Do you have any problems with other DirectX games?
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before starting the game?
Have you checked for updated drivers, etc?
In addition to the DD centric
troubleshooting tips topic, there are a couple topics for Beyond Divinity that get into checking system problems (virus, spyware, etc).
yet another "Game simply won't start!"-thread and
BattleFields N00b ?Of course if you reinstall the game and stop getting random crashes, that would imply the patch is part/all of the problem.