1. Update you graphics driver.
2. Put in 2 GB of RAM in there. Otherwise you'll be doing a lot a memory swapping to the hard drive which is slow.
3. 20% left on your hard drive is starting to get low-ish. Get it into shape by...
1. Go to control panel and then Add/Remove Programs and get rid of any programs you don't need any more.4. Shut off bloom. ATI cards don't work will with bloom, depth of field, water, desaturation, and anti-aliasing on CoH.
2. Go into Windows Explorer (not the Internet Explorer) and right click on your C: drive and chose Properties. Under the General Tab, you'll see a button for Disk Cleanup, run it and get rid of deleted (recycle bin) and temp files.
3. Under the General Tab, make sure Indexing is not selected. Unless you need to do quick searches of your documents on a regular basis, you don't need this. It may take a while to propagate the un-indexing to all the sub-folders.
4. Go to the Tools Tab and click on the defrag button. Run the defragger. It may take an hour or two to defrag. Make sure the computer doesn't power down during it (you'll find power options where you change the screen saver -- right click on desktop...).
5. Post the results of HijackThis - it will show us what's running on your computer concurrently with CoH. Click on "Do a system Scan and save a logfile." It will automatically open up Notepad and put the info there. Make sure Wordwrap is off in Notepad (Format > Wordwrap unchecked) before you cut and paste here.
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
I'm on a trial, considering going to subscription, but I have been having this problem with the game. I get a total system lock-up when opening the dialog window of a NPC. It doesn't happen all the time, but frequently enough to make COH unplayable. It happens on multiple servers, and on both he hero and villain side. Below is a cut/paste of system specs: Any assistance would be appreciated.
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.8---
DxDiag gathered at August 9, 2009 07:09 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/14/05 14:04:20 Ver: 08.00.09
Central Processor: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3100+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz
Memory: 1024MB
.Net Memory Report: 580MB out of 1023MB available
Page File: 2093MB (366MB currently in use)
C Drive: (IC35L040AVVN07-0) 7938MB out of 39252MB (20%) free
D Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8160B) zero-size drive
E Drive: (CDWRITER IDE4816) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.5512 (32-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon 9550 / X1050 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI Radeon Graphics Processor AGP (0x4153)
Video Memory: 256.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6822
Driver Date: 6/2/2008 10:21:06 PM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Driver File: smwdm.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.5150
Driver Date: 6/7/2004 5:26:56 PM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: K8V-MX
Motherboard Version:
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 10/14/05 14:04:20 Ver: 08.00.09
BIOS Version: A M I - 10000514
BIOS Release: 20051014000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1024x768
3D Resolution: 1024x768 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No
Physics Quality: None
Maximum Particles: 100
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: Unknown (0)
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Crisp
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: Lowest
World Texture Level: Low
Character Texture Level: Medium
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.500
Entity Detail Level: 0.500
Shadows Enabled: No
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600
Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
Current Game Version: 19.20090716.3T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found