My set up is as follows:
ASUS a7N8X Deluxe
AMD2600+
ATI 9800
1 Gig of RAM
I had frequent shut downs and then found this thread. The vertex addition to the KOTOR2.ini file fixed the entire issue so far. Why the KOTOR patch can not simply find out that an ATI card is in use and simply add this line into the .ini file is beyond me....