Windows 7 old game problem on laptop

Hey. Some of my old games such as Shadow Warrior and Jedi Knight II (and others) have a weird problem. Every 10 minutes (I timed it) they will flash to the desktop for a split-second and then back to the game as if nothing had happened. This does not happen with new games that I'm aware of. I have tried the following:

disabled the screensaver (which was at 15 minutes anyway)
changed the power settings so that they don't kick in at all (they started at 15 minutes anyway)
made sure that the desktop background rotation is off (set at 24 hours and I never used it)
switched back to the normal windows desktop
switched to performance mode in power settings (they kick in at 30 minutes)

My laptop has had this problem from day 1 with dozens of old games (but not all). I don't have anything attached to my laptop. There are only essential programmes running in the background and even when I switch off everything that it is possible to do, it still happens.

This problem did not appear on my old XP desktop. So i'm not sure if it's W7 or the laptop?

Yes I have. I tried each mode and running as an administrator and I also put them into the DEP thingy.