well cant close firewall while playing as its online game only and its a server side based game but what i have found latly is that the desktop is refreshing as i can see the blue boarder come round the screen but then it goes so it is not happening as much all i keep running is bitdefender8/zonealarm pro/bluetooth software and my ati software for my card but i wondered if it could be that.just updated all of windows now with sp1/sp2 ect the one thing i found though is ad-aware is not working as it should b4 and after updates it just freezes thru a scan .

You could perhaps try updating your ATI Graphics Card software (drivers) from www.ati.com. Maybe a bug in the software refreshing your desktop. I really don't know what to suggest for the refreshing, its something that you have to eliminate by trial and error. Try uninstalling and reinstalling Ad-aware.