Railworks America

Hi guys.

I used to be able to run RW with TSX off, at my default screen res ( 1920x1080 ) and get pretty derned good frame rates. Well, now I am stuck ad 900x600 and struggle to get 13-15 FPS. I really want to be able to at least run RW so my surroundings look pleasant, and it may be a while until I can afford a new PC. So. I have talked to some PC savvy friends, and have come to the conclusion that defragmenting my hard drive, is basically my last option. I have scanned my PC with several different virus, spyware and malware scams. It's clean. I tried to use the defragmenting fool that came with my Win 7 64 bit PC, and no luck. It didn't even defrag. I was told by my Aunt who is a huge computer techy, that the defrag tool that comes with my computer is basically useless and that I would need a trust-able downloaded program to do the job properly. So, this brings me to my main question. Can anyone PLEASE recommend a trustworthy hard drive defragmentor? Or tell me why my PC is like this?

Thanks a bunch!

Nathan

Win 7 automatically runs Defrag on a daily basis, unless you have turned it off or changed the schedule. To run this tool, "Defraggler" http://www.piriform.com/defraggler you will have to turn off the windows defrag tool. I don't think you can uninstall it, maybe disable it. Defraggler works great, been using it for years.

While you are at the piriform site, grab CCleaner and run it, including the Registry tool (make a backup of the Registry when CCleaner asks if you want to).

More obvious questions, like how full is your hard drive, did you install any new programs just before this happened? Install any new drivers? Install any third party "stuff" for RW?

It might have nothing to do with disk fragmentation. My own PC was gradually running slower, but it turned out to be the dust and fluff that had accumulated in the heat sink fins of the graphics cards. When the cards get hot, they automatically throttle down (lowering the GPU frequency) to protect the components (and the fan speeds up). I bought a can of compressed air, took the cards out of the chassis and blew all the dust out (there was a lot!). Now it runs like new.

I like and have had for several years now Advanced SystemCare by Iobit. It is a very nice all in one utility that seems to keep my computer humming along all the time. The free version is swell. I ended up buying the subscription on sale with the three computer option, because of having three personal computers at home but have the free one on at work and it does nicely. Be prepared for it to take quite some time on the first run.

My personal favorite is O&O Defrag and have been using it for several years now.

Thanks guys! I'll check em all out!