Upon launching Rage, I am having a simple error message (Error 51) and a full game crash prior to even loading up a frame.

Can anyone shed any light on this problem, or how it can be fixed?

I didn't get an error number, but your problem sounds just like mine. *click rage, go to black screen, rage crash*. Are you running retail or steam or etc.?

Here's the info i collected from the crash(loading via steam):

"Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: rage.exe
Application Version: 1.0.27.8258
Application Timestamp: 4e8f3567
Fault Module Name: atioglxx.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.14.10.10600
Fault Module Timestamp: 4daf40e2
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00b5415b
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789"