Game freezing and crashing often

[Qrsu]

Sorry if this post is vague and/or if the problems were addressed before and I'm too ignorant to find them. Let me explain my situation:

I formatted my PC a few days ago after it became infected with a virus. After formatting and reinstalling windows(xp 32-bit) I updated my drivers as per usual, I went to SP3 and followed the steps for AMD x2 processor optimization Skuzzy explained in one of his stickies. The only things that I run while flying are Saitek's ProfileU for my stick, TrackIR 4.1.37 and sometimes Teamspeak. I disable my firewall and anti-virus software while I'm in game.

The problems I encounter are random and sporadic:

-Spinning clipboard on startup
-Spinning clipboard after exiting an arena
-Clipboard doesn't load on startup(first startup AHII)
-Game freezes when entering an arena
-Game freezes when ending sortie
-Game freezes when dying(see end sortie)
-Game freezes when joining a plane flown by someone else

I restart my PC when these problems occur but it seems to only fix them temporarily or sometimes not at all... It's strange because before I had the virus+reformatted I was not having these issues.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Skuzzy]

The AMD optimizer does not fix all AMD X2 CPU's, for some reason.  When that happens the only recourse is to run the game in "Windows 98/Windws ME" compatibility mode.

Right-click on the Aces High II startup icon, select "Properties", then select the "Compatibility" tab.  Check the option to run the application in compatibility mode, and select "Windows 98/Windows ME" from the drop down list.

[Qrsu]

I went that route and so far it seems to have fixed the problem. Thank you. 

On that note - are there any downsides to running in compatability mode?

[Denholm]

The game doesn't process data as quickly. However, I don't think it's noticeable.

[Skuzzy]

The compatibility mode is just a quick way to force the operating system to keep the game from running on more than one CPU.