XP now showing SE4 combat too quickly to see

[PvK]

I've got a slow computer running XP SP1 at work. It used to be kinda good for SE4 because the combat replays would show nice and slowly so each hit and miss could be easily seen and heard. I made a point of NOT installing Service Pack 2 on this one.

However, a week or two ago, without me installing or patching anything, it suddenly started flashing through SE4 combat replays. Each shot now gets at most one flicker of an effect somewhere along the line of fire, and a very brief chirp of sound for each shot. Makes it hard to tell what happened. None of the settings in SE4 do anything but make it worse, and overloading XP even more by running say Windohs Media Player in the background, seems to have little or no good effect.

Just thought I'd mention it, in case anyone has a miraculous cure for this, or just as a general warning/info/lament.

Best explanation I can think of is that MS remotely updated something without consent anyway over my Internet connection, as they are wont to do and have been quietly doing for years.

(At least my fast Win98SE machine at home still shows the replays well.)

PvK