Hello all, On my latest computer (a Dell) I found that it runs a VB program *much* slower than my old program, although of course the Dell has a better spec. I was shocked to find that the program runs at only about a third of the speed compared to the old computer. Windows Task Manager shows that when running FS and other games the CPU is running at between 50 and 60 percent. On the old computer it is always 100 per cent. Google revealed two tweaks to increase this: a batch file that calls up high CPU priority. You can also set high priority in Task Manager. The batch file worked in that after running the game Task Manager indicated high priority. There's just one tiny problem: with high priority selected there is absolutely no difference in the CPU utilisation: still averaging 55 percent. I then tried selecting low priority on the old computer. Again it made no difference: it always ran at 100 percent. If I could achieve 100 percent on the Dell then I could get a significant increase in frame rates. Does anyone have any ideas? Could there be a setting in the registry that overrides my settings? Many thanks. Best regards, Chris

Hi Chris,Sounds very much like you have found the limits of some other component in your system. On your old computer, the CPU was the weakest link and so it ran at 100% but now something else is slowing you down (graphics? ram? hard-drive?...) so the CPU still isn't needing to be at 100% for the speed that the whole system can cope with. Post some specs and compare the other components in the two machines.As for the priority settings, I never found them to make a big difference to the CPU usage but when a program is set to higher priority, windows is less likely to allow other processes to slow it down. The downside is that you can get problems with external add-on programs not being able to communicate with FS very well!Cheers,Geoff

I suspect you have dual core CPU, and all your programs are running on the same core, with the second core having bugger all work to do.There is a way to force FS9 to use the second core, leaving all other processes on the first one. This should make your machine more responsive and will hopefully allow your VB program to run like it should.Have a search on the forums for "affinity", I believe this is the setting you need to change for an individuaal program.