help needed

[Telbasta]

ok, here's my computer stats to begin with:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 3800+
Dual Core 2.0 Ghz
2 x 512 Kb L2 Cache
2000 Mhz Bus
Nvidia GeForce 6150LE video card
250GB Hard Drive
1024 Mb DDR2 dual channel memory

Now... up until a couple weeks ago, I have -never- had a problem running freelancer perfectly smooth. However, recently... the game is extremely choppy, and I havent been able to find anything that's changed on my computer within the past month.

Every time NPC's or players appear within range in the game, or on my sensor contacts, the screen 'freezes' for a split second. It also happens very frequently when i'm just flying, in trade lanes, or going through asteroid fields and nebulas.

This makes it nearly impossible to pvp, and very frustrating to do missions.

On a somewhat related note, I play world of warcraft, and that game always ran smoothly before too, but in the past few months the game freezes up my computer almost every 5-10 minutes I'm online, I cant even play anymore because of it.

I've already done virus scans, and I dont have anything running in the background while I play. I just cant figure out what's causing this computer lag.

Any suggestions?

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