Unable to start game

Every time I attempt to launch CrossFire, the game will not load. I double click the launch icon, and then your announcements pop up. At that point, I click start game. The auto patcher will check for updates (but won't download because I have the latest version), and then HGW Game Watcher will check for hacks or whatever it does. That disappears, leaving no trace of the game starting but the HGWC process running in Task Manager. About one minute later, I will get this from HGWC, "Timed out waiting for initialing xtrap-engine". Please help.
I have no anti-virus so I know nothing is interfering with the program. I am also running Windows XP.