[Alpha Kodiak]

I would bet that it's some type of driver issue, as Richard said. I am running on an HP laptop using ME.

I'm curious, are you saying that the game will play if the laptop is up and running for about half-an-hour beforehand? That sounds almost like some kind of hardware issue where a connection is flakey until the system heats up and something expands to make a better connection. Don't know, but it sure sounds strange.