While playing Sins, the interface displays and buttons blink in and out of existence.  Sometimes all units in a planet's gravity well disappear for long time.  I've noticed that units vanish almost exclusively on volcanic and desert planets.  On on game I was playing the entire solar system disappeared, including planets, ships, and stars.

The game resolution is at its lowest setting, and I've lowered the detail on many objects and still the problem persists.  I've had this problem since I installed the game out of the box and after applying the 1.17 patch.  Any clues as to why thia is happening and how to remedy it would be greatly appreciated.

My machine has 3gb RAM, and a 2.1gHz dual-core processor.  I'm not too sure about the graphics card, but I believe it's 256mb

I'll post any additional specs or info as requested.