Greetings to you old Morrowind dinosaurs!

While playing Morrowind again on Win7-64, I encountered a problem which I didn't have on WinXP/2000. In approx. 50% of all cases, switching from "explore" to "battle" music results in a freeze. This can be while I'm attacked myself or other NPCs start fighting or simply a cliffracer shows up and decides to say hello.

My first thought: some kind of codec issue like Fallout 3 and the MAD-Filter thing. I tried to disable numerous codecs via the "installedcodec", "zoomplayer" & "codectweaktool", but it didn't seem to work or this isn't the solution. Reinstalled the music folder again, nothing.

Then I deleted and reinstalled my soundcard drivers (Creative X-Fi Fatality), nothing changes.
I deleted the whole "battle" folder in "music" with the result, that while fighting, the "explore" music is being played instead and also changes to another track when attacked. But then finally it crashes as well. Maybe not that fast, but it crashes also. Disabling MGE XE does nothing, only disabling the music itself via menu. So the change of music / the music itself has to be the problem.

I have MOSG3.0 as well as MGEXE .9.9. System is C2D6850 + 4G DDR3 + SB X-Fi Fatality on Win7 64. Drivers all new. I can't quite get it how this belongs together, but the only solution is turning off the music, which of course is unacceptable. It seems that somehow the "delay" while changing music is too large or somehow it is executed too fast - or I dunno. Switching from hardware to software mode makes it crash slightly less, but it's not the solution. I also noticed in critter-filled locations like the Balmora Underground mod, that the freeze often appears with the 4th switch of music (explore/battle). But I think the music is always different. I tried to leave just 1 file in the folder, no chance.

The warnings.txt file is empty. Standard player is WMP.

I found some threads on the net and even here with similar problems, but no one seems to have resolved them for good. At least no one posted it, so if someone found something then please share your wisdom!

Maybe someone here can help? Thanks a lot!

Seems like you covered a lot of the ideas I had, so my next thought is always this... Does it happen without any mods?

Make a second install, pure vanilla, and see what happens.
At least it will narrow down if mods are a factor.

And, as always, having MW installed in Program Files with Win7 is never a good idea.

It's installed on a second hdd.

It is reproducible without mods but with mge xe.

It is (sigh) NOT reproducible without mods and without mge xe (disabled via launcher).

So, a first hint might point to mge xe. But how is that connected to the music system. As far as I know, it does not change any music or sounds.

Or maybe my rig is simply too weak to cope with all the mods AND mge?

Man, I've got even more questions now...

Have you tried without MGE installed?