There are several different things.

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If you have RTW, then only patch 1.5 is for you. Patch 1.6 is for BI (apply 1.6 to 1.4 only).

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That can happen on occasion. The way to fix it the easiest is to just load a recent save and replay. Often, the CTD is a result of a rare combination of unit(s) in a certain location(s), and movement being blocked, that leads to an internal crash. The CTD is the way XP protects your OS.

Another way, if you determine for instance that the CTD occurs when you enter city XYZ it to wait a turn or two, and the internal issue that causes the crash will often not exist after the associated unit(s) or event(s) somewhere in the map are altered.

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That is an unrelated crash.

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The reinstall was unnecessary, based on what you posted.

Further, you need not replay to get past the tutorial. Using Notepad, you can change a setting in your preferences.txt file (its in yout RTW directory) from TRUE to FALSE, like this (its in line 58):

FIRST_TIME_PLAY:FALSE

It is a good idea to always back up a file you are going to edit manually!

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OK, what has happened is you are mixing savegame versions with installed patch versions. You cannot do that, after 1.2.

- If you save a game in RTW 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2, you can load/play that save in 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, as well as 1.5 & 1.6.
- If you save a game in RTW 1.3, it will load/play in 1.3 or 1.4. Supposedly it will play in 1.5/1.6.
- If you save a game in BI (1.4), it will load/play in 1.4 or 1.6.
- If you save a game in RTW 1.5, it will load/play in 1.5/1.6.
- If you save a game in BI (1.6), it will load/play in 1.6.

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The Polish version has different files. One file has a defect. That defect does not exist in the English version. You can never mix language versions of RTW.

So that's whats going on... several things. It does not seem like it is hardware or OS issue, based on your descriptions.

Added a matrix of savegame compatibility to the Patch 1.5 thread, here.