I've been watching this forum since the release of P5 trying to find some pattern as to people having problems and those who are not. No luck. It was driving me nuts 'til a friend told me it's the protection system you used. He said that system is known throughout the industry as causing the most problems for users but he couldn't shed any light on why some people seem to be problem-free. He also said my troubles would probably lessen--if not stop--if I used a 'crack,' which I will not do. Now the patch is out and it seems to be the same thing: some are having major trouble and some aren't. Some who didn't have trouble before have it now, so maybe my friend is correct. One user in a recent thread said that even his Avatar Lab started acting up after applying the P5 patch. Doesn't Avatar Lab use the same protection scheme? So I guess my questions are, 1. Is my friend correct about the protection you used? 2. Could the protection be the culprit with the major problems such as program freezes and the BSOD? 3. Did you do something to the scheme in the patches? If so, what was it and why? 4. Is it true that people who use a 'crack' won't have a lot of these problems? 5. Is there going to be another full patch? I won't run the patch as is because of the trouble people are reporting. Right now P5 at least loads for me, even though I can't use the face room. Thanks in advance.