Hey everyone,

If anyone could advise me on the following, it would be much appreciated.

My PC recently died, so I've started using my laptop for all things (including Skrittering). I never had any speed-related problems with Skritter on my old machine, but now I'm finding that there is a frustrating lag between when I make a stroke on my tablet, and when it is registered on the screen. It's only a delay of half a second, if that, but it adds up and ends up making Skrittering a slower and more frustrating process.

My internet connection speed is exactly the same and there are no significant differences (I don't think) in the amount of processing speed or RAM between the two machines (though there is a difference).

I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on how I can speed things up. Maybe it is a matter of computer speed, or of other settings that I can tweak?

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks,
James

Sorry to hear about the dead computer!

Try switching between Chrome and Firefox. Sometimes one will have problems like you describe but the other won't.

If it's a Wacom, make sure you have these settings:
http://www.skritter.com/wacoms/settings

Make sure you're not running something like Gmail or YouTube in another tab--other resource-heavy sites that use a lot of JavaScript or Flash can cause Skritter to stutter.

Does it have the same lag with the mouse as it does with the tablet?

If you press Ctrl+Alt+F, there's a framerate display in the upper left, which should stay around 40 FPS or higher most of the time. If it's really low, or has low spikes often, then it's a problem of Skritter not getting enough processing power for some reason. If not, then it's not a typical slowness issue, but perhaps an input method issue. No real chance of it being an internet speed issue, unless you see a ton of green loading dots in the upper left.

Hey Nick, thanks for the quick response!

I will give Chrome a try and see how that works. I'm starting to think it may a resource issue with my laptop. I tried Skritter without tabs and other programs open and it worked better. Also, I took a look at the FPS as you suggested and noticed that at those instances when it's laggy, the FPS shot down to the 20s or 30s. I used task manager to check my resources at one point when this happened and CPU usage was fluctuating between 40% and 60%. Usually with my laptop, it's around 30% normally, which I suspect is also high (when all I have open is iTunes and a browser).

I guess I'll have to get my PC fixed :S

Thanks,
James

You can use the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), processes view, sorted by CPU, to see what programs are taking up all your CPU power. 30% when idling sounds high, but it could just be one rogue process (like an antivirus or Windows Update or iTunes) which you can get rid of to restore performance.

Also, if you go to Start->Run then type "msconfig" you can choose what stuff starts up with your computer. If there's something obvious that doesn't need to be in the background, then prevent it from loading automatically. If it turns out you did need it, well, you can always go back in and re-enable it.