New Player - Help requested

[Edward Ballsy]

Hello everyone. I'm Ed and I just bought this game 10 days ago and being a fan of anything involving world war 1 or 2 is a must have for me. I'm enjoying this game immensely and I just want to thank UBISOFT for creating this game and Subsim for mantaining a community where I found tons and tons of info!

I recently downloaded Trigger Maru's mod + GFX pack and also the living breathing mod and the silent service 1.2 graphics mod and I installed all of them. Everything runs great except on occassion while in a mission I CTD and have to start all over again or if I remembered to save I just load the saved game.

My PC specs as follows:

AMD Athlon DualCore 64 X2 2.21 GHz
4 Gigabyte of RAM
160 GB SATA drives
Nvidia 8800 GTX graphics card (with latest drivers)
Windows XP Professional (64-bit) operating system (latest service pack)

I have all my graphics settings on maximum since this PC can handle it and even before installing the living breathing oceans mod I was impressed by the graphics and after installing the mod I spent almost an hour just enjoying the scenery!

I need help with the following:

1. Any idea how to stop these random CTD's? I hate to assume that it's the mods that're causing it but my friend told me that mods usually cause CTD's. So, if anyone knows a way to stop the CTD's I'd be thankful for any info.

2. Prior to installing Trigger Maru's mod I had all the nifty camera options and I was recording some videos using Fraps since I'm enjoying the game so much and also it helps me learn the game better. Now, I only see 1 camera option and a radio and gramophone. How can I get the other camera options back? I hope I don't have to uninstall trigger maru to get them back!

3. How do I know how much noise my ship is making after I've ordered for silent running? I am having a lot of difficulty avoiding Destroyers and they almost always sink my Sub . Any tips appreciated.

4. Is there a guide on how to locate enemy convoys etc via Radar and Sonar without having them detect you first? Any tips appreciated.

And lastly anything that you guys can help a noob out with I'd appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

Ed.