"cannot create 3D device" error

[beefhole]

I'm having some problems with OFP (Operation Flashpoint).  I was playing it merrily, no problem, and then it crashed, when I try to start it up again, I get the following message-
---
Cannot create 3Ddevice:
 Adapter 0 (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200) Fullscreen
 Resolution 1024x768, format X8R8G8B8/D24S8, refresh 75 Hz
 Error D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE
---
This is very strange, because it just crashed out of nowhere.  It should be noted that I was having problems with it freezing up for 20 seconds, playing fine for 3 minutes, freezing for 20 seconds, so on and so forth.

Any ideas?  A speey response would be appreciated

UPDATE:  After a reboot, I was able to play fine for about 15 minutes before it started freezing again, and then promptly crashed. I got the same error message when I tried to start it again.  It would appear as though something happens while I'm playing it.

If no one here knows (thought I'd give good ole SimV a try first), could you please direct to a hardcore hardware forum?

RE-UPDATE:  It should also be noted that I recently installed new vid drivers.... do I need to manually uninstall the old ones?

[Weather_Man]

Sounds like a bad driver. Suggest to reinstall them.

Always uninstall the old drivers before updating. Use add/remove software to uninstall then delete the Nvidia folders from C:\Nvidia and/or C:\Program Files. Reboot, cancel found new hardware, then install new drivers.

You can also use drivercleaner to make sure old registry entries are removed. http://www.drivercleaner.net/

[beefhole]

Thanks for the reply... this seems like it might be much more helpful than what Codemasters sent me.

One thing-I have two "driver" related things on the add/remove software, NVIDIA Drivers and NVIDIA Display drivers.  Do I just remove both?

[Weather_Man]

Yep, remove anything nvidia related when reinstalling.

[beefhole]

Thanks for the quick reply, I'm on it

[beefhole]

No luck

I'll have to wait until my computer guru comes to get it fixed