yeah Alex exactly the same here. Actually at first I tried to launch the game with the normal wow.exe and get the startup_string error message of course.
But by chance when looking at the error log I saw there was a suspect file named 52233kou.dll in my "C:\Documents and Settings\"name of user".PRIVATE-4SFIB93.000\Local Settings" folder that was loaded as well.
At first I tought it couldn't be this, usually I don't get virus, but after reinstalling the game and still didn't solve this problem, I tried to delete it(had to use fileAssassin caus windows wouldn't let me delete it) and then the game worked again. Took me a whole afternoon to solve this, and now you say it's from curse it makes perfect sense.
I ve seen some german forums there were talking about a XXXXkou.dll file with a name similar with mine.
So here for people who wanna check if your game isn't loading a keylogger, start the game with the normal wow.exe and after it crashes watch the error.txt file(inside the errors folder) for this :
----------------------------------------
Loaded Modules
----------------------------------------
0x00400000 - 0x01758000 D:\WOW CN\WoW.exe
0x01760000 - 0x01769000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\Normaliz.dll
0x03A20000 - 0x03B35000 D:\WOW CN\dbghelp.dll
0x10000000 - 0x10069000 D:\WOW CN\DivxDecoder.dll
0x404A0000 - 0x40586000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\WININET.dll
0x40B40000 - 0x40D28000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\iertutil.dll
0x45180000 - 0x452B1000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\urlmon.dll
0x4FCF0000 - 0x4FE96000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d9.dll
0x58B50000 - 0x58BEA000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\comctl32.dll
0x5B090000 - 0x5B0C8000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll
0x5B3C0000 - 0x5B3C7000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\umdmxfrm.dll
0x5D0A0000 - 0x5D0A7000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\serwvdrv.dll
0x5F070000 - 0x5F13C000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\OPENGL32.dll
0x62DC0000 - 0x62DC9000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\LPK.DLL
0x6CEF0000 - 0x6CF11000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\GLU32.dll
0x6D2D0000 - 0x6D30A000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\DINPUT8.dll
0x6DE60000 - 0x6DE66000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d8thk.dll
0x719E0000 - 0x719E8000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2HELP.dll
0x719F0000 - 0x71A07000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2_32.dll
0x71B50000 - 0x71B63000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\SAMLIB.dll
0x736B0000 - 0x736FB000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\DDRAW.dll
0x73B10000 - 0x73B16000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\DCIMAN32.dll
0x753C0000 - 0x7542B000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USP10.dll
0x76320000 - 0x7633D000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\IMM32.dll
0x76AE0000 - 0x76B0F000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINMM.dll
0x76F10000 - 0x76F3D000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\WLDAP32.dll
0x770E0000 - 0x7716B000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\OLEAUT32.dll
0x77390000 - 0x77493000 C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.2600.5512_x-ww_35d4ce83\comctl32.dll
0x774A0000 - 0x775DD000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\ole32.dll
0x77650000 - 0x77671000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\NTMARTA.DLL
0x77BB0000 - 0x77BC5000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSACM32.dll
0x77BD0000 - 0x77BD8000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\VERSION.dll
0x77BE0000 - 0x77C38000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll
0x77DA0000 - 0x77E4C000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
0x77E50000 - 0x77EE2000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\RPCRT4.dll
0x77EF0000 - 0x77F39000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\GDI32.dll
0x77F40000 - 0x77FB6000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHLWAPI.dll
0x77FC0000 - 0x77FD1000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\Secur32.dll
0x7C800000 - 0x7C906000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
0x7C910000 - 0x7C9C9000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll
0x7C9D0000 - 0x7D1F5000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll
0x7E390000 - 0x7E421000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
If you see a file named 52230kou.dll(the number can be different)in the list, then it means you'have the keylogger on your computer.
But it should be ok, because I think it makes the game crash after login so you would know it.