I'm running the game on an hp entertainment laptop with windows vista. I do not currently have the expansion packs.

Every time I send a freighter to a planet, it tells me I've established trade, and a white bar appears across the to of the screen. then it disappears, I get another message regarding trade, (not an error message,) then the the turn button disappears, and the game is frozen. All I can do is hit the start button on my keyboard and close the game once it's minimized.

will expansion packs or patches fix the game?