It seems I've run into a bit of a snag with BGII and its sending me up the wall. I know that there are patches to help with some of the problems in BGII when running it in XP but none of the solutions seem to be helping any. When the short clips play when you start the game up, they play real slow, almost like a slideshow effect. Also I have black bars on the sides of the screen, the picture gets smushed. If anyone knows how to get around all this then I'd be grateful, if not then its back to the drawing board. (With a lot more shouting)

What I have heard on this problem is this:
1. Download and install all video drivers (from card manufacturer not Microsoft)
2. Download all game patches.
3. If they don't work, tune down the graphics to not include 3D effects. It slows down because of the game engine sometimes, not the cpu.

Hope that helps.