3D games/apps cause system to hang

Hello all.
I have an issue with my laptop, Dell D630.
When I launch ANY 3D game or even Google earth, it hangs the system.

I don’t know what could be causing it, anyone got any ideas for things to try / logs to check?

The gfx card is recognised in yast as “Intel 965 GM” if that helps?
konsole > “glxgears” - works OK

update: i noticed (thanks to Suse 11.0 default install!), i was running PAE kernel; I changed to default and tried again.

Some things then worked, for example Assault Cube now works (woot) but Google Earth and Trackmania United Forever (via Wine) still hang the system on startup. And by hang, i mean i can’t recover without holding the power button down and shutting off.

i must say that i did install GE and Wine/TMUF before removing the PAE kernal and putting the “default” one on.

perhaps re-installing the apps should be the next thing to try?