Insprion 8600 ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 Pro Turbo and F.E.A.R. Graphics Problem?

Hi,
I am trying to play F.E.A.R. COMBAT (multiplayer) on my Inspiron 8600 which has an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 Pro Turbo with 128 MB RAM (Dell Driver).

The thing is while playing, all of a sudden the graphics/screen become jerky for a couple of minutes (as if there was lag). Movement and firing are useless. Then on its own the graphics become smooth again (actually quite good... the only time I am hit is when this happens ). This happens on and off throughout gameplay. I don't think this is due to my net connection (~20 Mbps). In fact, if I remember correctly, I also had this problem with Call of Duty 2, but as I was playing single-player, it was tolerable.

I know that my graphics card is bare minimum for this game, but as I said the game runs awesome, except for when I get this jerky screen/graphics. Could this be a heat issue? I have also tried running the I8kfan utility when I play, but no noticable improvment.

If anyone else has had this issue and been able to resolve it, I'd be glad for some help.

Other systems specs: Centrino 1.6 GHz, 1 GB RAM

cheers
saad

 

Welcome to the forums
Well, one of the reasons might be a busy AI or some loading in the background or some intensive effects turning up.
You might want to try Defragging your hard-drive (in the drive that you have F.E.A.R installed).