wine users - Mar 2009 - Understanding Wine on Ubuntu. Having problem i can't explain

I'm a newb to Wine as I have never tried to really run anything windows from
a Linux box, so with that said here is my problem. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000
running Ubuntu 8.10, 1.6GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, and 64MB video card.  For some
reason, whenever I try to play Diablo II I am able to play for random periods of
time (anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours) then Wine seems to freeze up and
lock up the PC completely.  I assumed it was something to do with my internet
connection or graphics card or some other hardware issue.  I installed Ubuntu
8.10 and Wine on a older desktop 2.4GHz P4 CPU (not dual or quad core), 512 MB
of RAM and a 32MB PCI video card (SIS305 chipset. it was the only spare card
that I had). Once Ubuntu was installed I installed Diablo II just like on my
laptop, however, strangely enough Direct 2Draw was chosen (i assume cause
it's such a old card). Now the game looks insanely awesome!!! What gives
here?  I mean is there something in the way wine handles the CPU on a desktop
versus a laptop?  I mean i understand the general differences between the two,
but it shouldn't make that big of a difference on Diablo II.  It's a old
game that's CPU intensive.  Has anyone else had this same problem and is
there a way to fix this?  I read somewhere about setting up profiles and stuff
but I would have absolutely no understanding of that.  Any help would be greatly
appreciated!

ccotton333 wrote:
> Also I probably should note that my video card in my laptop is a
MobilityRadeon x300 64MB card
That's the problem. Or more correctly bad drivers. Wine by definition can
not crash PC - it's a 100% user application (unless of course you ran it as
root).

Try upgrading your video drivers on the laptop. Or try using open source drivers
vs closed source from ATi. Or other way around.