What version of directx are you using? I asked Sony and they still do not support DirectX 9. They told me I should continue to use DX 8.1 and they don't know when DX 9 will be testedfor the use with the game. Teh last time i Had a problem with that type of isuue was after a patch and I had it a few times when I was using Win xp. Wjen ii switched back to using Win ME i no longer got problems like that. Now the lonly problem I have is everytime i log onto the game I have to change my languae back to common.