general VC modding problems

[DarthBinks]

I've been trying to mod VC to exactly the way I want it for about 3 weeks now, and it always gets to a point where I'm finally happy with what I have installed, but the game gets EXTREMELY unstable. I started off this time with Killerkips mod and changed around most cars and weapons, and I used various textures from other stuff. FYI I'm using WinXP Pro SP2, 1 GB of RAM, Radeon 9600, 1.8Ghz P4 Dell Demension 4300. It might not be important but I'm using GTAGarage Mod Manager 2.1 to install vehicles and weapons.

 

I ALWAYS end up fighting unhadled exceptions which happens about 15 mins after I start playing and about 30min if I play on 640x480 with all my ATI card settings at minimum. Then it seems to pick some point in the game where it gives an unhandled exception every time like some specific place on the map or point in time in a mission. It's differant every time and I have to go and start a new game.

 

My point is that I noticed that when I tried to organize my weapon.dat by giving column headings for each weapon group and lining all the columns up, the game was almost unplayable. Could the Mod Manager be screwing up files (handling?) like that when I use it? Would installing all the handling lines manually help? I'm running out of ideas and sanity...