Hey guys, lately I faced this error and couldn't play CoD4 as it kept crashing
Looks like this:
Alternative image link
It'll make your screen black when you join a server (esp. modded ones) or when you attempt to restart the game.
Turns out this is caused due to a DirectX hook/overlay running on your system. Credit to Ninja for pointing this out.
So if you face this error, close/kill any overlay programs, such as FRAPS, Rivatuner Statistics server (IMPORTANT: This is most likely the cause), MSI Afterburner, Nvidia Shadowplay and similar.
They're usually hiding in the notification area or find in the task manager.
However if you get a "iw3mp.exe has stopped working" error, you know to make sure a microphone is plugged in, or alternatively, enable stereo mix recording device (click here for a tutorial on that).
-QueNNch