So i was playing yesterday and i had a couple of CTD's. I know these things happen sometimes, and there are usually 2 causes:

1. There is a mod problem, an error message about missing textures/meshes which cause the game to crash.
2. Or just a simple CTD, usually because i have been playing too long or in areas that require more processor power. This usually comes complete with "Morrowind has encountered a problem and needed to close etc etc."

No. 2 happened once, but then there were 2 more crashes, but they were different. Instead of slowing down/freezing before the crash, the game just ended, the disc stopped spinning. There was no error message, and no "Morrowind has encountered a problem". It just stopped. The first time i thought it was just a regular CTD, but the second time, which came only after 15 mins or so of playing, i became more concerned. My initial thoughts are that it is the disc, because it just stopped spinning and there were no error/bug report messages (in fact, there isn't even a warnings.txt in my MW directory). The disc is a couple of years old, and has a few scratches, and it does make some odd noises when im powering the game up (it whirs, then stops, then whirs again for about 4-5 times). If its the disc, no problem, i'll go to the shops today or tomorrow and replace it, but i just wanted to be sure because i don't want to spend money on something i didn't need.

Thanks.

That sounds more like a problem with the CD-Rom itself.
Does it work fine with other CDs in there?

We replaced the CD-ROM a month or two ago. It seems to be fine with other discs in there.

Now i have another problem, a strange kind of box is appearing on my screen, not like a windowed box, just an outline on the side of my screen that kind of cuts through the graphics.

My warnings.txt now reads:
Texture "Textures\_land_default.tga" count 3.
Texture "Textures\Tx_WG_road_01.tga" count 3.
Texture "Textures\Tx_A_Silver_cuir_duke01.dds" count 4.
Texture "Textures\menu_thick_border_bottom_right_corner.dds" count 2.

?