games flashes back to desktop

[jxc241]

I have several games that when I start them up they flash back to my desktop and won't let me play them. They must still be running because you can see the window in the taskbar. If you click it again it maximizes, goes black, monitor flicks and clicks, then it comes back to the desktop with the game minimized. Any ideas what the problem is. I have an amd 2000+, asus a7n266-vm with onboard geforce2 video. The Links 2003 game demo, Hyperbowl (comes with MS PLUS!), these are to name just a few. I can run Madden 2003, NHL 2003, Quake 3. So I don't know what the problem is with these other games. Please help.