bansama: It's not a brilliant solution, but if you make a backup of the .db files, delete or rename MONOLITH.DB then create a new text file and give that the name MONOLITH.DB, the game will at least skip all the videos at start up, allowing you to get to the in-game menu.
The downside, is not being able to watch the videos. And the character speech is still skipping before it ends. =/ I expect that if the in-game videos cause the same crashes, they will need to be skipped by creating dummy files too.
For what it's worth, I get the same errors with Win XP pro Service pack 3. I should try this on my other PC to see if it's an SP3 problem...
*** Fixed it ***
You need to go into your audio settings via control panel or however else you get to them (I have a quick launch icon for this)
Get to the audio details tab and turn off Hardware accleration (top slider) also set sample rate to the lowest setting (standard) (bottom slider). The videos will then play without crashing and the in game speech should not skip.
The names of the tabs and settings may vary for English OSes -- this is also probably an XP only fix.
Well, after finishing most of my complete Windows reinstall (everything except some incidental software), the game just works for me without changing the hardware acceleration settings. However, since I certainly don't recommend a Windows reinstall as a solution and your idea was confirmed to work for at least one other person, you get the solution credit.