[timfields]

I have read old threads from here about core 2 duo processors with speed issues--particularly speeding up the game--however, my game loads up in slow motion, even from character select. I can play for a few minutes before my graphics driver crashes and restarts successfully, however, the EQ window remains black. When I played normal EQ, this would happen on occasion as well, but normally it would reappear after crashing and things would actually run smoother. I am guessing it runs fine after the crash, I just get no visual data whatsoever--though I do hear sounds.

So far I have run dxdiag--no issues.
Repatched my graphics card driver--no fix.
Repatched my processor driver--no help.
Changed the shortcut to avoid problems with compatibility--no solution.
Downloaded RunFirst to try running on just one processor--still bad.

I tried all of the solutions that I have seen offered, which have apparently worked for many, but I'm still sadly unable to run.

I have a gateway laptop, intel core 2 duo processor p8700, geforce gtx 260m series graphic card, 4gb ddr3 Ram.

My computer runs games and movies beautifully, though it can't seem to run EQ!
I appreciate any help you can offer, other than to get new hardware.