For those having strange issues with D2
 

I replaced my DvD rom and magically most of my issues are gone. Apparently my loading issue was completely related to Securom not being compatible with my old DVD player (this game and Dragon Age both had issues with securom and my dvd player). The devs said they had some strange intentional game behavior for people who warez the game or use no-cd hacks, but it's sad for players like me who had a legit (Steam) copy and still had to upgrade my dvd player to use the game without issue.

That is odd that it impacted the Steam copy. And also … didn't these guys hear about Titan Quest? No matter if the CAUSE of crashes is pirating, all folks hear about is the crashes and think it is a buggy game …