TimotheusTJB said:
I used the search and put "this topic" and did find one concerning a similar issue, but didn't see a way to fix the problem. Will try some of the suggestions later. Currently my sister is on the laptop so I can't right now. If I'm not able to fix it using the suggestions above ill modify this post and let you know.
I had the problem
but it went away turn off blood,vertical sync your monitor turn off hdr
if you have a ATI video card follow Treebreads advice on the stikied section
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,147936.0.html
You will find that the runtime problem is connected to memory
these helped me
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,131274.0.html
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,127609.0.html
THis advice from Treebeard turned the corner for me
Turn off HDR (and environmental shadows), but also turn off all blood (in the pre-launch menu before where you select module to play thee is a Configure option). In Configure, check the Hide Blood option. You have an HD5870? Do you have any anti-virus program running in the background. Turn it off for testing purposes. It's not necessarily your graphics that causes the freezes. Have you updated your sound drivers too? In the configure window in pre-launch, disable sound and music to see if your sound has anything to do with it.
Also, if you by chance have "force single-threading" on, then turn it off. Furthermore, I'd set the video options in the configure window to force vertical sync and have pixel shaders checked too. The other video options can be unchecked.
If you have any other unnecessary programs running in the background I'd turn them off.
I hope this helps