Here's the issue: While I'm playing UT 2003, the game just goes to a black screen and locks up the computer, and any sound that was playing (e.g. the in-game music or a sound effect) starts skipping and looping at the same time. I was told by a friend that it was an issue with my CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive not being able to read the copy protection on the disk.

Well, I had to, but I got a no-CD crack (yes, I may be evil, but apparently this crack was made to address this problem, as it said to install the game completely...ok sort of), and it seemed to help to solve the problem, but it still locked up (although I was able to play longer before it did lock up). I've tried all options possible, from analog sound, to digital sound in Windows, to all audio options in the game.

So was it possibly the sound card acting up (an SB Live! X-Gamer 5.1 and now recently a SB Audigy 2) or the copy protection issue? I had all my system drivers, including my motherboard BIOS, updated to the latest versions before I even installed the game.

I'm not sure if the newly released patch solves this problem, but seem to doubt it because of the nature of the problem.

Also, just for your benefit, I use WinXP Professional. My motherboard is an ASUS A7V333 (VIA KT333 Chipset).

I'm wondering if anybody's had this problem, because I'm supposedly not the only one.

Thanks for any help! Cause this is really pissing me off!