Game

Expendable (1999) by Rage Software (retail CD)
Also known as Millennium Soldier: Expendable

Environment

Acer Aspire AO532h
Intel NM10 chipset
Atom N450 @ 1.66 GHz, 1 core, 2 threads
GMA 3150 GPU, driver version 6.14.10.5134
2 GB DDR2
750 GB SATA HDD
Windows XP SP3 32-bit
LG USB optical drive

Problem

Expendable crashes while loading the first level. The crash occurs just as the level music begins to play and the 3D environment would typically appear. The screen turns black and Windows reports "Go.ICD has encountered a problem and needs to close."

Attempted Solutions

1) Started go.exe with command line switch -nocputest. Immediate crash to desktop; same error message.

2) Created a compatibility shim with Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit. Targeted go.exe and used the EmulateSlowCPU option. go.exe fails to launch; no error message.

3) Created another compatibility shim with Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit. Targeted go.exe and used the SingleProcAffinity option. No change.

4) Applied Tuxality's Matrox G400 EMBM patch. No change.

Information

I ran into the same problem a few years ago with a Precision 380, Pentium 4 670, and GeForce 7900 GTX (this system). I don't recall ever finding a solution. It also looks like this thread describes the same issue. Some members reported success with the -nocputest command line switch, but this did not work for others, including the OP.

My current test setup has a slow single core CPU, so that is somewhat unlikely to be the issue. However, it also has an Intel IGP. That is highly likely to be contributing to the issue. The standard benchmarks all run without a hitch (3DMark2000, XL-R8R, 3DMark2001 SE, even AquaMark3 and Codecreatures), but support for DirectX 6 games was probably pretty low on the driver writers' priority list.

Has anyone run into a similar problem and found a solution, other than the -nocputest switch which is not working in this case?