EoC instability

Right, the game runs fine, while it does actually run. But sooner or later it always freezes up, forcing me to restart my PC. No response to alt-tabbing, ctrl-alt-deleting, or button-mashing.
It also doesn't appear to be tied to the amount of on-screen action, or specific events.

Now, I've figured that setting all the gfx options to minimum helps it last longer (maybe an hour), but it still freezes eventually.

Trial and error tells me:
- It isn't Version-specific, since it does the same with the patch, and in the demo.

- It isn't my drivers, since I've tested several gfx drivers and versions of DirectX.

- Virus scans are coming up negative.

- A fresh install of the game doesn't help.

My system is a 900mhz cpu, radeon 9700, winXP. 3-hundred-something Mb of RAM, too.
Hardly a modern PC, but in excess of the recommended specs, so there's no good reason it should be so unstable.

Any ideas, fellas?

Sound was the great weakness of EoC.

edit flux.ini with notepad. Find the line disable_sound=0 and change it to disable_sound=1

If the problem goes away, then it is an issue with your sound codecs and not the graphics.

Nah, no joy.

I thought I'd gotten away with it, but it froze up just after being blatted by a carrier.

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