Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this, but there's no tech forum to post to.

Hardware is at least at recommended level, running windows xp 64 bit, Avast virus, spybot.

Had trouble with DLing the client all along - DL would hang up at 38.1 mb. Couldn't post to forum because I didn't yet have an avatar. Emailed support but never got a reply. Eventually tried DLing in safe mode and managed to DL and install client.

On starting the game, it would tend to hang up on "connecting to dataserver..." and require windows task manager to end unresponsive program. But, if repeated often enough would eventully find a connection and game would run in stable fashion thereafter.  After failures to connect, would sometimes also give me "Perpettum crash recovery" pop-up report box, which also always hung up (wouldn't submit or cancel - buttons were dead, crash reports were generated in the perpetuum folder, though).

Was out of town since the 12th (before the patch).  Tried to start game tis morning and it connected right away and tried to DL patch.  Patch DL hung up at ~4 mb and I eventually had to quit unresponsive client with task manager.  When I tried to start client again, I got the crash report pop up, which seemed to actually work now (OK and cancel buttons actually work now), but as soon as it submitted the report (or cancelled) it disappeared and the client never started up. Attempted to start client numerous times always with same result. The report is generated and submitted, but the client never starts up.  Tried a system restore to before the first failed attempt to patch but still just get the pop-up.  Tried starting the game in safe mode, but it's looking for directx and tells me to start game in safe mode (perpetuum.exe - safe) which doesn't seem to exist on the computer (run command can't find it, or perpetuum.exe for that matter).

Any suggestions for what I can try short of uninstalling the whole game and DLing client all over again in safe mode for a clean install (would hate to have to do that every time there's a patch).

Thanks in advance for any help people can give me to get the client running (and the patch DLing smoothly).