Matrix Games Forums

Please help!

I downloaded SPWAW several months ago but I have a problem running it on my Dell laptop. My system has a Dell INSPIRON Pentium 4 1.7ghz processor and 256 mb of RAM. I run Windows XP Home Edition. When I start the program, the CPU processer jumps to 100% [as displayed by the Windows Task Manager - Performance]. This makes the fan run higher and higher, and then the computer runs hot. The processes run at about 98%. The problem is unique to this game; when I start any other program, the processor performance jumps to 100% and then drops back to an idle percentage, even if I continue to work within the program. With SPWAW, even if I let the game run idle -- even if I just open the mech file and do nothing -- it jumps to 100%.

Anyone else have this problem and is there a fix?

Thanks. [&:]

This problem is an inherent problem with the game. SPWAW 1.0 was a dos based game. When it was moved over to Windows, many of the routines were not based on Windows. As a result, you get undesirable effects like the scrolling of the map during deployment and bombardment plotting being excessively fast.

The main side effect is the one you mention: complete usage of all availble resources. The game will grab everything and more. Your laptop is responding to this by kicking into high gear. In reality, the game needs about 10% of what your system has to offer. In Windows 98, there was a way to change the amount of resources that DOS games use. Since SPWAW appears to Windows to be a completely Windows compatible executeable, there is no option to limit its resources.

So in short, I do not have a solution for you. We all usually cut off everything and let SPWAW run by itself. It might also have a memory leak. I notice that my resource monitor drops after running the game.

I suggest going into your power settings and seeing if there is a way to force your laptop to stay in a lower power usage setting. It won't hurt the game to keep your processor underclocked and hence the fan can stay off.

Kirk:

Thanks for your comments. I tried to find a way to slow my processor but I didn't see anything. It basically will have to run this way, I guess.

I just don't want to burn my fan up or my CPU.

The Shadow