Help!! Medieval Total War 2 problem

Hi all

I have windows vista and have been playing MTW2 for some months on it, but
all of a sudden it froze. I had to do a hard shutdown and then I could not
open it (got the following message: "A problem has caused the program to stop
working correctly"). I uninstalled, reinstalled and still could not open it
(same message). I downloaded the "final patch" and, though I now get the new
window for starting the game, I still get the same message above when I try
to load it.

Anyone have any insights?? Please!

kbq