My computer is the following:
Microsoft Windows XP home, Intel Core2 Quad Q6600, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX, ASUS nForce mobo
I am using patch 1.02 of the game.
Every game I play, after about an hour of playing, the game will completely freeze and the entire computer becomes unresponsive. Occassionally the computer will crash to a blue-screen.
This happens without any warning. The game runs perfectly smoothly at the highest resolution and video effects (full model detail, bump, and shading, for planets, buildings and ships. I don't run bloom and I don't use anti-aliasing)
However, after 30 or 45 minutes, at random, the game will freeze. The music keeps running however. Cntrl-alt-delete doesn't work, nor does alt-f4. After shutting down the computer manually (by turning off the computer), the computer won't boot up afterwards.
Can anyone help? I'm currently not playing the game to avoid causing permanent damage to my computer. I'm considering returning the game as defective. Is there anything that I could be doing that's causing this?