I recently purchased an IBM thinkpad t23(certified used) w/ s3 integrated 16mb graphics card. When I turned it on for the first time, it started installing windows all on its own through data it kept in a rescue partition. I immediately installed VO, and to my surprise, it worked very well. I wanted to install slackware so that I could dual boot, which meant destroying that extra partition. After re'installing windows, I downloaded a package from IBM that is supposed to download all the files you need. I then updated directx along with many other windows updates :-/ When I finally got around to installing VO, it did not work. Whenever it tried to load up, instead of the space port illustration, it was simply a white box. So from there, I changed the video driver to the openGL reference one, and lowered all the other video/graphic settings. Now, I can get into the game, but it is unbearably slow. Oh, and I also ran dxdiag and my direct3d test fails :( On another thread somebody said that meant you were SOL.

:(
Any ideas anybody?

Check your video drivers
Device Manager -> Display Adapters -> Driver

If the provider = Microsoft, then you need to download new drivers from the manufacturer, because the MS generic drivers only have Software OpenGL support.

If they're actually from S3, then you've got other issues.

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/download.aspx?url=/8638/a08/infinst_autol.exe&agr=N&ProductID=816&DwnldId=8638&strOSs=44&OSFullName=Windows*%20XP%20Professional&lang=eng

Believe it or not, installing chipset drivers helps. :)

(I know, because I was wondering WTF was up with MY t23 when I reformatted it for the first time...

Good luck!