I just wanted to jump in here with a possible solution to the crashing randomly issue. 

I have an alternate exe file for my game to avoid dealing with needing to use the dvd to play *ahem* and I found that it would crash randomly but most often during build or buy mode.  I found that if I completely disconnect from the net, unplug the LAN cable from the back of the computer, then it doesn't crash.  Hypothesis is that the crash is caused by EA trying to call home and the executable not letting it.

I'm curious if this works for anybody else, let me know.