Hello all, I am hoping that someone will have the solution to my frustrating problem. Within the last week or so, my computer has started lagging badly under heavy video load during online play. It has been most noticeable in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, but also in Counter Strike Source. Not only will the FPS drop when encountering a busy area with lots of firefights going on, but my connection will also lag sometimes in excess of 1000ms. It is not a problem with outdated hardware as I am running a P4 3.0 with an ATI 9800 pro. I have run anti adware software, virus scans, defraged the hard drive and updated my video card drivers since the problem began to no avail. I have also tried reinstalling the games with no success. It does not seem to be my internet connection as I am not losing packets during gaming. When I am in enclosed areas with not much going on, everything runs smoothly but as soon as I get into an open area with lots of explosions and firefights, the lag begins. It becomes jittery and unplayable, often times freezing completley for a second or two. I guess what I am trying to do is isolate the problem. I am thinking it might be a hard drive beginning to fail, but i am also concerned that it may be the video card beginning to fail. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

i had problem like this about a year ago thought it was hd so bought a new one still wasnt the prob, bought new graphics still didnt fix it so i bought a new mobo lol anf guess wot it still didnt fix it .... to cut i along story short it was the dam ram the ram was dieing and couldnt handle s--- :( i say take each ppart out put anouther graphic hd and ram if one off them seems to improve it then go buy that item. dont do as i did and basically buy a whole new pc lol