There was some sort of conflict with the new patch, my Win7, and my Firewall. I tried installing a fresh copy of the game and it still didn't work. I finally had to do a system restore to yesterday, then re-download the new patch. The game is now working again.
What a pain in the butt. I am very much beginning to hate Win7 and CA Security Suite. They have both been nothing but trouble since I upgraded from XP to Win 7
went to win7 fresh with a new tower. have yet to have a problem but keeping the fingers crossed.