Random Crashing on TMO

[f4wildweasel]

Alright so let me just say that if there's another thread about this where the problem has been solved, please give me the link to it and that would be that. I tried searching for this (with varying levels of details) and didn't seem to find any threads describing this problem.

Ok so here's my issue: I recently downloaded and activated TMO 2.0 and the 2.1 patch. Everything looks good: game menu opens and is clearly no longer stock SH4, I start a new campaign and I see the new rendering on the water and the increased radio traffic that's fun to read (no longer 5 billion contact reports a minute), and I start my patrol. A few minutes in, as I'm approaching a task force, the game freezes, the audio cuts, the screen goes black, and then it resumes to my desktop and it says "SH4.exe has stopped working" etc.
So I boot it up again and a similar thing happens (Asiatic Fleet December '41, fyi, but this problem is also happening to me out of Pearl, Midway, and Mare Island). It is infrequent enough that as long as I save regularly, I'm still able to complete patrols (a couple rather successful ones, I may add. There are a couple prime SCUBA spots that were once aircraft carriers in the Bismark Sea, if you catch my drift) but there are usually two or three CTDs by the time I get back to base. Like I said, infrequent enough that it's still playable if I save regularly, but it's also a bit annoying, and I hope it can be fixed.

My hypotheses: I'm pretty sure it has to do with my computer, and not a bad download. The crashes are sometimes triggered by certain events (such as deploying a raft full of supplies or docking at a port to refill on diesel. Other times I can perform these actions just fine... except the raft suddenly explodes...) while other times the game will crash when I'm out on the open sea just cruising (though it is possible that there was a ship or aircraft that was about to pop up on radar or sonar, and this could have acted as a trigger). I set the game to "run as administrator" (yeah, yeah Vista I know) and that seemed to lessen the frequency a little bit, but not a whole lot (perhaps one or two crashes per patrol instead of two or three). It might also be a hardware problem. My computer's moving on in years and my video card likes to go hiking every now and then. I hope it's the former and not the latter, as software and OS problems tend to be easier (and cheaper) to solve.

Alright, so here are some details about my machine and the game.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz (2 CPUs)
RAM: 2GB (maybe not enough for TMO to run properly? It runs perfectly smoothly in the time between launch and crash.)
OS: Windows Vista, SP 1 I think
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (though it also has the infamous "nvlddmkm" problem...)
SH4: Version 1.5 (U-Boat Missions add-on)
TMO 2.0 activated with JSGME followed by the 2.0-2.1 patch. No mods active on the game before TMO.

So I think I covered all the bases here... if I forgot anything, please let me know and I'll provide it ASAP!
Thanks in advance,
f4