BF:BC2 unexplained framerate drop

[Contempty]

Hello,

I am running:
-Windows XP
-Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53 GHz
-2 GB Ram
-NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

So I went on vacation for a week and I left my computer off. When I got back I stared up Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and it looked and ran horribly.

The textures look quite a bit worse than they did before I left and the framerate is on and off choppy.

While I know I'm a bit on the low end for this game before I left I could run just fine with quality set to medium and all the other settings on low. Now, adjusting the settings does nothing.

While I'm not sure if it's pertinent, before I left occasionally the game would freeze and come back with corrupted (neon purple and green) textures.

All I've done thus far is remove the program and reinstall to no avail.

Any thoughts on courses of action? I doubt it's a driver issue.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Contempty]

Quick update, since my CPU is on the low end and running a little hot someone in game recommended reseating the heatsink and putting on new thermal compound. I ordered some ArctiClean and ArcticSilver so hopefully that will do it.

It seems to make sense that that could be the problem because my computer runs 24/7 when I'm here and leaving it off for a week the heatsink could have cooled and contracted enough to lose some efficiency.

I will update if this works.