Jenny, have applied the patch (with some difficulty I must say, my anti virus didn't like the site at all) and now have moved on. I am still getting freezing now and then but I was able to get past them to the point I am now in the crypt. I found that if I hit the space bar or the esc key it seemed to unfreeze it. I know that its not totally right yet but am pushing on. When I closed the game I found an error message sitting on my desktop. Interesting. Many thanks for your help with this problem. cheers, Alfoil.