Help with Civ4

Hi,

Old Civ3 player here who just got his civ4 the other day and has been
playing today. Couple of quick Qs ......

1. It seems to quit for no reason every now and then (without
autosaving) - is there a patch somewhere to fix this (or is this my 18
month old laptop telling me its all too much for it?) ;-/

2. The other characters (isabella etc) appear animated, but without a
head,i.e. I see their clothes, eyes, and teeth but otherwise thin air
..... is this intended?!

Not sure yet what I think of it compared to Civ3 have to say, find the
graphics almost off-putting so far and harder to follow whats
happening, and not being able to move pieces using the cursor keys is a
pain for a laptop user, but maybe I'll get used to it ....