PC Doesn't seem to play Games ... AT ALL..!!

Gday Guys.

I have an issue with my PC not playing games.
To be fair, I am not much of a gamer. So when I found a couple classics on sale cheap I figured it would be worth my while to have a go at them.
The games in question are , Need for Speed-Carbon and Battlefield 2.
These are reasonably older games and my PC easily outweighs the suggested specs but, they will not play. Not even menus or anything.
I thought this was a good place to ask for help

My PC was built by me, it's not too fantastic but it is quick and sturdy.
I have had it up and running about 3mnths or so. Never played games on it seriously, except eSPXe PS1 Emulator. Working good. (Only got it for MOH with analogue usb controller) This PC does EVERYTHING else I need or would want to do. (Except play some games..)

When trying either of the aforementioned games they install and re-boot fine
but just won't play. When I try to run the games all my PC does is flicker to black screen (briefly- 1-2 seconds) then return to desktop.
Nothing more..! I can wait for ages and nothing else happens..! Not running in Task manager.

I have already tried: -Uninstall - Reinstall (Both games, on both drives)
-Graphics Drivers update
-Lowering resolution settings (Incrementally, all the way down to 800x600)
-Removing the usb controller (Both games state compatibility on their boxes)

So far, nothing I've done makes any difference. I don't know what else to try.

My Specs: 3gb DDR2 Ram 800Mhz
Pentium Dual Core 1.8Ghz
320GB SATA HDD Hitachi (C-Drive)
1.5TB SATA HDD Samsung
MSI Mobo
Integrated Graphics 256mb
Latest DirectX
WinXP SP3
Samsung SATA DVD-RAM
Samsung LCD 1920x1080p HD

Sorry for the rambling info dump, but, I figured better to say too much than too little.

Any insight or advice anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

TIA.

 

I must admit that is a little odd considering you've tried all the basics.
You are correct in your system being plenty enough to run both games.

My first thought is a little more simple though, this may sound like a silly question but since your self confessed lack of knowledge of PC games.... are you trying to run either of them without the disc in the drive?
I ask this because a crash to desktop can often come without warning or erors if you don't have the game disc in the drive.

I honestly can't think of much else that would cause that crash on BOTH of those games.

I will however ask you to post the model of your motherboard so we can look at onboard graphic specs aswell.

 

cheers for your reply ned.
I actually had hoped they would play without the discs. (displaying my niavity, I'm sure).
But, I did get the warnings on both to that effect first time I tried. Something like, "Please insert disc into the drive you installed from and restart the application".
After that I get the blank screen and reversion to desktop. each time
even after reboot.

Mobo is: G31M3-L V2

I know it's not too fantastic in the graphics dept. but it seems just fine for everything so far.
A 1GB video card is on my "next to get" list.

Cheers.

 

I was going to post and tell you to update your graphics driers, but then I saw you've already tried that. Good thinking.

Can you get the games to launch at all? Try running them in windowed mode instead of full-screen. If that doesn't work, try using the latest drivers direct from Intel... keep a backup of your MSI driver, in case the Intel one messes things up, or create a restore point right before installing the Intel driver. Just in case.

Intel drivers here, just pick your OS in the list and go from there.

Have the games ever worked on this PC, or is it the first time you've tried to play them?