Crysis crashes Windows 7

I'm having trouble running Crysis on my new PC build:

Asrock P67 Extreme4 MOBO
i7 2600k (stock speed)
Windows 7 Pro OEM
MSI GTX 570 (factory OC)

The first time I tried to play the game it crashed as gameplay began, as in after the first cut scene. The Screen went black but some audio continued. I re-started the game and was able to play past the first checkpoint. This time the game froze with the graphics freezing, and a pattern of white blocks overlaying the image. Again, audio continued. I was playing at high settings (as automatically set by the game) with 4x anti-alias.

I tried:
-running in Vista service pack 2 compatibility (black screen crashes again)
-running in XP service pack 3 compatibility (didn't load at all)
-running in DirectX 9 (stopped test at options screen because it was running full screen, but 4:3)

I have not yet tried a full re-install. I used patch 1.2.1 My PC is a fresh build, so all new drivers off the bat.

One thing that also was happening was that I was getting impatient to get to gameplay when I tried a new setting, and it often crashed (black screen) when I tried to skip the last cut scene before gameplay.

I have not tried any other game, so tomorrow I will try to load Modern Warfare and see how that goes. I figured I'd at least get this question up on the forums tonight and let it percolate. I have never had a PC that was capable of gaming before, so I've never run Crysis at all. I've seen a lot of threads with people that had very similar problems to mine, which is where I got the ideas to try some of the techniques above.

install the latest drivers and try the 32bit exe rather than the 64bit 1

tried running 32 bit. no. tried complete re-install. no. Got latest Direct X update. no. It always goes wrong in the beginning of the game when you jump out of the plane.

Got "Modern Warfare" working fine. So at least my new build seems to be OK.

Sounds like a cheap failing power supply to me.

Run as Admin

start - programs - games - right click Crysis - run direct x 9

It's working. Not sure if it's 32 or 64 bit. Whatever is linked to the games folder I guess.

I had a similar problem and I am guessing that you have AVG installed? If so there is a conflict between AVG and Crysis....took me a while to resolve it. All you have to do is add the crysis.exe file to the AVG exceptions list. Do a search for Crysis and AVG, this is the first search result I got back.
I am running Crysis on Win7 32 bit.

I have a similiar build to yours (Phenom II X4 955BE instead of 2600K) and I also had the same problem. I run Win 7 64-Bit. I tried reinstalling the game and then it worked fine. Although I was talking about Warhead. Amazing game.