Crash when entering chemical labs (Black Plague)

[Hoky]

So I unlocked the chemical labs door using the computer in the research lab. I leave and go to the chemical labs door. When I click on the door to enter, it switches to the loading screen. After a few moments, I'm kicked back to the desktop. The client shows its Black Box dialogue and it says the following:
"Penumbra.exe caused an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION in module Penumbra.exe at 0023:00502B05". FYI, this version of Black Plague was purchased and downloaded from the online store. So from what I've read it should already have the latest patch.

This occurs EVERY single time I attempt to go into the chemical labs, regardless of my settings. Here are my specs:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU: Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz
RAM: 4gigs DDR3
Graphics card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260
Sound card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Thanks in advance for your help!

(As of 6/2/2010) On the suggestion of a friend, I tried changing the compatibility setting on the executable to Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista. The issue still occurred. I also tried deleting the default_settings.cfg file. That didn't fix it either.