BHD is VERY Choppy after re-install!

[markhoutx]

Issue: The Game is VERY Choppy when played in either single player or multiplayer games. So choppy it is virtually unplayable - at least, not enjoyable.

I had a hard drive fail. Replaced it, fresh install of XP Home and all updates. Fresh install of BHD with its updates. The problem did not occur before the hard drive replacement.

From the knowledge base on Novalogic.com, I saw where I should try lowering video settings on Object Detail and Texture Quality - no improvement, I lowered other video settings - no improvement.

I tried a fresh install of BHD on ANOTHER computer, got same result -games are slow and choppy. That indicates it's probably a problem with the CD itself - I think?

Tried Disk Doctor twice - no improvement, and no worsening.

Before the hard drive failure I was running both Zone Alarm firewall and Norton AV and playing the game with no problems. After the recovery, I have NOT installed Zone Alarm nor Norton AV.

I am setting behind a router and I have Cable for Internet access, but remember this happens on Single Player games too, so it's not internet related.

I am running:
Athlon XP 2.0
1 gig of RAM
60 gig Hard Drive with 40 gig free
XP Home

Any thoughts? Thinks its a ruined game CD?

[Steve]

i dont think the cd would cause that at all.
what's ur gfx card?

[markhoutx]

ATI Radeon 8500 LE 64MB; it was working fine b4 the hard drive failure - so it would be quite a coincidence if it starting having problems now, not unheard of, but quite a coincidence if the hard drive failed and now the card has a problem.
Your thoughts?? By the way, any input is appreciated!

[Steve]

did u update ur drivers since the format?

[markhoutx]

Yes, updated to latest drivers right after the format/re-install. Then I tried rolling them back to an older version to see if that helped. It did not!

[Steve]

try putting all gfx options on minimum :/
update DirectX

*struggling to think of things*

[markhoutx]

reloaded directX 9.0b, set all video settings to minimum, still no improvement. I think it may be my video card - unfortunately, I don't have a test unit/replacement laying around so I can test it.