Yusha

That is a lovely plethora of ideas, thank you! I am very happy to report that I have made definite progress. First, I downloaded and installed the WinUtilities program, ran most of the cleanups except for the RegKey and disk defrags. I was particularly interested in the Mem Optimizer, so tweaked the settings to create maximum free RAM. Second, I went to the nVidia control panel, and changed all settings to concentrate specifically on performance. Would be happy to type out the specs, but don't want to bore everyone to pieces. The notables are: Threaded Optimization=Auto Texture Filtering-Anisotropic Sample Optimization=ON Maximum Pre-rendered Frames=1 Antialiasing Transparency=multisampling PhysX=disabled In game options are set to high, with major changes as shadows off, grass @ 3/4, Vsync On, AA off, and sound quality at low (all of these options were present when the game crashed every hour as well) Basic PC specs are i7 920 quad(2.67GHz), 6 GB 1066 DDR3, GTX 260, integrated HD audio (again, don't want to overinflate the post with an entire dxdiag-lol) I agree Schot that this must be a resource issue. One, or both, of the aforementioned techniques have improved the game stability dramatically, allowing me two 4 hour sessions with liberal use of the map and cave hopping (most freezes occurred with these). I am intrigued by the 4GB patch and the Sacred Cleaning Utility...I will try and hope to report more positive results. Thanks for all your input! Cheers, Buzz

To amend my previous post, I did go into BIOS and found where to turn off the hyperthreading. I chickened out, mainly because turning off thread optimization on the graphics card, for Sacred 2 only, seemed like a better direct solution instead (maybe less likely to screw up in other cataclysmic ways ). Unfortunately, same freezing result. I then revisited an old post where Loco had painstakingly detailed every setting for the 260 card. Still no luck. I've been most recently checking all applicable drivers, and all seem to be up-to-date, but I wonder about the compatibility of a more recent DirectX. 11 is listed on my dxdiag, but I clearly remember 9 being part of the game install. An earlier post recommends 9.0c runtimes; is this not included with more recent versions? There's a stern warning that it cannot be removed, and to backup your system. Would it help to go with another HD (maybe a SSD?) for the game install? And, is the DirectX version the real culprit here, not necessarily the OS? Thanks in advance for any ideas. Cheers, Buzz

I'm not sure if my processor is uber, , but it is a quad-core. I hesitate to mess with the HTT if that is done in BIOS (please forgive my ignorance if wrong). I would like to learn how and where to assign each CPU, but my amateurish knowledge is VERY likely to land me in more trouble. Thank you loco for all your suggestions, and Feliz Cinco de Mayo to everyone!]

Thank u 4 your quick reply! Tho, perhaps there is a solution, SOMEHOW... a reference to isolating 2 of the available 4 processors to work on Sacred 2 only, leaving the other 2 for the hoggish Win 7? Would a gazillion RAM help? A program called RamIdle to optimize mem usage? Is there a Dryad Witch Doctor? (that Black Panther in the Jungle crossed me path too many times, the filthy, demon-fish-breathed beast) >_<

I have also experienced this issue consistently; I get 1-2 hours, and then the freeze. Sometimes there is a flickering in the graphics and a hitch in the frame rate prior to the freeze. But here is the interesting part: If I am located in 1 of the 2 Ice&Blood areas, I get longer b4 freezing. 3-4 hrs in those spots(if I don't abuse the map-which shortens my time drastically, and often causes the freeze-I FEAR the map-lol) The task manager always has the same RAM usage(approx 1.4G more than what Win 7 needs). I have read thru every post on this site, as well as the official site, and many others. I have tried countless variations of the graphics card(Nvidia 260) including the disabling of PhsyX of course, optimizing the OS for performance, -nocpubinding extension, every idea you fine folks have suggested. Resolutions, grass, and any other settings do not affect the time I can play b4 freezing. However, I am stubborn, and would rather not dual boot XP to fix if possible. Any other insights would be most welcome! Thank you in advance!