Fast computer - slow GP3 2000

I just upgraded my motherboard, CPU & graphics card and was looking forward to playing GP3 2000 at decent resolution and speed but it runs painfully slowly.

Whenever I start a race it runs beautifully fast for about 10-20 seconds than everything slows right down, i.e. only updates screen once every 3 to 5 seconds, processor occupancy goes to 900% +

I am running an AMD Athlon 1.3 GHz with 198Mb RAM
Nvidia geforce 2 MX400 with 64Mb RAM
Ferrari force feedback steering wheel
Directx 8.1

I have tried:
reformatting hard disk and reinstalling everything from scratch with all the latest drivers for motherboard, graphics card etc.
Removed the twinview setting for the graphics card to stop GP3 2000 wanting to calibrate the video settings every time the game starts (as described in the FAQ on this site)
Changed various CMOS settings (e.g. amount of memory available for AGP, speed settings for RAM writes, enabled/disabled AGP 4x writes)

and none of these have had any effect.

No other games have shown any slowdown, including other driving games using the force feedback wheel, so it does seem to be something with GP3 2000.

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening and how I can fix it? GP3 is my favourite game and I'll be extremely peed off if I can't play it anymore!!

Please help, thanks.

Steve.

What soundcard are you using?

Checking "use reduced channels" in the sound options might help.

I'm using a SoundBlaster AudioPCI128

I'll give the reduced channels a try.

Thanks.

What OS are you using??

I've tried running GP3 2000 in XP and its crap!!! Frame rate is only about 15-16 fps!!

running it in 98 is better, im running my version under 98SE with PIII chip, ATI 32MB card 256MB Ram and it runs like a dream at 25.6fps!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to zcott & borgdronex for your replies!

I've found the problem, it was related to the ferrari force feedback wheel. I found I had to set it up as a serial device rather than a USB one and all now works properly.

I am now a happy chappie!

Cheers,

Steve.