System Lockup

[bovi]

Thanks, unfortunately there is nothing wrong in the validation so no help there. The changed files are just the fixes (which you've installed correctly) and the extras you installed, all of which do not affect the installation.

So that leaves these possible solutions, I think (from the validation post):

_ Add -nm to the shortcut. This disables movies. Using an NVidia 8xxx graphics card? No movies for you, you will probably HAVE to add this switch. If you have installed the Trivial Script, you will not have to change the shortcut, but rather just tick the box that disables movies.
_ Add -ne to the shortcut (and in combination with -nm too). This makes the game windowed. No idea why this would work, but in one case it did.
_ Delete some interfering files that Vista hides in its bowels. These are reported to be in C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Totalwar, at least in one instance where it helped.
_ For Vista users, install RTW and EB in a folder outside of "program files". This means changing the default location! You can also try to simply move the RTW installation, but you may be missing some files, so installation is the safest bet.
_ Add more swap space in Windows, and other technical measures you can take
_ Got an ATI Radeon X700 graphics card? Apparently some setting called "Support DXT textures format" is creating problems. Try to change this setting for the driver called "Support DXT textures format". Try it if you've got any ATI card, really.
_ Try to upgrade your graphics drivers. If it still doesn't work, try to downgrade them.
_ For ATI graphics cards: I'm currently using 6-10_xp-2k_dd_36790.exe as my driver, and have no problems. Downgrading to this has helped at least one other person to get EB to work. Another reports that ATI Catalyst 9.3 fixes his issues.
_ Using Nero Burning ROM? This interferes with RTW. You need to either uninstall (which is easiest) or find and rename Nero's NeVideo.ax and NeAudio.ax files.
_ Try to copy the settings found here into both <RTW>/EB/preferences/player.txt and <RTW>/EB/preferences/preferences.txt.

Additionally, I would run Memtest overnight to be sure you don't have any faulty memory.