Alright, this has gone on for a while but I've ignored it for quite a while as well. When I play some newer games (IWD2, Worms World Party) it works well for a while but then it goes realy choppy. Even in some older games (Dungeon Keeper, Baldur's Gate) I experience the same dificulties. On completely retro games (Sim Tower) it workds as it should.
I have a decent graphics card that should work well on all of these and 1.3 ghz, the only thing that is realy crap is my sound card and I don't see how that could effect anything. So what do we think is the problem?

Are you running a lot of programs in the background?

Could be you'r DirectX Drivers...

But the newest games has the best version with them, so I really don't see how that could be the problem...

Anyway, it's worth a try... ;)

(Try Defragmenting you'r PC, NOT Formating)

Believe it or not, the sound card can have a massive effect on games - example, older games such as populous the begining, with sound hardware acceleration on anything other than basic (sound setup in direct x, dxdiag), the game races like nobody's buisness. So, maybe you have accidentally changed sound acceleration to lower than full.

Mind you, that would be an instant effect when you start the game, not after a little while of playing.

In which case, don't think i can help.

Sounds like a classic memory overflow. Some background program you have running, dislikes games and steals all your memory, when you run them. Disable all the program running on your computer by using the task manager, than try your games agian.

Well, that's not quite right. I doubt it's a "memory overflow" the game might have some small memory leaks but other than that, I doubt that's valid reasoning. It is wise to not run many services/programs in the background, but a lot of the services are necessary and you don't want to disable/kill them. So minimize what's running in the background, make sure all your software is completely updated, etc. Also, I'd consider taking a few hours and running a defrag and a thorough scan as well in case it's due to some error on the disk. If none of this helps, I'd consider playing with various multimedia settings in game, and in the hardware config outside of it and seeing what makes a difference. Above that it coud be some hardware issue, but that's doubtful.

How much Ram do you have in your computer?
You may just have a small amount of RAM. You might only have like 64 megs and need at least 128 or 256. That could definately cause a problem like that.

Yeah, I'd assume you have better than the minimum system requirements for these games you play. ;)

I have the min requirements, I'll test it tomorrow. IWD2 cuts out my internet connection :bang:

It would be much easier if you could give us the basic specs of your computer. Which processor and how much Mhz, Display Card, amount (/type) of RAM, Hard-disk space, Soundcard, CD. Hope I didn't leave anything out.

Anyway, those stats are needed because of examples like AMD which requires separate motherboard drivers to work completely. Some soundcards require much more out of the cpu than others (it is a significant amount to say the least). What the lack of RAM does should be obvious. Hard-disk space is an issue when you don't have enough space for effective cache. Etc. Remember to make sure you're using the newest drivers.

Even if you believe it's all ok, I still suggest you speak those stats out loud, as usually people forget something relevant that others would notice. It's happened to me who knows how many times.

As for minimum requirements, the best definition for that in layman's terms = the requirements to get the game on, not running. Always go for a bit above the recommended to get even a moderately acceptable gameplay.

hmmm.. could be illegal processes as well, you know trojans and stuff

Well, by closing everything I was able to play IWD2 without a problem. I only played it for half an hour though but I think that I'll just believe that Its all good until I have a sudden urge to do some serious gaming again.
And I can't be bothered remembering what my computers stuff is. Just generaly label it as crap