I also have been asked if, after the 'crash' I want to have my color maps recovered from a failed render. I say yes but I am not sure what it does. A funny thing to note, that I forgot yesterday...after the 'crash' , when I re-open my scene, the atmosphere has changed itself. It has turned the decay amount and rate (under atmosphere settings/light/auto decay sunlight) to higher values then I had it set to. I turn the values back down, save the scene then run a render. Sure enough, after the crash, those settings are back up, next time I load the scene. Weird, huh? I never got a chance to try a new render last night, but I will do so tonight. If everything you all have mentioned to me, still fails, I will head your advice Bloodsong, and I will write to e-on. Thanks... Eryk