🚀 go-pugleaf

This particular problem involves Quake3 crashing, but it's also a
plea for some systematic methodology to solve computer problems.
Anyway...

Very frequently, and just in the last couple of months, while playing
Quake3 the game suddenly freezes, the screen darkens (not black, just
very dark) and an error message comes up which says "quake3.exe has
encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the
inconvenience."  The mouse is also frozen so I can't read every
piece of information this error message reports, but by tabbing around
and hitting "enter" I can get parts of it.

The "Error Signature" reads:

AppName: quake3.exe     AppVer: 0.0.0.0.   ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0       Offset: 204aeed2

(The "Offset" can be different each time, but it's very close to
this value.)

The "Error Report Contents" reads:

Exception Information
Code: 0cx0000005                           Flags: 0x00000000
Record: 0x0000000000000000      Address:0x00000000204aeeeed2


All in all, not very helpful.

After dealing with the message and shutting it down the desktop comes
back up with a very washed-out color scheme compared to its normal
appearance.  Then I reboot to get things back to normal.

Here's what I've done so far:

Made sure nothing's running in the background: No help
Ran complete Virus Scan: No viruses found
Ran Memtest-86 overnight: No memory errors reported
Uninstalled video driver (latest available) and re-installed: No help
Uninstalled Quake3 and re-installed in new directory: No help
Ran dxdiag and performed all tests: No problems found
Uninstalled Ethernet driver (latest available) and re-installed: No
help

(I took this last step because I noticed Quake3 crashes MUCH quicker
after startup in the evenings, when servers are busier, then it does
during the day.)

So, at this point the only other thing I can think to do is to format
the hard drive and start over, something I'm loath to do.

Can anybody suggest something else to try or something I've
overlooked?  Is there a better way to attack these sorts of problems
then the thrashing about I've been engaged in?

Essentials of my system:
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2
Motherboard: ASUSTeK A7N8X2.0
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3200+, not overclocked
Memory: 1024MB RAM (Corsair 512MB x 2), not overclocked
Video Card: Xtasy Radeon 9600, 256MB
Sound Card: Creative Emu10Kx Audio (SBLive! 5.1)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)


TIA.

Tom Young