I am running Windows Vista 64 with definitely adequate specs, yet I get a crash every time the game launches. I have tried unistalling/reinstalling, I have disabled UAC, tried running the game as an adminstrator, and allowed permissions for all users. The only clue I get is when I run the game and alt tab out of the frozen black screen, an error dialog box pops up with the number 8 in it, nothing else. Any ideas on how to get it running?

You have probably already done the following but . . . just to hit on the basics.
Make sure, when installing the game, that you right click the setup exe and click "Run as administrator" from the dialog. If you only double click the exe, without doing the above, Vista will block some disk writes the game tries to do.
After Installing, right click the game icon, click Properties, click Compatibility and check mark the "Run this program as an administrator" option.
My firewall (Comodo) was blocking the game from doing some disk writes as well. I made div.exe a trusted program in the firewall. I couldn't see that the game was being blocked until I Alt-Tab out and saw the "Allow this action" dialog the firewall was displaying behind the game window. DD wiill not let firewall dialogs show, making the div.exe a trusted program fixed that for me. The div.exe file is located at [your drive letter]:\ Program Files \ GOG.com\ Divine Divinity. (also the config.div which can be edited with notepad to configure your specific screen res) I had to locate div.exe from within my firewall to set it as a trusted program.
Most important for me was updating to the most recent video drivers, I had many CTD's and one major crash which was corrected by installing the latest driver. (This did not fix all my CTD's, hoping the patch will address the remainder)
Click here for ATI
Click here for Nvidia
Larian / GOG are working on a patch and should be releasing it soon. I believe that may be a big help as well since there are some issues with the graphics update in this release.
There are also other threads in this forum that deal with similar problems such as here
Also, for info on tweaking the "Config.div" file see this thread It is for a netbook but the info is valid for tweaking the config.div file on any system.
Some folks were having trouble with their AV program interfering with the game running. To check, disconnect from the internet, disable your AV program and start the game. If it runs than you may have a similar problem, if not, enable your AV and reconnect to the internet and try other solutions.
Good luck, sorry I couldn't give you a definite fix . . .=^ )
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Edit: If all the above fails, I would also suggest you send DeathKnight at Larian your dxdiag.txt file.
Click Start, click Run, type in dxdiag. Give it a moment to open and press the "save all information" button. Should save a dxdiag.txt file to the location you choose.
Send to "info at larian dot com and mention DeathKnight in the subject, ask to forward to David"
Edit: Include a description of the crash . . . =^ )

Thanks, nothing has worked so far so I sent the email to Deathknight at the address you told me following your instructions. If I receive instructions from there to get the game working I will mark your post as the solution as well as repost the instructions I receive from DeathKnight for anyone else who may have this problem. Thank you Stuff!

Anytime, sorry to hear nothing worked for you. The only other thing I could suggest would be to go into Options ( on the start screen ), Video, Performance and turn the Quality to Low or Medium, turn the ZTunnel, 3D Shadows and Fog to off and see if the game will run. Course you said it crashed on start-up so you might not get to the start screen.
Maybe the patch will be released soon . . .=)
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Edit: Have to ask, when the game crashes to a black screen, there is not a small spot of color and game screen in the center of your screen is there? My question is only if you actually created a character . . . if you never get to create a character this is not your problem.
Reason for the question is that when the game first opens you will only see a small spot of color with your character standing in the middle. As you move the black recedes and the colorful screen grows as you explore more and more of the game area.
If you are running a very high resolution the spot can be very small and confusing if you have not played before. You could try starting at the lowest resolution just to make sure this is not your problem. Use the Configtool.exe located in the install directory for DD to change to the lower res and see what happens. You should see the UI at the bottom of the screen as well. Just a thought, had to ask . . .=)

I have never got to the start screen. The crash occurs at launch everytime. I have tried everything from my native screen resolution (1680X945) to the smallest screen resolution availble ( 640X 480), and the game still won't launch successfully. I have even tried editing the ini file per one of the links (the one about netbooks), with no success. There is no image that pops up in the screen, but there is a little windows dinging sound that a dialogue box has popped up. I alt-tab out of the frozen black screen and the game has put up an error dialogue box with just the number 8 in it. I don't know what it means, but it would probably mean something to someone familiar with the code of the game. So it would be great if that message got through to someone who worked with the code of the game.
I cannot even get a reply from GOG tech support, so I am kind of puzzled as to what to do. I didn't pay a lot of money for it, but I would still like to play this game I have heard great things about. Thanks again for your help Stuff, I will keep this thread updated if I ever get it to run. :-)

I've got the same problem in WIndows 7 64 bit. I've also tried every possible combination of resolutions/compatibilty settings, disabled virusscanner, gave the game the right security permissions, reinstalled the newest drivers, reinstalled the game, stopped windows defender, and the only thing I get is a blackscreen and then windows tells me the game has crashed (see screenshot, dutch windows version )
[EDIT] just tried to run Beyond DIvinity and this seems to work ok ( at least it starts up as expected ), just gonna try to tweak the resolution because currently it's an eyesore :p

What kind of CPU are you running . . . Intel or AMD? If it is an AMD Dual Core you might be interested in this
I would suggest setting the affinity but you never get the game up and running actually so the "after start" affinity change is a no go. Seems I read you could add /affinity 1 at the end of the shortcut path to do it from the git-go, need to research that first. Also, what video card are you using?
You might have read this thread but it seems to suggest a possible solution for another system

I am running an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 and GeForce 9600M. I will look in to making that affinity change later on today. I will update this with the results.

Crazy question maybe, but is DirectX9 installed? Vista only comes with DX10 and is not backwards compatible.
Still have no clue where "error 8" comes from :(

DirectX 10 is installed for sure. All my other games run fine, I run things as old as Morrowind and as new as Risen. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 here from GOG runs fine as well.
Support asked for a picture of the error so I thought I would include one here as well. I included a dxdiag report in my original email to you.

Thanks for your post. I was having a lot of trouble in Windows 7 but your tips did the trick.

I had this same exact issue. I just figured it out. It's actually really easy. When you click on the icon/div.exe to start the game, the Configuration box comes up first. You'll notice that 3D is already checked. Instead, check Direct Draw. There you go, easy as cake! Now start the game and enjoy!

i have the black screen issue as well.. im running windows vista and ive followed all the steps listed here but its still not working. my game loads up and i can hear the music but see nothing but a black screen. i have played other games from gog such as neverwinter nights, the witcher and arcanum..none of these games gave me issue. please help.

and to the above post.. im not getting any options at all to config when i start game.. and when i use the config tool it only shows one option - resolution.

In order to switch the GOG version of the game to Software or Direct Draw rendering mode, you need to use the disk version configuration tool (this post contains a download link <broken link>).

EDIT: In the latest game version, Software mode is available in the configuration program.
Here is a link for the disk version of the configuration program, to set the game to run in Direct Draw mode. Rename or move the existing configtool.exe and NlsEng.dll files in the install folder, and extract the disk versions from the zip file. Note that this will also reset the game resolution to what the disk version supported, but you can manually edit the config.div file (in a text editor) to change the resolution back.