Nvidia Geforce 7950 GT
Windows Vista Ultimate - V6 SP2 (32 bit)

My DirectX Diagnostics
http://pastebin.com/m3dbe557f

I am yet to successfully reach character creation screen. There is no error, nor crash, just consistently disconnects after pressing "new federation character". All previous stages proceed as normal eg. retrieve character list.

It doesn't seem to be due to server load as i have tried at-least 40 times today.

Fixes attempted:
1. run as admin
2. installed latest Nvidia driver
3. changed to windowed mode

Anyone else experiencing this issue? Any work arounds?
More than happy to supply with any other information.

Try selecting "Safe Mode" from the STO launcher. That was the only way I was able to complete the character creation process. After I created the character, I was able to select it from the first screen then play the game without any issues - at least until the inevitable server downtime. ;-)