I recently bought a computer from a friend of mine because he bought a new one. It's an Athlon TB1400 w/384MB and a Hercules GeForce 2 GTS. I thought I could play some newer games now, like Medal of Honor, Battlefield 1942 and SOF2. But every time I try to play a game, I get thrown to my desktop. No error message, no nothing. Sometimes it takes 5 min, sometimes it takes 1. I tried changing video drivers, but that didn't help. I tried Windows ME... nada. I tried all settings... nothing. The annoying part is that when it actually plays, it plays great. So I know this computer can handle it, but it just won't. I am out of the blue here. I don't know what's wrong. I was hoping maybe someone here could give me the key to this problem. If I knew what the problem was, rather than the symptoms, I could do something about it.

get new detonator drivers u never know

Just curious...check your virtual memory. I see you say there is 384 megs, but just to be sure check and see what your virtual memory setting is at.

Also shutdown any non-essential apps, such as the ones you see running in the tray area next to the clock, and especially your AV proggy.

All new games use the most up-to-date version of DirectX. Make sure that DirectX 8.1 for the NT kernel is installed. If it is you might try running dxdiag from the Run dialog. This can alert you to problems. Also, there is nothing wrong with re-installing 8.1 on top of an existing 8.1 installation. I've had to do this once to fix a problem with DeusEx.

It could probably be a memory error I had the same problem, and my memory timings were too fast, so I reseted my memory timings at 3/3/5, and I never has that odd desktop crash again!

Thanks for the help. My paging file is set at 576MB intitial and 1152 maximum. I don't know if that's it because I never changed it. I don't have any programs running anymore (none in the tray) and as little as possible in my process list (although since I am using XP for only about a week I don't know which ones are safe to delete out of the startup menu). I am pretty sure I have the latest DX version. 8.1 It came with my Battlefield 1942 CD. Also, dxdiag doesn't show any errors or anything. I have no idea what memory timings are and how to set them at 3/3/5. I installed the Nvidia Detonator 21.85 drivers earlier tonight, and I could play SOF2 with no problems (didn't play that one too long though) and I could play MOHAA very well (it crashed a few times in the second mission though, but that was after about an hour playing). So I think I've narrowed the problem down to my drivers. I think there's no other solution than to just check all the Detonator driver versions available. A friend of mine suggested the 27.43 or 27.xx no idea. Gonna see if I can find that one tommorow. Anyway thanks again for the thoughts everyone. This forum is pretty good for getting tech help so it seems.