I am also from the UK. When I try single player it also crashes to the desktop! When I look for a server there are none available. Are there any specific settings i need to adjust? Maybe I have missed something somewhere. My pc spec is as follows:
AMD Athlon 64 3500
2gb DDR 400
Asus A8N Sli SE
250 gb hard drive
Nvidia 6600GT (soon to become 79ooGT in SLi
)
BF2142 is patched to latest version.
I am from the XvT World site (some may have heard of it?) and was looking forward to sampling this game, I will be writing a review on it so I REALLY want to get started 
Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!

