Vista - Gears of War PC crashes at splash screen

recently purchased Gears of War and a few other games, Crysis, Helgate
London, Orange Box etc..
All of the other games runs fine on my PC, but Gears of War crashes at the
start up splash screen after you click on the play button

The error message is "Gears of War has stopped working" then it collects
info to call home to Microsoft
I have not had the game successfully start up at all.
I reinstalled it to no avail
I downloaded the GOW updates but that does not resolve the issue at all
I cannot get past the splash screen...
I tried to us Microosft support but they are asking for a PID, and I cannot
get the PID because I cannot get into the game at all, and I will not pay
the
cost of the game for support
I get the same crash message when I both windows without loading any of the
non essential services and no startup programs so it's not an antivirus
issue

This is the info from Vista Problem Reports and Solutions

Problem
Stopped Working

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: wargame-g4wlive.exe
Application Version: 1.0.3339.131 --> Alo have reports with app Version
1.0.3340.131 and 1.0.3329.131
Application Timestamp: 472f77b3
Fault Module Name: kernel32.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a81d
Exception Code: e06d7363
Exception Offset: 0002f35f
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 541c
Additional Information 2: fea38bb7112247ac4fb62d4f4cf85987
Additional Information 3: 2206
Additional Information 4: a7c5d438f4cbc5ba45f9aa4eb66f39


This is my computer specification
Dell XPS 730
Nvidia 9800gx2 with the latest graphics drivers
Latest Nforce drivers for the mother board
Latest bios update
Windowx Vista Ultimate 64bit
Creative X-FI xtremeGamer Soundcard
Intel Q9550 2.8x Ghz processor
4 GB 1333 Mhz Ram
WD 160 GB Raptor 10,000 RPM main HD
WD Cavier Black 1TB HD for data

Any suggestions is appreciated

Have you patched the game up to the most recent, and I found that I had to
go hunting on MS site for games for windows live redistributable, after I
installed that, it ran fine. Smashing game, by the way.

I previously did everything suggested. I patched the game up and I installed
g4wlive redistributable. I also used the startup up shortcut

"Lugo Solo" <simpoLIFE@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Oofr$T9FJHA.2292@xxxxxx

It's a long shot, but try and install it outside of the program files folder

....and create a shortcut from the .exe within the gears of war folder ( sorry you might have to google it as there was a fix relating your very problem )