Just wanted to chime in with my own experience regarding the CTD with sound still running in the background:

None of the proposed solutions fixed the problem for me, I kept getting the CTD within 2-3min after starting the game.

What DID work for me was setting both post-processing and video settings to low. To be true, the game still looks awesome that way, so that kind of works for me until the problem has been solved.

Thanks all those advice.
I did not manage to make it work...the window "trick" seemed to work...but crashed anyway.
I don't know for you guys but, after some hesitation, I tried the 1.08.1...and it solved everything. At least the crash problem.
I still have minor bugs; like PNJ holding crates and walking like they have to climb something...it is fun but that's all ^^
Oh and the patch unlocked me some acheivements...like the one you get when finish the game...except I didn't :)

Hope this patch get you back on the game !

I seem to be the only one who's system blacks out. No sound, nothing!

Have you tried with the latest patch (1.08.1)?

Haven't had a single CTD on highest settings since then, but of course our crashes could have different reasons (never had the system black out on me).