Why is Team Fortress 2 running slow?

I know this has been asked many times, and I plan on asking on the Steam forums as soon as my account is approved (or unless it's answered here, which would be greatly appreciated). But I must ask.



I recently purchased TF2 through Steam to play with some friends at a LAN party, and when I opened it, I set all of the video effects to their highest setting, including resolution. However, when I actually got into the game, the frame rate capped at 30, and I don't know why.



I have a Gateway P-7805u FX gaming laptop ( http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/5鈥?/a> ), and I KNOW it has more than enough power to run the game at its native 1920x1200 resolution (that link says 1440x900, but the laptop I have is the HD edition) with very high, if not max, video settings.

Heck, I can play Battlefield 2 and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion at highest resolution with EVERYTHING on highest settings.



Quick reference for specs (copy/pasted from the link):

Vista 64-bit SP2

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache

4096MB 1066MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory (2-2048MB modules)

VIDIA庐 GeForce庐 9800M GTS Graphics with 1GB of GDDR3 Discrete Video Memory and Intel庐 PM45 Chipset



I have the latest Service Pack, the latest video driver... but it still runs slow. could anyone shed some light on my situation? I thoroughly enjoy the game and am wondering why this machine isn't playing it well enough, especially after reading reviews of people flawlessly being able to play FEAR, FarCry 2, Unreal Tournament 3, AND Team Fortress 2.Why is Team Fortress 2 running slow?
Well there are mulitiple reasons but I can only think off two.... You have too many useless programs on the computer and or the game has a defect. If it's your comp Rid your comp of pictures and music you dont listen too if that doesnt work then remove programs that you dont use anymore( limewire and such)