Stuck In The Serpent Temple~Literally

I have not completed the total Serpent Temple and wanted to take my characters back to Ishad N'ha to sell off some staffs, repair a sword or two and stock up on a few heal poison potions as my priest is not level 4 yet in vine magic, however when I backtracked to the area in which I first entered, when I click on the lever, it flips and I get a window that says loading please wait but I could sit here til next week and nothing further would happen. There is no "busy" cursor, just the one you would normally see while playing.
It essentially locks up my whole system.
This requires hitting the re-set button on my tower, waiting for scan disk to check my drives for errors (if I skip this part, the game crashes on start-up) and loading up my saved game to try again only to have the same thing hapen over & over.
I installed the patch, however it made no mention of this being any kind of glitch in the game and I am wondering now (I have been at this for over an hour...even an older saved game will not let me out) what the heck happened.
Am I going to have to un-install & re-install the game?
Patiently Awaiting Words of Wisdom,
Moni
(thanks)

At some point you can use the front door. Is that
where the problem is or is it at the back entrance
you get to by swimming? Whatever, try the other way?

I have a similar problem when quitting the game -
computer hangs and only a reset does anything. I was
once told to stop all unnecessary programs running
in the background. It didn't help me, but maybe it
will help you?

I was wondering if at some point if that way out (the back way) would become obsolete especially since I have cruised through almost the whole map but I came here for help after an old saved game in The Serpent Temple did the same thing (I had not even gone as far as talking to the Wizard Krueg in that one).
I'll try the front door & if that does not work, I'll try re-installing albeit that is going to be a pain in the ass with the time it takes. Well I guess my cats prolly need fed or something, haha. (j/k)
I sometimes have a problem with the game locking up when I try to load or quit a game but I never dreamed I would get stuck inside anywhere with no way out!
I do shut down everything running in the background before I even start he game.
I learned THAT one from playing Might & Magic, lol.
Thanks for your advice, I'll try the front door...wish me luck!
Moni