Thank you ADULTSWIM. I hope we don't have too many people with this problem.

Thanks ADULTSWIM, I had that error too.

Now the game won't load the maps past 20% it just closes all together.  Im having bad luck.

I had a different issue...Got the same SHader error and followed everything to the numbers listed except to #3...I didn't have a 2nd mods folder inside my First Strike folder...It looks like this:

BF2142>
mods>
You find a 2142 folder and a mods folder in there with First Strike inside

I tried to delete that First Strike folder and copied it right into the original mods folder so that you now see 2142 and First Strike in that mods folder, changed the path in the start up icon on the desktop to reflect the mods addy and tried to start and still get the shaders error...????