I tried your suggestions and it still freezes in the same place, at a transition. I will try deleting the wipe and just use the standard fade. I am not rendering a huge file but the source material is huge. I am creating a trailer from many long clips. I am trying ti render to a wmv. I will try rendering the way you explained.
I also did a clean reinstall I got the instructions from
I do so many clips that this step would be a huge time issue. I tried recovering my PC to the last day it was working properly and it is working again. I think it is an issue with one of the Latest XP updates.