This is from the Mathcad knowledge base for MC13. Also you should upgrade to MC 13.1 when you get the chance.
Peter
Problem: Mathcad crashes, freezes, or locks when rendering a 3D plot.
Cause: This problem typically stems from a video card driver having trouble rendering the OpenGL graphics used in Mathcad's 3D plotting.
Solutions:
1. Update your video driver by downloading and applying the most recent driver from the video card manufacturer's website.
2. Turn the Hardware Acceleration down or off: Right click on your desktop and choose Properties (or from the Start menu choose Settings/Control Panel/Display.) Go to Settings/Advanced and click on the Performance Tab (in Windows 2000 choose Troubleshooting). Use this setting to decrease Hardware Acceleration.
3. Change the color depth since some cards are designed to perform better at certain color depths. Right click on your desktop and choose Properties (or from the Start menu choose Settings/Control Panel/Display.) Go to Settings, and in the Colors field adjust the setting up or down.
Notes:
ATI's Radeon cards and drivers:
With ATI's Radeon 7000 card and Catalyst driver 3.5, turning down the Hardware Acceleration works. Otherwise, using the Catalyst 3.4 driver works. This information may apply to other ATI video cards and drivers as well.
Diamond:
For a related article pertaining to the Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro, see here,
Intel 810e video chip:
Turning the Hardware Acceleration down or off works with this chipset.
nVIDIA:
In addition to the recommendations in this article, please see this Knowledge Base article,
S3and S3
Diamond hybrid video cards: With these cards, typically the only solution is to turn Hardware Acceleration down or off.
Intel 82865G
Apply the latest drivers available from Intel at