KScorp

That's exactly the problem. Once it happens, it stays that way until I restart the game. Also, it is NOT initiated by a low-fps area. Even if nothing is going on at all, it locks in at 10 FPS. Again, I'm not sure if it happened on other servers (since it hasn't occurred enough for me to notice a pattern), but I am sure it happens mostly on Zombie Escape.

Did you ever meet Courage Wolf?

Normally, I get decent FPS thanks to my 9800 GTX+, but for some odd reason, the FPS locks in at 10 at random points in the middle of the game. Once it gets there, I have to restart the game to fix it. I've checked fps_max, and several other settings, but they are all normal. I can't imagine why it gets stuck at 10 FPS when I'm not doing anything except playing the game. No solutions found on Google (let alone finding a person with the same problem). I believe this happens predominantly on Zombie Escape, but it hasn't happened enough for me to notice a pattern.

H CK BN FX JMS V H LAZ DG iMac keyboard at school.

That's cheating. >:O

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG Logitech G11, confirmed. Of course, it is labeled a "gaming" keyboard, so I'd be pretty upset if it didn't work.

+1

I hate computer problems. They always get messed up in the weirdest ways and they usually have even weirder solutions. First off, you should probably look up some info on the virus you got. You can often find how the virus messes with your system, and how to fix it. Since you already recovered from a partition, the biggest concern is to find out if that virus you had would have infected your recovery partition. Regardless if you find any info on it or not, you should probably run a virus scan in safe mode. I use avast, since it's free and does a very good job of detecting viruses. (I do sometimes have trouble with it's UI though...) You can use any program you want, just be sure to do it in safe mode. That way, you can be more certain that your anti-virus isn't being manipulated when scanning. (Some viruses block access to infected files or screw up the scanning process.) Lastly, if you are indeed virus-free, you should download every update to Windows and update all your drivers. If your computer came with a bunch of bloatware when you reformatted, such as applications by HP or Dell, you'd want to delete those. I suggest Decrapifier if you have such a case. (Your anti virus may complain about it. Don't worry, it's safe.) However, if you have your Windows disk and have the ability to reformat your drive COMPLETELY and reinstall windows from scratch, I suggest you do so. However, I know that some manufactures that have recovery partitions refuse to give you the actual disk, and make it difficult to reinstall from scratch. (This was the case with my sister's laptop. Took a few days to completely cure hers from a similar virus.) Lastly, I do have a question. Is this just internet related, or are offline programs much slower as well? Also, are you able to update your anti-virus?

I'll warn you now. DON'T BUY YOUR MONITOR FROM NEWEGG. They have an 8 dead pixel return policy. Immediate NO. I'm not sure about NCIX, but in general, online retailers are a pain in the ass with monitors. Buy them in a brick and mortar retailer if you can. They are much easier to return to rather than going through the RMA process, and generally have a much more lenient return policy on monitors. The chances of getting a less-than-perfect monitor aren't high, but it happens quite a bit. Again, if you have a choice, I suggest not purchasing online. (Then again, if you don't require a perfect monitor, go right ahead. Dead pixels really only affect those who want the perfect entertainment experience.)

I don't know if that's a real site or not, so I won't click it.

Honestly, they all look similar to me. Maybe a GB of ram here, or some hard drive speed there... otherwise similar. Personally, I'd go with a dual-core, so I'd go with the first link you gave because it also comes with 4GB of ram and a faster HDD speed. If your friend doesn't use a laptop for many powerful apps, like just checking email, writing documents, watching videos, then save 50 bucks and go for 1 less GB of ram and a slower (and quieter) hard drive with the second laptop. Again, nothing really wrong with the third and fourth, but I prefer dual-core to help with multi-tasking (which many people tend to do now).

1) Google/Youtube. 2) isoHunt (Manga, Anime, movies, etc etc etc) 3) Wikipedia (Of course, it will have no citations now...) 4) Amazon.com (Which would include Mechanical Turk I believe. If not, Newegg.) 5) If there used to be the internet we had today, and it was reduced to 5 websites, then Internet Archive for sure. Otherwise, SteamGamers. Because it's obligatory. =P Um, "if there were only 5 websites", not "if you could only access 5 websites".

Define powerful. Do you want it to play games decently, or do you just want it to run your IDE for when you start to play around with databases and programing and the like? Either way, I suggest you get yourself a dual-core CPU. It would really help in either case. (You might even play around with multi-threading.)

I don't think many games benefit from 4 cores yet, let alone 6. Although this would be great for multitaskers and those who work with video editing. (Don't Valve games have some trouble with multiple cores?)

If you get a new card, make sure to get a higher end card as well, not just a newer one. For instance, a GeForce 8800 probably runs better than a GeForce 9600, even though it's newer. And, as Shadow said, probably a new power supply to power it.

No, the program doesn't prevent connections from occurring. But you should be able to do that from Windows. If you don't use your D-Link often, you can just disable it from the device manager. You'd find it under "Network Adapters", just right click it and disable it. (To use it again, just enable it using the same method.) If you still use it often, you can tell it not to automatically connect to a given network. On Windows 7 (and possibly Vista), left click on the "Internet connection" icon at the bottom right corner of your screen. Then, right click on the network you're currently connected to wirelessly, and hit properties. There, go to the "Connection" tab and uncheck "Connect automatically when this network is in range." From then on, to reconnect to it, you can click on the "Internet connection" icon and connect to your network from there.

Um, lower the quality settings and resolution? That's certainly the easiest way.

Glad to help. I know how annoying it can be to find yourself dead due to a lag spike.

Hmm, I should probably dedicate my smaller monitor to less active tasks. (I'm using it for some web browsing atm.) Probably the best place to put winamp and things like that. =P

So I recently got a nice new Acer 24" monitor. My old, 17" Acer still works fine, so I decided to keep it plugged in. It certainly helps multitask. I got UltraMon for the ease of management and extended taskbar, and that's about it. Anyone know of any great programs to use with this setup, or maybe any special uses you found for two monitors? Anything you run while playing some (full screen) games?

On Vista (and I believe on Windows 7 as well) your wireless connection does a scan every minute or two. During that scan, it basically stops all other traffic for a second. Absolutely horrible for online games. I had this problem a year ago with CoD4. Really pissed me off and forced me to use an outlet bridge. The tool posted on the second page should do the trick, but I used a different one: http://www.martin-majowski.de/wlanoptimizer/. The problem was solved completely. It's a must for gamers on a wireless connection (and Vista/Win7).

This is actually quite a bit slower than I used to get. (14 DOWN/5 UP at minimum.) Maybe I'll post again some other time.