Having problem i can't explain

[ccotton333]

I'm a newb to Wine as I have never tried to really run anything windows from a Linux box, so with that said here is my problem. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 running Ubuntu 8.10, 1.6GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, and 64MB video card. For some reason, whenever I try to play Diablo II I am able to play for random periods of time (anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours) then Wine seems to freeze up and lock up the PC completely. I assumed it was something to do with my internet connection or graphics card or some other hardware issue. I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and Wine on a older desktop 2.4GHz P4 CPU (not dual or quad core), 512 MB of RAM and a 32MB PCI video card (SIS305 chipset. it was the only spare card that I had). Once Ubuntu was installed I installed Diablo II just like on my laptop, however, strangely enough Direct 2Draw was chosen (i assume cause it's such a old card). Now the game looks insanely awesome!!! What gives here? I mean is there something in the way wine handles the CPU on a desktop versus a laptop? I mean i understand the general differences between the two, but it shouldn't make that big of a difference on Diablo II. It's a old game that's CPU intensive. Has anyone else had this same problem and is there a way to fix this? I read somewhere about setting up profiles and stuff but I would have absolutely no understanding of that. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Also I probably should note that my video card in my laptop is a MobilityRadeon x300 64MB card

[vitamin]

Also I probably should note that my video card in my laptop is a MobilityRadeon x300 64MB card

That's the problem. Or more correctly bad drivers. Wine by definition can not crash PC - it's a 100% user application (unless of course you ran it as root).

Try upgrading your video drivers on the laptop. Or try using open source drivers vs closed source from ATi. Or other way around.

[ccotton333]

I'll try that. I was guessing that it had something to do with my graphics but wasn't completely convinced. There were some drivers installed by Ubuntu which I believe were from ATI since it included the "ATI Control Panel". I'll see what i can find as far as open source drivers for Ubuntu 8.10. Any suggestions on places to look other than a Google search and filtering through until i find something useful?

Or maybe I opted to use the ATI drivers instead... either way I'll disable and try again....