Here are some simple steps that you can try:

#1 - Make sure that nothing is running in the background as you play, right-click and close any extraneous icons in your system tray, especially anti-virus software, which is notorious for degrading the performance of most games.

#2 - An edit to the config.cfg file located in the main DXBall2 folder can also help to correct this kind of problem. In a default installation you can find the DXBall2 folder on your hard drive under your Program Files folder.

Close DX-Ball 2, then use Windows Explorer to find the DXBall2 folder and open config.cfg with Notepad, as it is a text file.

Find the line that reads "HighPriorityClass = 0" and change it to "HighPriorityClass = 1", save the file and restart DX-Ball2.

#3 - Make sure that your sound and video drivers are completely up-to-date and that you have the newest version of DirectX from http://www.microsoft.com/directx .

#4 - If none of these suggestions help I recommend that you run an up-to-date cold-boot, DOS-based virus scan of your system to rule out computer viruses as the possible cause for the slow down.

You may also want to run a Thorough Scandisk of your hard drive to rule out Bad Sectors as the cause.

A nice Defragment may also help as well.

Regards,

Dylon