ok, well the machine runs 10-20 degrees cooler with the main side of the case off, but still same ol' crap with it on, and with it off, not just with radeon cards im sure, geforces are just as bad, when the game does play i still push over 120fps with everything maxed out on 1024x768, kinda crazy if you ask me..
only other games i play anymore are:
Morrowind
Dark Age of Camelot
Red Faction (just online)
SoF II (well, when it runs :/)
Im Going In
Half Life (just when i get bored and feel like doing some sp action)
Rogue Spear: Urban and Covert Ops expansion (just online)

I already run motherboard monitor. The lockups I am getting are not related to heat. While playing the game the temp never goes above 120 degrees F. I didn't have the lockup problems until after I installed the 1.2 patch. Now I cannot get more than 4 or 5 minutes into the game without it going to a black screen and making a looping sound. All of my drivers are the most current stable releases. I have and IWill XP333 board with an Athlon 1600 XP processor, 1024MB RAM, GeForce4 TI4200 128MB AGP card, trinitron 20"monitor. My system has plenty of cooling. It does not matter whether I run the game at high resolution or low resolution, maximum graphics or minimal graphics, the lockup always happens now to the point that I can't play the #@$#% game!

I have been playing since the game was first released, then patched it to version 1.01 and 1.02. Apart from the occasional crashes I am still able to play the SP and MP mode. (MP is more stable) But now both the SP and MP mode just suddenly locks up on me, I have tried reinstalling and patching the game. SP freezes on the blue screen, while MP loads forever in the black "loading" screen.

I don't know if my upgrading of CPU, Motherboard, RAM and sound card got to do with the game crashes. But I was able to play with no problem for about two week after the upgrading. The problem just came out of nowhere. After reinstalling I was able to play MP for about 10 minutes and the game just suddenly freezes, no way but to hard reset. Think it's the first time MP freeze like that on me. I noticed that PB was updated before the crash. Now can't play SP and MP at all.

MY CPU temperature is usually 47 - 57 degrees C, I have 3 fans running and there is a fan on the CPU itself. What puzzle me is that I have no problem for 2 weeks after I upgraded. After I uninstall SOF2 I even erase related entries in the system registry to have a clean install. I wonder do every gamer who want to play SOF2 have to be a computer expert?

Now the game locks up before it's even loaded. I have play on pb and non-pb severs and there's no problem before the locks up. I don't know about checking my GPU but thinks there's enough AGP memory(checked with some utility). I just don't know what to do now... And the Activision support system doesn't help anything at all.

My system:
Pentium 4 2.4Hz, MSI 845PE mainboard, 256MB DDRAM(one strip only), Sound Blaster Audigy sound card. Elsa GeForce2 32MB MX, Windows98 SE.

Btw I have no problem playing other FPS like RTCW, MOHAA, Half-Life and SOF1.

What really burns my grits is that I paid $49.95 for this POS software title.  It's not heat related.  It's not a figment of some folks imagination.  I'm a network administrator for a major university, and I've been in the computer field for over 20 years.  I know all about IRQs, PCI Steering, det drivers etc.  My system is up to date for all of my drivers.  I bught this game 6 months ago, it crashed then, and every couple months I'll reinstall it to see if it got fixed, and it's STILL hosed.

I'll NEVER purchase another raven software title ever again, if their ignoring this problem for this long is how they do business.

I'm also having the same problems.  I get hard freezes very soon after starting the game.

My Setup:
Athalon 2100
Radeon 9700 Pro (with latest ATI-produced drivers)
Audigy 2 Platinium (with latest drivers)
Soyo Platinium Ultra MB (with latest drivers)
Windows XP (fully updated as of today)

I've fully patched the game, I've run the game with the lowest video settings, with the highest video setting, with almost every frigging configeration I could think of.  Ive used the onboard sound on the MB, I've used the card, I've changed all the sound settings around.  The end result?  Its not my system.  The temperature is very low.  I'm using a Dragon Orb and 4 chassis fans as well as PCI slot fan and my temperature never gets too high in either my video card or processor.  I never even tried overclocking anything for this game.  Safe to say, I'm not at all convinced about the logic behind the insistence here that "its YOU not the game."  Just because SOME people run this game fine doesn't mean its not full of bugs.  I don't have any problems with any of my other games which include a very very long list.  I'm ready to give up on this game at this point.  Any final suggestions?

I have been getting and troubleshooting a Visual C++ Runtime error lockup I get after playing for several minutes. It only occurs when I have the newer 4x.xx series Detonator drivers installed. When I am using the older 3x.xx Detonators, the error message and lockup do not occur.
Although I must admit it does act like a heat related issue, I would tend to believe that it is a Video Card heat issue rather than a CPU heat issue. That is my guess anyway. Since the 4x.xx series drivers are optimized, I am sure they are working the GPU harder causing it to run hotter.
What does anyone else think?

Good place to start. Try leaving your side cover off and maybe blowing a fan in there. If that solves it then try a slot cooler under the vid card. I use one myself.

There are a lot of people that are knowledgeable about computers that can't figure this one out.  Hardware issues are so much easier to solve than software....yet we keep pointing the finger at the hardware.  What the problem is...is that we are trying to accomodate the flaws in the software by reconfiguring out hardware to be more flexible.  Removing a stick of ram because sof2 can't read from 2 banks at the same time properly...really not a feasible solution..how about the software gets programmed right.  

Amazing how the lockups cannot be reproduced in other programs..only sof2.  Yes an aging game in comparison to the technology is somehow pushing the hardware to much.  My friend has a p3 700 mhz system that plays the game with no prob...but my boss p4 2.8 ati radeon 9700 pro, sb audigy2, 1 gb kingston ddr 333, or corsair ddr 400...tried them both.....system can't run it without a crash...yep..must be because sof2 pushes my system too hard...that is farging hilarious.  Yes it is my hardware because my computer hasn't crashed once...not once when I was using it for other games and programs....not once...but it regularly crashes on sof2...yes it truly is my hardware.  We are not that stupid, and the thousands that complain don't go unnoticed...if you expect to sell more games and not ruin the activision/ravensoft name anymore then it has..then start admitting that you are encountering conflicts that you are working on and hope that people will be patient, but all this blame on the user is ridiculous...most of the people in here have built their own computers...and know enough to solve driver problems....this is just getting so absurd that it is angering me.  

"Thousands that complain"?

Nevermind all the problems with alot of this new hardware. Go read some tech forums and maybe you'll get a clue.