I would definitely use boot camp if I was gaming in windows or doing anything requiring lots of RAM/ processing. VMware is good if you need to run both OS's at the same time, but for gaming you will want all the resources you can free up.
Lectro gives out the AA ones every now and then with a purchase and they're great. I've used that same 9v caddy before and I found the little clips that hold the batteries in will break pretty easily. I prefer the iPower ones for 9v.
Better late than never! Just waiting on a few cables to complete this. 2nd SRb to inputs 4/5, tape out to LMa hops, Left-Right XLR to DR40, DR40 to m216. NP1 is under mixer.
I think if I were in your situation, I would be leaning more towards Metric Halo products than Sound Devices.
hxxp://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/products/hardware/lio-8.html
Can you provide more information? Like which walkies you are using, and which channel they were on when this was happening?
What block is your QRX on, frequencies? Maybe someone can recreate the problem.