/-RW Drive - CD-ROM (40x); CD-R (40x write); CD-RW (24x write); DVD-ROM (16x); DVD-R (8x write); DVD-RW (4x write); DVD+R (16x write); DVD+RW (4x write); DVD+R Dual Layer (2.4x write)
ATI Mobility Radeon X600 with 256MB dedicated RAM
17.0" WXGA TFT LCD ViewBright display 1440 x 900 resolution
Integrated V.92/56K modem
Realtek RTL8193 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Broadcom 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Built-in Harman/Kardon stereo speakers
Intel ICH6 AC97 Sound Card
5-in-1 Media Reader (Secure Digital, Memory Stick/Pro, MMC, xD Picture Card)

[UKseagull]

Have you tried a hard disk defrag at all ? If your files are fragmented then that will probably slow down the game loading process. Can you think of any new programs that you might have installed since the last time you played BF2 ? When I had my older pc, before playing the game I always closed down my msn messenger, firewall and also antivirus prorams.

With regards to ping, if you have another couple of computers running on the internet at the same time as you're trying to get a game going, that'll almost certainly have an effect on things, especially if they're running msn or similar progs.

Have you checked your adsl sppeds ? Give this a go and psy attention in particular to the ping results. http://www.speedtest.net/

Personally I think you'd be much better of connecting to your router via an ethernet cable, if only as a temporary measure, I've tried both wireless and wired, wired is without doubt the better of the two.

Good luck.

[Louis103]

I defragged the hard disk and that did nothing. The bad news is that the problem has expanded to the entire computer and now the computer is incredibly slow to start up and respond to commands and the internet is barely functional.

Thanks for your comments.

(Help)

[AmericanDad]

How's your virus/spyware protection? got any?

[dudbomb]

you have viruses and/or spyware, and lots of it. a computer will boot slowly if the boot sector has been infected with viruses and spyware, and its obvious your AV doesnt do the job.

Download Nod32, its free to use for 30 days, with all features, use it and clean your harddrive, even Format it if the problem still occurs after using Nod.

also with the terrible ping, if you have any torrent programs, p2p programs like limewire, ares ect Open. they will Kill your internet speed so close them all down, also on the BF2 server, you might be connecting to one with a red bar on the left...find one with a green bar.

[UKseagull]

If the above doesn't help check your drive for errors. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

If that doesn't help then I'd be tempted to format the drive and reinstall the operating system and start fresh.

[zeleguy92]

If the above doesn't help check your drive for errors. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

If that doesn't help then I'd be tempted to format the drive and reinstall the operating system and start fresh.

unfortunately, the best solution. except for using a different OS other than windows.

[AmericanDad]

Download Nod32, its free to use for 30 days

I suggest downloading avg free, it's free for ever and is better than norton