"Black Screen of Death" - game freeze after splash screen

Finally got it to go past the "Error initializing graphics library(-1)" problem on Win2000.

BUT ... as described in the subject it's now down to another error - the game freezes past the splash screen - it displays an all-black window and I have to reboot. I am using:

Win 2000
Diamond Viper 550
latest win2000 drivers from www.nvidia.com
DirectX 7.0 (the one that came with the game)
No errors were generated in the THAUM.ERR file

Any suggestions on how to fix this will be appreciated. I would really like to play now ... Never had so many problems with a game. I hope all the trouble is worth it!