EVE Online Woes

I'm taking a bit of a break (yes, another one) from playing WoW since the new coat of paint they call Wrath of the Lich King still can't cover up the rust that is the same level-gear-raid (or pvp) grind that has been in place since day one. This time, I decide to go back and give EVE Online another shot, since I love the concept of the game and its vastly different from the typical MMO architecture.

I'm having a couple issues though, which will likely cause me to cease playing if they persist.

1) This probably somehow has to do with the fact that my computer is four years old (maybe close to five now), but at random times while I'm playing EVE, the game will appear to freeze (although music and sound effects keep going) and my mouse will only move horizontally, not vertically. Then, a few seconds later, my monitor will go black, then the "No signal" message will appear on the screen, like if I have the monitor on but not the PC. At this point, there's nothing I can do, I have to hard reboot the PC, then everything is fine again until the next time that happens.

This doesn't happen in WoW, it doesn't happen in any regular non-MMO games and it doesn't happen during non-gaming sessions. It appears to only happen while playing EVE, even though the game runs great most of the time. Video drivers are up-to-date and there's a fairly new video card in there, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Its incredibly annoying and, given the type of game EVE is, has the possibility to cause me to lose a lot of time and in-game currency if it happens in a battle situation or in low-sec space.

2) Agent missions in EVE are insane. I did research for several days, purchased a ship that veterans recommended, outfitted it the way they recommended it. I'm mostly interested in the mining and industrial side of the game, but I wanted a ship that could handle NPC combat missions, as well. So, now I have my ship and its outfitted with stuff that I see recommended for my current skill set. I try one combat mission (from an agent in the field of mining, no less). I can't handle myself, I last for a while but I eventually have to skedaddle before I lose my ship.

Ok, so that mission wasn't working out, let's try another. Forced me to kill at least a dozen ships at each of three different locations...and they kept coming and it would take forever for me to kill them. Although, I did survive fairly well (their damage was pitiful, for the most part, even with multiple ships attacking me at once), it took me over two hours to clear three waves of ships. Then, three more "boss" ships spawned at the end, and were hurting me pretty bad, and I couldn't damage them faster than they were damaging me and I had to run.

So, what gives? There is no marking of how difficult a mission is when you accept it, no indication that I need to join a gang to complete the mission (like WoW's group quests), they were all Level 1 missions which, I thought, were the easiest of them all, I have a ship that is supposedly one of the best to handle those missions, outfitted in the best way...and I still fail miserably. Do I just suck, or does this game have a larger difficulty curve than I expected?

I might stick around a bit longer, to see what I can do. I enjoy mining, but it does get boring after a while and, until I learn some more ship-piloting skills, I can't upgrade to the mining ship I want, so I figured I'd bum around with missions in the meantime. Apparently I can't handle combat missions and I can't find any non-combat or very light combat missions, they all throw me into the fray with waves upon waves of a dozen ships and I have no idea what to do or how to handle them.