SH3 on a laptop?

[Tool]

I picked up a laptop on black friday and here are the specs:

Compaq C712NR:
intel dual core T2310 (1.4ghz)
1gig Ram
15.4" widescreen
Integrated video (up to 240mb)
Vista home premium

Will this run SH3 with GWX 2 ok? I know it will load a LOT slower than my E6400 2gig main box but when i'm traveling it would be nice to have along..

Tool.

I've been playing SH3 for over 2 years on a laptop and my specs are similar to yours.

Downloaded and installed GWX 2.0 on the first day and it plays better than 1.3 ever did.

My laptop is pre - Vista so I don't know what you will run into there.

I had one major problem for quite some time. That was crashes to blue screen upon exiting SH3 from the main screen. My laptop runs an ATI Radeon 9000 video card and I was getting error messages about the video card or driver when the crash occured. I increased the ram to 1.1 gig (but it shares with the video card) and crashes became less often but still occured.

Cured problem by downloading a freeware program called WIN CLEANER which I run all the time in the background.

Except, before playing SH3, I maximize and optimize the ram on the Win Cleaner Main page and I turn off Win Cleaner's "Auto Optimize Every (number of minutes you have set)" and "Free Ram on Alarm Level (amount you have set)" on the Configuration page. (These 2 functions interfere with game play.) Then minimize Win Cleaner program and boot SH3. Now, here is the main thing you have to do before exiting from the main SH3 menu page: alt + Tab to minimize SH3 and go to desktop. Now, bring up Win Cleaner and maximize and optimize the ram on the Main page until it is as high as it will go. Then go back into SH3 menu page and exit normally. Result - No Crashes!

Apparently the shared video memory was causing intermittent problems. I've noticed that Win Cleaner's memory graph showed adequate memory before exit but every once in a while the graph would show extremely low memory available and I suspect it was at these low memory times that I would have gotten crashes had I not maximized and optimized my memory before exiting SH3. This procedure really is not as hard as it sounds or as hard as it was for me to write about.

Since 2.0 came out, I've NOT noticed any extremely low memory but I still go through this maximizing and optimizing procedure prior to exiting SH3 anyway.

Maybe, you'll not have this problem but if you do, at least you will know how to fix it. These crashes to blue screen gave me a headache for a long time!

[Badger Finn]

Originally Posted by Tool

I picked up a laptop on black friday and here are the specs:

Compaq C712NR:
intel dual core T2310 (1.4ghz)
1gig Ram
15.4" widescreen
Integrated video (up to 240mb)
Vista home premium

Will this run SH3 with GWX 2 ok? I know it will load a LOT slower than my E6400 2gig main box but when i'm traveling it would be nice to have along..

Tool.

Streamline ya xp config and use a tool like von Zelda suggested or another one is "end it all"

just do a google

[irish1958]

Guys:
2 Gigs of RAM solve a lot of problems and speed up the game.
I ran SHIII and GWX 1.xxx without any trouble except for slow frame rate when the CPU was stressed. The game runs a lot better since I installed an additional Gig of RAM.
I run GWX 2.0 without any problem.
I use FS Autostart to clean and defrag my RAM before I load SH3CMDR and then the game.
My laptop specs are a lot less robust than yours.

[Hakahura]

Another laptop player here.

Works fine for me and my specs are no better than yours apart from RAM.

You should be alright.

Plus RAM is cheap at the moment.

Originally Posted by irish1958

2 Gigs of RAM solve a lot of problems and speed up the game.

I use FS Autostart to clean and defrag my RAM before I load SH3CMDR and then the game.

Some laptops are limited to the amount of additional ram. My Toshiba has a built-in 125 plus 1 slot for additional ram limited to 1 gig. I therefore can not exceed 1.125 gig. Check your computer specs for maximum ram.

FS AutoStart was introduced in the early days of Flight Similator to turn off unnecessary programs that run all the time in the background, thus freeing up ram, etc. It also can be set to defrag your memory but this is only one small feature of this program.

Caution (just my humble opinion): I, as well as some others, have used FS AutoStart in the past and have had some computer issues as a result. I had to completely reformat my hard drive and reinstall all my software as a result of these issues.

WinCleaner is by far a better memory cleaner and memory defrag thab FS AutoStart and will NOT cause any issues with your computer.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Tool

I picked up a laptop on black friday and here are the specs:

Compaq C712NR:
intel dual core T2310 (1.4ghz)
1gig Ram
15.4" widescreen
Integrated video (up to 240mb)
Vista home premium

Will this run SH3 with GWX 2 ok? I know it will load a LOT slower than my E6400 2gig main box but when i'm traveling it would be nice to have along..

Tool.

You should be fine Tool....a little more RAM would be nice, but not imperative

[Tool]

Thanks.. I opened it up and got the model/part # for the RAM in this but the specs all say 1 gig max. I thought about picking up 2 gigs and trying it and if it doesn't work returning it. I'd get the exact same ram/specs just 2-1gig sticks instead of the 2-512mb i have now... worth a shot i guess.. most it will do is not boot.

Tool.

[Skubber]

I think you'll be happier if you can get the two gigs to work.

If you're running vista, you definitely want to read the running SHIII installing and patching with vista thread.

[Tool]

Thanks for the info.. i'll read up on it and keep an eye out for a deal on RAM for this thing.

Tool.

[Jimbuna]

I can't speak for the US, but it's keenly priced in the UK at the moment

[Tool]

Going to Florida in a few days and thought i'd dig-up this thread. I'm still running 1 gig of ram, as i haven't had the time to mess with trying another gig.

I loaded SH3 on it, patched already to 1.4 as it is a new D2D downloaded version. Fired it up, loaded & exited fine. Loaded SH3 commander, and GWX 2 along with necessary ASW patch and the files for SH3 commander. Loads into the main screen fine, and didn't take any longer than my main box does, exited back to desktop with no crashing. Didn't set sail yet, but looks go so far. I'm not turning on the 16k atmosphere though and left everything else as is. Any other advice?

I'll keep you posted.

Tool.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Tool

Going to Florida in a few days and thought i'd dig-up this thread. I'm still running 1 gig of ram, as i haven't had the time to mess with trying another gig.

I loaded SH3 on it, patched already to 1.4 as it is a new D2D downloaded version. Fired it up, loaded & exited fine. Loaded SH3 commander, and GWX 2 along with necessary ASW patch and the files for SH3 commander. Loads into the main screen fine, and didn't take any longer than my main box does, exited back to desktop with no crashing. Didn't set sail yet, but looks go so far. I'm not turning on the 16k atmosphere though and left everything else as is. Any other advice?

I'll keep you posted.

Tool.

If you can get the 2gb to work that'd be pimp, otherwise sounds like you've got a quality laptop there. My previous one only had 1 gb, a ATI 1300x gpu and 1.6 centrino duo and it would choke up anytime I tried to increase speed over 256, or ran into something graphic intensive. The new one has 3gb and runs almost as good as the water cooled desktop.

In case you haven't already, check out Crucial and Corsair's websites. They've both got a really nice interface that lets you choose your make/model and the RAM that is either approved by the manufacturer, or has been tested by the RAM manufacturer to work with said hardware. Can be a little more expensive that way but you know that you're getting RAM that is ensured to work. With Vista too, be sure to turn off all the flashy new effects and strip it down to a XP or W2k style interface. Running all the little gadgets and stuff can slowly eat aware your system resources.

[Tool]

Thanks for the reply. According to the website 1gig is the max, so i'll have to just try more ram sometime and see.

Here are the detailed specs:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...reg_R1002_USEN

Tool.

[HanSolo78]

I think you won´t have fun playing SH3 on this rig... the IGP is not very strong an might be a problem.But you should try to sail out of port... and make your own opinion.