Crashing when opening SL map

Hi

sorry in case I ask something that has been discussed before - I cannot find posts about it as "map" is not a searchable term...

Anyway, since the 1.7 Update I almost always crash when I open the map. Most often in areas with much graphical details.

To be precise, it's not just SL freezing but my internet connection is also being disabled!
I'm on broadband, behind a router and have a pretty fast system (Athlon 64 3000+, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 6600 GT) . I'm not really good at this tech stuff but will try and post more details if it's of any use.

Is any of you having problems like this, too? Any ideas about possible reasons?

Thanks a lot and merry christmas!
Anna

Been having some annoying crashing to latly, deleted cache few hours ago seemed to help , as i went back to some places that constant crashed me (7-8 times if i looked a certain direction)

Might be a shot in the dark, but you can try it

manually delete
C:\Documents and Settings\**yourlogin**\Application Data\SecondLife\cache\*.*
in game delete
Preference - Network - Clear cache, *restart SL*