Games crash before they start

[impact]

When ever I launch a game such as medieval total war 2 or oblivion the screen goes black as If it will start then minimises to the taskbar then stops and says a fatal graphics error has occured yet if it starts and I immediately press on the escape buttun and mouse button it will skip the intros go straight to the menu and opperate as it should it wasn't allways like this it happened recently

[pam123]

I need to know your specs and I need to know about any recent software additions/updates, that have been done.
Have you tried for a restore point?
For now run a malware scan of your computer and get back to us with the info.

[impact]

Well that computer is not connected to the internet, see I have an ok computer thats has all kinds of protection on it that is conected to the internet and download everything I need from there and a new computer that is nice which is not. Since this problem concerns my new computer so I don't think its malware. the nicer computer is very program thin and on avarage has 28 process I keep track of this number to know if there are any unneeded process that i did not add I haven't added anything new

[pam123]

Specs?
The current software/drivers?
Some History, you say it started recently so what was going on at the time?
We need to know that if we're to help.

[Force Flow]

What O/S? What are the specs? Have you updated DirectX and your video card Detinator drivers (if using nVidia) or Catalyst drivers (if using ATi)? Are the games updated with the most recent patches?

[impact]

Windows Xp professional and it started recently game affected Oblivion and Medieval total war 2 and the direct x is upto date I have an nvidia card not sure what dentinator drivers are I have an AMD athlon 6000 dual core processor with 7600 series graphics card and biostar mother board and two gigs of compatible kingston DDR2 speed 800 RAM and 7200 rpm barracuda hard drive and good antec power supply.

[pam123]

Begin by checking Event Viewer.
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer.
It may pin point the error.
With luck all you'll need to do is uninstall/reinstall the graphics drivers.