Just installed the fan fix v304, game was already patched 2. I can load old saved games fine but when I create a new, after the cut scene when the game loads up I crash.. have tried different starting alignments and each time still crashes after the cut scene.
One of the earlier versions of 3.0.4 had a bug with fighters inventory that would make the game crash at startup. Try starting a party without a fighter, if it works you just need an updated co8 patch.
Look in the General Mods forum, for the sticky "Co8 Patch 3.0.4 DropBox" thread. There's an address there for an updated version of the patch in the first msg. Also you might want to try out temple.zip (address lower down the same thread) - it has yet more fixes not yet included in 304.