I just bought iwd2 since I do so enjoy playing games at the height of their popularity while their parent companies are still willing to give technical support...let alone still exist (ok sorry, done dispensing with sarcasm).

After installing iwd2 (full install) I fired it up to play, everything goes fine until I reach the main menu where the mouse freezes and the computer just plain stops responding. From here all I can do is restart, I can't figure out for the life of me why this is happening.
My specs are as follows:
win2k (dual booted with mandrake linux)
DFI ak75-ec mainboard with amd athlon 950 and 256 mb RAM, chipset and onboard audio is VIA (yes I have the newest drivers from VIAarena)
video is geforce3 ti with most recent drivers

now, I haven't had problems with other games from a similar era, neverwinter nights for example runs without a hitch as does halflife. I'm pretty much stumped at this point. About a year ago I bought a copy of the original baldurs gate (having only played the second one) and had had another freezing problem...perhaps black isle and my current system just don't mix.
any ideas?

There are known issues with IWD2 if you have the VIA chipset... Maybe try using older drivers for it. I can't really think of anything else unfortunately.