[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Kirostrife Hi everyone, I recently picked up a copy of Halo 2 for PC and installed it on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 1545) with Windows Vista as the OS and the game ran (Barely though, the video capability of that laptop is depressing). Anyway, I got a new laptop a few weeks later (A Dell XPS, decked out with plenty of gaming gear) but running Windows 7 as the OS. Now the game installed fine but when I try to play it, I get the little loading icon next to my mouse pointer and then nothing. At all. So my question is, does anyone know how to fix this problem? or can anyone link me to another thread/site where someone has had this problem and has solved it? Cheers :)[/quote] What's the GPU? Running as Admin? [Edited on 09.06.2011 6:28 AM PDT]

Yeah Im running as admin, and the GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540m (With Optimus... whatever that is) Any ideas?

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Kirostrife Yeah Im running as admin, and the GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540m (With Optimus... whatever that is) Any ideas?[/quote] GT 540m? There's your problem. Im sorry to say but i doubt Halo 2 Vista will ever run on your machine. There have been other uses using that exact same GPU and have never got it to run. Microsoft don't know what the problem is either. Oddly enough, it works with other games perfectly fine, it's just H2V that dislikes the game. Blame Hired Gun for the poor job they did porting Halo 2 to PC...

Damn D: That really sucks. I know even Microsoft cant figure out the problem, but it makes me wonder why specifically this graphics card doesn't like H2V. I guess my girlfriends laptop is gunna be kidnapped by me to play it lol.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Kirostrife Damn D: That really sucks. I know even Microsoft cant figure out the problem, but it makes me wonder why specifically this graphics card doesn't like H2V. I guess my girlfriends laptop is gunna be kidnapped by me to play it lol.[/quote] If i remember correctly it's because H2V doesn't detect it as a GPU and therefore refuses to run, when it is clearly a GPU and can run games such as Crysis etc. It's just the poor coding and programming Hired Gun did when they ported Halo 2 across to PC. You're not missing too much anyway, apart from the campaign and online co op mod, the MP leaves much to be desired for a PC game. Personally if you haven't already tried it, i recommend trying Halo PC.

Contact NVidia. There is no reason why the 540 shouldn't run the game. It's probably H2v's fault, but NVidia should be able to address this in a driver update I would think.

Yeah I had Halo for PC a long time ago and played online almost everyday, but after moving twice I somehow lost my install disc. Might have to invest in another copy lol. I did a little more scouring and alot of people are having troubles with this video card and other games (Starcraft II for example). Do you reckon it would be worth contacting Dell (Or Nvidia) and trying to find a reason why its not running, or if they have a workaround?

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Kirostrife Yeah I had Halo for PC a long time ago and played online almost everyday, but after moving twice I somehow lost my install disc. Might have to invest in another copy lol. I did a little more scouring and alot of people are having troubles with this video card and other games (Starcraft II for example). Do you reckon it would be worth contacting Dell (Or Nvidia) and trying to find a reason why its not running, or if they have a workaround?[/quote] In my opinion your best bet would be with Nvidia. Dell or M$ are likely to point fingers at each other and you'll probably end up calling them anyway. Yeah i thought so...it's a shame because it's a decent card, just they changed a few things and a couple of games just don't like it. I doubt there'll be a fix, but at the very least, Nvidia could try making a driver update for it but it's a longshot. In any case, best of luck, sorry i couldn't be more helpful.

There is no use in calling M$ or Dell, they won't have a fix. The only thing you can do is to check if your video cards' drivers are always up to date. The more recent drivers have a built in auto update, use it. Nvidia are good guys, they'll probably fix these problems in the near future.

Hey guys, Quick update. After trying to install and run a few other games (Basically the only ones I'd be playing anyway) and running into the same problems, Dell have agreed to refund me for the XPS 15 after we rang and basically explained the laptop wasnt capable of doing what it was described as being able to do. So I've been hunting around trying to find another laptop I can buy (Whilst trying to avoid optimus technology) but its proving much harder than it sounds. In one way or another, all laptops, regardless of make and model, have some form of dual GPU's. So i was wondering if anyone can answer me this: Is all optimus technology basically a flop, or is there specific ones to avoid? The ones im looking at now are Alienware laptops (Which dont have optimus), Dell XPS 17 which has a GeForce GT 555M (Optimus), and two different models of Toshiba Qosmio's. Both using nVidia cards. One with the same card we had issues with in the XPS 15 (GeForce GT 540M with Optimus) and another one with a GeForce GT 330M (No optimus, but something called CUDA). One other thing worth noting is that from the research i've done the optimus problems reported seem to be mostly Acer's and Dell's. Is it possible that these laptop manufacturers are to blame, rather than nVidia? Cheers guys.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Zetren There is no use in calling M$ or Dell, they won't have a fix. The only thing you can do is to check if your video cards' drivers are always up to date. The more recent drivers have a built in auto update, use it. Nvidia are good guys, they'll probably fix these problems in the near future. [/quote]There's also SlimDrivers.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Kirostrife Hey guys, Quick update. After trying to install and run a few other games (Basically the only ones I'd be playing anyway) and running into the same problems, Dell have agreed to refund me for the XPS 15 after we rang and basically explained the laptop wasnt capable of doing what it was described as being able to do. So I've been hunting around trying to find another laptop I can buy (Whilst trying to avoid optimus technology) but its proving much harder than it sounds. In one way or another, all laptops, regardless of make and model, have some form of dual GPU's. So i was wondering if anyone can answer me this: Is all optimus technology basically a flop, or is there specific ones to avoid? The ones im looking at now are Alienware laptops (Which dont have optimus), Dell XPS 17 which has a GeForce GT 555M (Optimus), and two different models of Toshiba Qosmio's. Both using nVidia cards. One with the same card we had issues with in the XPS 15 (GeForce GT 540M with Optimus) and another one with a GeForce GT 330M (No optimus, but something called CUDA). One other thing worth noting is that from the research i've done the optimus problems reported seem to be mostly Acer's and Dell's. Is it possible that these laptop manufacturers are to blame, rather than nVidia? Cheers guys.[/quote] I would seriously recommend, if you intend to play games, to spend the cash on a PC. More power for buck and virtually no hassle with the room to upgrade. I have an Acer Aspire 5738G (with a G105m) which was a good laptop back in the day for games. However over time, it get's outdated very quickly, and overheating becomes a major problem (which isn't always easy to sort out with laptops). Learning from that mistake, i switched to PC and now only use the laptop for light gaming such as the original Cod and Halo PC, and even then the laptop only lasts for half hour before it shuts down due to heat...

I would buy a PC for my gaming needs, but I do most of my gaming on xbox 360, and just the games that are PC exclusive I play on computer. Theres two issues with getting a PC over a laptop though. 1. I literally have no room to put one (Share a house with 3 other people) and everything I own has to fit in my room basically. So its a bed, TV/xbox, Couch and bedside table. and no. 2 is that I frequently visit my girlfriend and her brother (They live together and both are gamers) so I need something easily portable, hence laptop. Dell has been good to me in the past so fingers crossed I can get something decent from them, and if not the rest of my family and friends are hardcore toshiba fans, so I might look further into that.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Kirostrife I would buy a PC for my gaming needs, but I do most of my gaming on xbox 360, and just the games that are PC exclusive I play on computer. Theres two issues with getting a PC over a laptop though. 1. I literally have no room to put one (Share a house with 3 other people) and everything I own has to fit in my room basically. So its a bed, TV/xbox, Couch and bedside table. and no. 2 is that I frequently visit my girlfriend and her brother (They live together and both are gamers) so I need something easily portable, hence laptop. Dell has been good to me in the past so fingers crossed I can get something decent from them, and if not the rest of my family and friends are hardcore toshiba fans, so I might look further into that.[/quote] In that case, the only thing i can recommend is read around the laptops you're looking at so you can anticipate any potential problems (similar to the G540m) with certain games etc. Also, keep an eye on which makes have heating issue's, and be sure to keep it well ventilated. Other than that, i don't think i can be of much help. Like i said, just read around the laptops and you should be okay.