Ah, another day, another problem

I have a programme that deals specifically with resourcing, that has reached about 6000 lines so far, with more to come. each task has between 1 and 3 resources allocated to it, along with recurring tasks (generally over a period of 1-3 weeks).
I have one large resource (asphalt tonnage) which tends to be around 50-300 units per day, and is a key part of the programme. Viewing the resource graph, I should be getting from 700-1400 units per day, over a year long programme. What I tend to see is a blank graph, followed by Project crashing out for an unspecified reason. If i try and view other resources these tend to be OK, but at some point I KNOW it will crash out.
My assumption is that the number of activities and resources are killing Project- it has gone past the point it can handle. I ran th eprogramme on Project 2010, wich seemed much stabler- can anyone confirm if this is the case? the resource handling seemed a lot stabler.
Second question is related to the first. If I use a split screen to show resource chart and Gantt chart, the only items showing in the gantt are those that use the resource- if I am tracking asphalt, I would see first layer asphalt, 2nd layer asphalt, but not other items such as white lining, traffic management etc, nor the drop down header. Is there a way of achieving this in Project 2007, or if not, can 2010 deal with it? I would prefer to upgrade to 2010, but my company is loath to spend money (on planning at least) unless I can say "yes - it does this better".
Sorry for the long post, any help gratefully received