I've been spending my game playing time lately playing casual games.
After having played many games, I've encountered a game that just freezes up and works only sporadically between the long the freezes.

I've touched base with BigFish, which is where I bought the game, and they suggested I update my video card drivers. I'm hesitating doing this first, because I've never done it before, and second, since I've played both the first game in this series and the one AFTER the game I'm having the problems with, I'm afraid I'll screw up things for other games.

I've been given step by step directions, but....I just don't know whether to mess with what's been working fine for me.

Am I being too big a chicken? BigFish will give me another game choice if I choose not to try and pursue "fixing" my problem.

Mary I'm with you. If all your other games play well I wouldn't change anything! There are always going to be games that just don't play well on a given computer even with the latest drivers! It's really your choice but I'm "chicken" and would leave well enough alone!

You don't say which version of Windows you're using, what game is giving you trouble, or what troubleshooting steps you've already taken. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game? Do you have an antivirus that might be interfering with the game?

If you upgrade video drivers, Windows gives you the option of reverting to your previous drivers.

I'm running Win7, 64-bit Home Premium.
The game that I'm having trouble with is Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst. I have already played Ravenhearst and Escape from Ravenhearst without any kind of problem at all.

I am using Norton Anti-virus. So far, I have had no problems with Norton interfering with any of my games.

I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the game with no change whatsoever. It starts freezing at the opening screen.

There's always a first time -- especially with Norton doing heuristic scanning. You could try disconnecting from the Internet and temporarily turning off real-time scanning in Norton and see if it makes a difference. Be sure to turn real-time scanning back on after testing the game and before you reconnect to the Internet.

Can you run dxdiag and find the date of your video drivers?
Start button --> type dxdiag in the Start search and OK it --> check the Display tab and look for the date of the drivers on the right side of the pane. Also what is the "Name:" of the video card (on the left side of the pane).

Did you try running with compatibility mode set to Windows XP or Windows 2000?

Return to Ravenhearst is my favorite of the series and I hope you can get it to run.

"I am using Norton Anti-virus. So far, I have had no problems with Norton interfering with any of my games."

Nor me !!

And I've just played Return to Ravenhearst without any problem and my drivers are old

[I'm on WinXP Home and using Norton Internet Security 2012.]

I only had a couple minutes to try and run in WinXP Service Pack 2. I got it to start; it stuttered a bit, but not like it froze up trying to play it before. I will have to try tonight to give it more than a couple minutes to see if the freezing starts up again.

Do I have to go to the game icon in the Programs folder each time I want to play to "troubleshoot" and find my way to WIN XP?

I have Service Pack 3. Would that make much of a difference - or even any

[Jenny100 will know .... I'm clueless about such stuff ]

Return to Ravenhearst actually plays fine in XP SP1 as well as XP SP2 and XP SP3. I haven't run it in Windows 7, but haven't heard of any problems specifically caused by Windows 7 (as opposed to Windows 7 drivers).

Norton's behavior will be different on different computers. There have certainly been people who've had problems with it. For example, Norton is specifically mentioned on the HerInteractive sites as causing problems with Nancy Drew games -- at least on some computers.

The problem with playing Return to Ravenhearst in your Windows 7 may be due to a conflict with the game's video drivers, but freezing up and working in fits and starts can be caused by an antivirus scanning everything a game is doing. So there are two things you can try -- new video drivers and temporarily disabling Norton while you test the game. You can also try playing in Windowed mode to see if you still have the freezing with that.

If you have real time malware scanning in addition to Norton -- maybe with MalwareBytes or Spybot -- definitely turn that off while playing.

I've tested the game in both XP SP2 and SP3. The game does not run flawlessly, and still stops for a few seconds here and there, but I think I can put up with that rather than have to update my video drivers--at least for the time being. I'll play for a bit more tomorrow and see how I make out; maybe I'll give XP SP1 a try tomorrow.