Ever since I installed FFXI, there have been several zones or actions that completely freeze on me. Whenever I enter said zones, my computer lags to a less than .1fps rate, lasts about 10 minutes without loading anything, and gives me a timeout message (still lagging when I attempt to press ok). While this is going on, I can still hear the music of the area, but the area itself is not there. These instances are when i enter Ru'Aun Gardens, Arrapago Reef, and anywhere the cutscene music from BLU Flag in Aydeewa plays.
However, I found that I am able to enter said areas if and only if I log completely out of FFXI and turn off my sound card completely. This suggests to me that the problem is Sound card related, but I installed a new one, a Creative SB Audigy 2, and the problem still persists. The game freezes regardless if I have windower up or not, and started before I installed windower as well. Does anyone have any idea what the exact problem is, and how to solve it?