The following are a few things that may increase performance in the game:

1. Make sure no other programs are running, including virus scanning programs and e-mail programs. Simply disabling your virus program still use resources that are needed while playing the game. Please consult the documentation for your virus program for information on closing the program. the game is a graphically intensive game and needs to use most of your available resources.

2. Changing some of the in game features will enhance the performance of the game. Once in the game, press F1, then select Options [O] and make a few adjustments:

   • Set the Music Volume slide bar to the OFF position. Turning off music in the game will allow more resources to be available to increase the framerate in the game.
   • Turn off Voice Effects.
   • Disable the Joystick/Gamepad option if you are using the keyboard to play the game.
   • Enable 3D Hardware Acceleration if you have a good 3D card.

   If you are still experiencing performance problems, you can try the following steps. Make sure you change the Text Mode to Text Only if you turn off Voice Volume:

   • Set the Sound Effects Volume slide bar to the OFF position.
   • Set the Voice Volume slide bar to the OFF position.

3. Having more memory will improve overall performance in the game. Additional memory will greatly increase performance as it allows the game to use less virtual memory during gameplay.

4. If you are encountering choppy performance and exceptionally slow room transition times, here is a suggestion to help you optimize the performance of the game on your system:

   There are certain files on the Grim Fandango CD that when copied over to your hard drive, will allow the game instantaneous access to information it would normally spool from the CD during the game.

   As you play Grim Fandango, you will discover that the game is divided into four separate years. For each of the four years, there are corresponding files with a .LAB extension on the Grim Fandango CDs. As you progress through the game, you will need to copy over the appropriate files while you are playing each year. The number present on each file denotes which year it applies to. For example, the files used during Year 1 are as follows: Data001.lab, Movie01.lab, Vox0001.lab, and Year1mus.lab, the files used during Year 2 are as: Data002.lab, Movie02.lab, Vox0002.lab, and Year2mus.lab etc. The Grim Fandango disc "A" has the files used in years 1 and 3, while disc "B" contains the files for years 2 and 4.

   Please note that this suggestion will not be available to everyone, as it requires you to have at least 500 MB of free space on the drive where you installed the game (400 for the .lab files and 100 additional MB free for the Windows swap file and your saved games). To check the amount of free space you currently have available, right-click on the icon for the drive where you installed the game in the My Computer window, and select Properties. Before copying over the LAB files, we recommend that you back up your saved games so that you do not lose your progress in the game.

   To do so:

   • Create a new folder on your desktop by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New, then Folder.
   • Name the folder "Grim Saved Games".
   • Change to the folder where you installed Grim Fandango. The default location is "C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Grim Fandango".
   • Go to the View Menu and choose "Arrange Icons", then "By Type".
   • Click once on the first file with the extension .GSV (Windows 98 users may need to deselect the "Hide File Extensions for Known File Types" checkbox so that the file extensions are displayed) then hold down the SHIFT key and click once on the last file with the same extension so that all of the .GSV files are highlighted.
   • Go to the Edit Menu and select "Copy".
   • Open the Grim Saved Games folder that you created on your desktop and choose "Paste" from the Edit Menu. This will copy all of your Grim Fandango saved games to a separate folder.
   • After copying your saved games, follow these directions to copy over the files for the year you are currently playing (if you are just beginning the game, you should start with the Year 1 files).

   To copy over the LAB files:

   • Insert Grim Fandango Disc A into your CD-ROM drive. Close the launcher if it is visible.
   • Double-click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop.
   • Right-click on the icon for your CD-ROM drive and choose Open.
   • Double-click on the "GrimData" folder.
   • Click on the View menu at the top of the screen, and choose "Details".
   • Go to the View menu again and choose "Arrange Icons", then by "Type".
   • Hold down CTRL while clicking once on each of these files: "Data001.lab", "Movie01.lab", "Vox0001.lab", and "Year1mus.lab". As you click each file, it will be highlighted. Go to the Edit menu, then select "Copy".
   • Now you will need to paste these copied files into the Grim folder on your hard drive. The following directions assume that you installed to the default installation location which is "C:\ProgramFiles\LucasArts\Grim". If you installed to a different location, these steps will need to be modified according to the new location:
   • Double-click on the "My Computer" icon.
   • Double-click on the "C: drive" icon.
   • Double-click on "Program Files", then 'LucasArts", then "Grim".
   • Go to the Edit menu and choose "Paste". The files will be copied to your installation folder. NOTE: This step will take a few minutes.
   • Close all open windows and start Grim Fandango as you normally would.

   After completing Year 1, you need to delete the .LAB files that you copied into the Grim Fandango installation directory. To do this, return to the Grim directory on your hard drive using the directions listed above, then hold down the CTRL key while clicking once on each of these files: Data001.lab, Movie01.lab, Vox0001.lab, and Year1mus.lab.

   As you click each file, it will be highlighted. After selecting these files, press your DEL key and choose yes when prompted. Depending upon your system configuration, you may need to empty the Recycle Bin on your system prior to copying over the files for the next year.

   You will need to repeat the above steps for each of the four years. We recommend you do not remove the .LAB files until after you have advanced to a new year in the Grim Fandango storyline and have saved your game. When copying over each year, be sure to select the appropriate files (Data002.lab, Movie02.lab, Vox0002.lab, and Year2mus.lab for Year 2, Data003.lab, Movie03.lab, Vox0003.lab, and Year3mus.lab for Year 3, Data004.lab, Movie04.lab, Vox0004.lab, and Year4mus.lab for Year 4).

   Finally, be sure to manually delete all of the .LAB files after completing the game, as the Grim Fandango uninstall utility will not remove them from your system.

I am experiencing long delays or skipping while the CD loads the game or cutscene.

Because the game has to load a lot of information for the level, it is quite common for it to take a few minutes to load, especially on low end systems. If you are experiencing extremely long delays while the CD loads the game, your CD-ROM may be having problems loading all of the data needed to run the game. This may be caused by any of the following:

1. Your CD-ROM may not meet the minimum requirements to run the program. Verify that your CD-ROM meets or exceeds the minimum speed required in the minimum specifications for the program.
2. Your CD-ROM drive may be getting old or out of alignment.
3. You may have a fast CD-ROM drive that spins down when the game is not directly accessing the CD. This is most apparent when using a 16X through 48X drive.

I am experiencing performance issues when running the program on low-end systems.

When running the game on a low-end system or a system with the minimum amount of RAM, you may experience some stuttering in the sound and graphics. This usually happens if other programs are running or your system resources are low. Freeing up system resources or memory may improve performance.