I don't know anything, but I found something saying that the game has issues with multi-core CPUs. The trick is to start the game, tab out, and set the processor affinity to a single processor.
In case you're like Shiny and have forgotten everything you once knew about PCs....
start game
alt-tab to your desktop
hit ctrl-shift-escape to bring up task manager (or right-click the task bar and choose task manager... or hit ctrl-alt-delete and choose task manager)
In the processes tab, find the kotor process... it'll probably be called swkotor.exe.
right click it and choose 'set affinity'
uncheck all but one box and hit ok
close task manager
tab back into your game
that should work. You have to set affinity every time you launch the game... there's no way to automate it.