Counterstrike.

I am assuming you have updated this game with the latest patches?
http://www.counter-strike.net/retail_upgrade.html

If not, then you might need to try that. Also, what kind of internet connection do you have? Is it broadband? If so, you may have to upgrade the device drivers for your connection. Sometimes XP installs generic drivers for network interface cards, and these are often not the best for your card.

You might want to see if you can update any device drivers, including your graphics card, Network interface card (ethernet) if applicable, modem firmware might also need upgraded.

Further, you might try this


SITE and test your system. Run the full tests, allow them to install their javascript. You'll need to supply an email address, and password, (just register) that will test all the components of your system, and they will offer suggestions to you on what you need to do.

And when you say delay, do you mean delay as in you have a high ping, or delay as the game itself is running poorly on your machine?

How does CS play in single play mode? Have you tried any other games? If not try them and see if you are experiencing any of the same effects.

Last couple of things:

Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and check the processes running in the background. Make sure to close as many as possible. Some are system services and cannot be closed, but many others are not.

Usually you can get rid of a lot by closing any programs that are open in the system tray next to the clock. Right click the icons and exit them (as many as you can).

Another thing, during gameplay, disable any Antivirus software. I never run a game with my AV active, as it can slow disk performance down by about 50%... I don't think you can get a virus while playing an online game.

Make sure to upgrade your graphics card driver. If I knew the card type and model, I could have searched for the most recent graphics card driver for you.

http://download.guru3d.com/

The site above, has quite a few drivers for different cards. I think if you are using the default XP Video driver this is going to be your fix.

One last thing you can try, click start, right click my computer, click properties, click the advanced tab, under performance, click settings, you'll see the visual performance tab, click adjust for best performance.

That will make your XP look like ME/98 but it should speed things up quite a bit. ONly try this after you have updated your graphics driver. (I think the graphics driver update might be the solution, however, and this step will not be required.)

there is one other thing, but I will only offer that suggestion after I see if the other solutions mentioned will work or not.

Good luck!