Welcome to the boards, Laughing Rogue
May life in the Gael Serran soon move forward...
Are you really running DirectX 6? I didn't think that XP came with anything less than 8... or perhaps 9. Run dxdiag and see what it says.
Following on that, are you running patched or not? The patch fixed a perpetual glitch for me in Shurugeon Castle... not the same one you've got, but I couldn't leave it.
And have you done all the things in the first page of this thread? Setting virtual memory, disabling non-essential programs, defragging, and such?
You might want to post this as a separate thread so everyone notice.... and write back, soon!
BTW, nice new tip, Kakero! I may have to try that one...