It's not to do with the patches. I've installed the game fresh with just 1.4 patch and it works fine.

You could try re-installing the C++. I only have Visual C++ 2005 redistributable installed aswell as the C++ ATL update (I have no idea what that is).

There could also be an issue if you have MS Office XP or 2002 programs installed - See link below

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307817