I am just a gamer like yourself. But I ran/finished (OS - XP SP3) the game without encountering your problem (major problem) but I had alot of minor problems.
I would suggest the following:
1) Uninstall the Game.
2) Uninstall your video driver and PhysX drivers
3) Run a registry cleaning program ( LIke CCLEANER it is free )
4) Reinstall you video driver( Up to Date ) and PhysX drivers
5) Reinstall the Game.
6) Reinstall the game patch 1.3
7) Make sure you have your directX updated through the game installation and game patch.
Things to Consider:
1) Computers need maintence - just like a car.
2) If your video card has the minimum amout of memory required by the game - I would not expect much as far as performance or frame rate. If you have 256 memory on your video card - you should be able to support PhysX. If you have less than 256 memory on your video card? - I would not even attempt to try and install this game and get it to run.
3) Realtek is the type of on-board sound that you have. Updates for this sound card can be found on Realtek's site.
4) Make sure your windows OS is updated as well.
5) Make sure you do not have alot of programs running in the background, TURN OFF FIREWALL & ANTIVIRUS.
Hope this Helps.
