..nor can i get it to work.

here is what's happening:
- I cannot get into a game without it freezing. At first it happened with BF2. I thought i was having similar problems like others (users i found at bf2s.com) but their problem only happened during multiplayer instances. They found their resolution with punkbuster. HOWEVER, i have a problem with playing single and multiplayer with that game. At first i decided to lower all my gfx settings to the lowest, but this did not help. I thought i had to get a newer version of drivers, but this too did not help. I have reformatted at least 10x in the past 2 weeks and i am still having the same problem.
Until recently, i was just trying BF2 since it is the game i usually play the most. However, i tried playing Colin Mcrae 5, NFS:MW, Medal of HonorA and Splinter Cell:CT all which i still get the same problem with. THe game freezes up before i can get started, it freezes while in the menu or it just acts up..
when it freezes, i cannot C+A+D and the only option i have is to do a manual reboot.

here are the specs for my pc:
AMD Athlon 64 3400
1GB DDR 400
200GB SATA HDD
Geforce 7600GS 256 MB AGP
Plextor CD\DVD Combo
Enermax 420W PS

Sounds like maybe a bad video card...

what driver versions are you using?

I experienced great problems in BF2 with latest Nvidia drivers. went back to 82.41 and it worked fine.

START ----> RUN -----> DXDIAG

Tell us if anything fails. If it does - there's your answer.

Do you watch the temps of your CPU and GPU? Also, what kind of sound do you use? onboard or card?

1) brand new gfx card from bfg... bought it about a month ago
2) currently using forceware 91.47 drivers
3) no errors found from running dxdiag
4) a)cpu temps are usually at 35-40 deg C (Using Zalman CNPS9500 LED Cooler)
4) b) gpu temp is currently at 33 deg C (Using Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler)

i'll try the drivers you were talking about (82.41) but i notice that people that were having trouble with bf2 did not have any problems with any other game. With my case, I am experiencing this problem with every game.

I assume this is happening with all games? If so, maybe check your PSU too. If the system is hitting the limits of the PSU, the graphics card may be crashing. I've had this experience in the past with an underpowered PSU, where any game I entered crashed the system. I upgraded the supply and everything works perfect again

I don't play much else so I'm not sure about other games. It was poor image quality that I was getting as a symptom. Depending on the reasons as to why this was happening could cause many other symptoms.

For the simplicity of the fix its worth a try I'd say.

Good luck

if not bad video card, then verify the PSU, while the power supply may not be overloaded wattage wise, make sure it has/meets any amperage requirements for the video card...try re-wiring so the video card has a dedicated line from the psu with no other fans/device attached...undo any overclocking...try out older driver versions...if none of that works, swap to a beefier psu...

Download a program called Prime95 and run the torture test, if you get a stop error there is a problem with your system configuration other than your GFX card.

forgot to mention to Phreejak when he asked above if it was onboard or card sound.
A. onboard sound. i also have the updated drivers for the onboard sound as well.

just got back from work and i'll first try the drivers. then if that doesn't work i'll recheck the wiring i have on the inside, making sure that i'm not sharing any wires with anything else for the gfx card..if that doesn't work. i'll run a 3d bench, memtest and prime95 and try to post any results if i can get one...

update:
that night (monday) i removed my drivers from my pc and tried to use the 82.41 drivers as stated above, however once i tried loading the thing up it said that i had a device that was not associated with the drivers. i then D/L the newest ones found on guru3d site v91.48. Also i checked the wiring in my pc and wouldn't you know it, i was sharing my case fans with my gfx card. I redid the wiring, took out some peripherals so i'm just running a bare pc. Rand BF2 with the 1.4 update on the lowest settings (800x600 - 85Hz everything else low) tried single player mode and i was able to play a round. Once i felt that joy, i decided to try Medium Settings (1024x768 - 85Hz everything else medium) also tried single player mode but this time I was fooled. Computer locked and had to do a cold reboot. Yay! back to square 1. Was too tired yesterday to work on it so when i woke up this morning i put memtest to work and when i get back home in a couple hours, i'll tell you what it says...

ok me again,,,i have been a bit busy and away from the pc for the past couple of days, so here's what happened...

1) ran memtest and it went through the test 4 times without any problems
2) ran 3d benchmark 2k5 and the score was something like 3200 (approx)

still need to do a prime95 and will do that this morning

update (again)

ran prime95, torture test stopped so i can finally post something
after 4 hours 29 minutes = 0 errors, 0 warnings

It sounds to me more and more like there are errors in the graphics card that only show up when stressed out. You may want to consider RMAing the card.