After additional play throughs I see that this issue is similar in every way to the one linked by Fedayin with the exception of no runtime error. Windows thinks that the game is still running just fine! I have sent an error report with details on what I did. thank you all.
PC Specs: Windows 7 32-bit, AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2 GHz processor, 4 GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 5700 videocard.
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