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QingJao
QingJao
Join Date 07/2004
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Can this game be run on a laptop???

August 23, 2004 4:52:14 PM from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
My main computer is a laptop and everytime I try to run it on it, it will play the intro just fine then enter a blank black screen and stay there for a few seconds (playing the game music while it does) and then say something about how it a device went bad (I can get the exact wording if you need me too) then reenter the main windows screen in 4 bit color mode (where I have to reset it as it wont change back to a better color mode.)

Anyone else having this problem and can anyone explain why I am getting this error.
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QingJao
Frogboy
Join Date 03/2001
+2419 sdemperor
Reply #1 August 23, 2004 5:45:02 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums

It depends on the laptop.

Basically, the game needs a video card that supports DirectX 9. That means most newer video cards and many of the older "powerful" video cards.  But many laptops just can't do it.

My laptop runs the game but it has an ATI Radeon in it which is a pretty good video card (it's a Thinkpad T40). 

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QingJao
QingJao
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #2 August 23, 2004 9:09:09 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
Its a brand new computer so I dont get how its video card (ATI Raedon forget the # Im on a differnt computer right now) could be to old. Any other suggestions
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QingJao
Zach Mayo
Join Date 08/2004
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Reply #3 August 23, 2004 9:15:15 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
My Gateway laptop runs it just fine and dandy.
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QingJao
QingJao
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Reply #4 August 24, 2004 10:13:22 AM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
The only other thing that I would think could be a problem is that it only has 256 MB RAM but judging from the help me file that should be okay. Im confused .
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QingJao
Frogboy
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #5 August 24, 2004 11:05:53 AM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
It all depends on which Radeon it is.  There are Radeon mobiles with only 8 megs of video ram which aren't sufficient to run the game.
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QingJao
QingJao
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #6 August 24, 2004 12:49:46 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
Okay first off its a Radeon IGP 320M.

2nd it normally says your computer has detected and recovered from a device failure...

And when I tried 1.01B it was this game has detected possilbe corruption of core data files... (and I did install 1.01 and i have tried reinstalling both several times.) Please help this is really starting to annoy me.
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QingJao
Frogboy
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #7 August 24, 2004 1:33:58 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums

I'm not sure.  I'm kind of stuck on this one.  Have you emailed support@ubisoft.com?

The 2nd thing you mention indicates that Windows itself has a problem which is beyond my area to really help without physically being there.  

The corruption of core data files usually means that data files themselves were tweaked.  This running on Windows XP?

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QingJao
QingJao
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #8 August 24, 2004 1:47:04 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
yes it is running on windows xp and i dont know how the files are getting tweaked when I tried playing it right after reinstalling it. Any suggestions of stuff to do???

PS I am beginning to think that its the disk that has a problem not my computer anyway I could get a new one or download it directly.
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QingJao
Frogboy
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #9 August 24, 2004 9:43:19 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums

Well if you're getting blue screens it's a hardware defect of some kind.

Have you installed the latest catalyst drivers?

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QingJao
QingJao
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #10 August 25, 2004 12:50:52 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
No blue screens. I have most everything updated as far as it can be (well as far as it can be as of 2 weeks ago havent done much sense then.) I highly doubt its a hardware problem and judging by the fact that it says that core data files are corrupted it makes it seem alot like a software problem. I am not a computer expert but everything so far makes it seem like it is missing a file to get the opening screen, and its been doing this ever since I got the game so it doesnt seem like it was my fault at all.
Qing Jao
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QingJao
QingJao
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #11 August 25, 2004 2:25:06 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
I just tried it on another computer and it worked fine. Someone please tell me what about my computer could cause this and if any programs (like antivirus, spyware, etc) could make this happen. Its a HP AMD athlon 1.8 GHz 256 DDR RAM plenty of memory and Ive told you everything else about it already. Please tell me why its not working before I go crazy.
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QingJao
Frogboy
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #12 August 27, 2004 3:28:55 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
I don't have any easy answer.  It could be any number of things, thre's something odd about your other PC.
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QingJao
Aaron Shepard
Join Date 08/2004
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Reply #13 August 27, 2004 10:22:08 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
hey qingjao, this is the same thing that is happening to everyone else. IT IS NOT YOUR COMPUTER, it is the game. look at someof the other threads for help, but the adminsneed to release a patch pronto. kinda annoying that we have to go all this way to make the game work but oh well.
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QingJao
Frogboy
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Reply #14 August 27, 2004 11:20:55 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums

The reality may be that some laptops may not be able to run the game. There may be no solution on that.

It does run on our laptops in our compatibility lab including my ThinkPad T40 with the ATI Radeon 9000 on it.

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