I highly doubt it's my processor, Intel i7 2.20 ghz with 8 cpus.
Just as a point of reference: average processor speeds these days are in the 3-4 ghz range. When I say that computer technology moves fast, I'm not exaggerating.
2.20 ghz puts you just under the minimum specs for processor speed when running it on Windows 7 or Vista. The minimum for running the base game and Showtime
exclusively is 2.4 ghz. If you're running more expansions than Showtime, you're going to need a
slightly faster processor. It's not cumulative (i.e. you don't add the system requirements together), but more background processes require a bit more processor speed.
The amount of resources being used doesn't tell the whole story, since programs using your system resources are throttled by your processor speed. Regardless of what needs to run through your processor, it's only going to run what it's capable of...and that's how it gets backed up.
Imagine a plumbing system with a drain that allows water to pass through it at 1 gallon a minute. If you pour 1 gallons of water into the sink, it will always take i minute for the sink to drain. If you pour water into your sink at a rate of 1 gallon per minute, your drain will be able to keep up. If you pour water in your sink at a rate of 2 gallons per minute, your sink will eventually overflow even if you increase the diameter of your pipes to allow more water to flow through them. Your drain controls the water flow.
Your processor is the drain, all of the other components on your computer are the pipes, and the program you're running is the water you're pouring into the sink. Regardless of what else you have inside your case, information will only ever be processed as fast as your processor allows it to. If you're running a program that needs a faster processor, it's going to "back up" and may even "overflow." When it overflows, you start seeing things like Error 12 and game crashes/freezes.
However, as I've said this is only one of several possible problems. There's no way to actually troubleshoot what's going on over the internet. Other problems could include a faulty install of an expansion or a patch. We're all well aware by now (or at least should be) that you can get a faulty install even if
you do everything the way you're supposed to. It's a complex program, and a bit flaky by it's very nature. This is something you can try to fix yourself.
It could also be the result of a circumstance that is not clearly apparent to me. While everything I know
is still pertinent, my knowledge is a bit dated and as a result, not entirely complete.
However, judging from the evidence I've seen since the release of Late Night and what you've told me about your system specs, my "tipping point" theory still holds as a possibility.
