I personally have tried both 16-bit and 32-bit for my desktop color settings and it still crashes at the same point for me either way. EQ's resolution doesn't seem to matter, either, for me.
If you want to use EQEMu WITHOUT EQW, the command line you want is, "eqgame.exe patchme". I use a little file called nopatch.bat whose contents are basically this:
@echo off
eqgame.exe patchme
All it does is bypass the patch server, which is all you really need. You'll be running in "normal" fullscreen mode, but it'll work fine. I often use this technique on "real" EQ to bypass the wait for the patch server to scan my EQ files. It can be very important to log back in fast if you crash to desktop during a raid (or need to reset your connection) and with my crappy 56kbps connection, I need all the help I can get

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Hope this helps
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http://www.gameroom.com/1010101)