Locks up on my Gateway, too

[Guest Steve Makarow]

I have a Gateway Solo 9300 (PIII-650, 128 RAM, ATI Rage Mobility-P 8MB graphics card) and I've got the same problem with the Gold Demo.

I know that I have the latest drivers and Direct X 7a.

The demo locks up after a few minutes of play, requiring a reboot. Same situation as the other guy with a Gateway: sound plays, mouse cursor moves, but everything else is locked and I have to reboot.

I really want to buy the full version of CM, but this is worrying me.

Any suggestions?

[Hemo2]

A laptop normally would be a decent choice for a strategy game, but CM uses the 3D video card heavily, and laptop video cards aren't exactly a good choice for gaming. There's been several comments about problems with ATI video cards, so I would suspect that is the problem. Your friend who also has a Gateway most likely has an ATI card too since Gateway just loves putting those in their pc's.

If your video/sound/DirectX drivers are all up to date, there may not be much to do about it. You might check that the touch pad mouse software isn't loading. I recall an issue with Intellipoint mouse software, so perhaps the touchpad software has a similiar issue? Maybe reload your video drivers if you installed DirectX after installing the video drivers.

Of course do the standard check of anything else loading/running in the background like MS Office Findfast, Anti-Virus, video driver tools, mouse tools, etc. (Basically with Windows 9x, you just want Explorer and Systray running when gaming.)

[Guest Steve Makarow]

Thanks for the reply. I couldn't help myself and ordered the full version of CM last night! I won't get to play it for three weeks though, as I'm finishing up a job in Japan and won't return home (where the game is being delivered) until then.

That really sucks on the ATI card. I play Panzer Elite in 3D with very few crashes and the Q3 demo ran fine in 3D (had to play Unreal Tournament in Software mode, but it ran very smoothly with the PIII-650 and 128 megs).

CM is the only 3D game that I've had this kind of problem with. I know that other people with various systems (primarily laptops and primarily ATI cards, but also with other configurations) are having the same lockup problem.

Hopefully BTS will address this in their next patch.

I did install Direct X 7a after installing the video drivers (I reformatted three weeks ago). Also, I'm getting the feeling that my ESS Maestro E2 isn't such a hot sound card and may in fact be the problem (prior to reinstalling Windows, I was having distorted sound problems with PE. It's fine now, though).

I'll try closing everything but Systray and Explorer and see if that helps. The touchpad and ATI menu are a real pain to get closed. It takes several attempts to get them to close.

This is my first laptop. I really thought that with a PIII-650 and 128 megs, I would be cool for gaming. I guess despite the advertising and the $4,000 price, laptops aren't true "mobile desktops."

And there's no way I can afford a new desktop anytime soon...