http://forums.belution.com/en/opengl/000/006/01.shtml
I was having this problem on a windows XP system with a ATI Radeon 9600. I was trying to run Star Trek Elite Force 2. My win.ini didn't have a dva entry, and the shareware sugested on this forum didn't help either. One person suggested keeping the game res below what you have your screen res set to. I thought that this was smart but didn't know how to change the res since the program wouldn't start.

When elite force starts up it has the little blue window that shows things loading. Once you get to the error message scroll up. Look for what .cfg file its calling for. This should be something like (your username).cfg . In my case it was Sivan.cfg . This file is located inside the elite force directory in the base folder. TO FIX THE PROBLEM I made a copy of default.cfg from its location in the global folder which is inside the base folder. I renamed the copy Sivan.cfg ( in your case (your username).cfg ) and replaced the version in the base folder. This reset all my settings to default, which is 640 x 480 res. Then I raised the graphics settings keeping it below my windows screen res and it works perfectly.

Since Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, Jedi Knight, and Elite force are all similar Quake III engine games I think this should work for the others as well. I do recomend making a backup copy of (your username).cfg before proceeding and claim no responsibility for whatever damage you may cause to your own computer. This is just what worked for me.

P.S. To all you losers in this forum who felt it necessary to make posts claiming you have the same problem, you IMBECILS! Forums begin with a call for help and then useful responses. I did eventually with the help of this forum find the solution to my problem, but you idiots made it take hours instead of minutes, with your hundreds of reposts. Post problem ONCE then post possible solutions!

>> GLW_StartOpenGL() - could not load OpenGL subsystem
>> After installing Windows service pack2 on 6 August 2004 I recieved the GLW_startopen GL subsystem error(Thanks Microsoft)sarcasm. After trying the win.ini DVA=0 this did not work for me and various other things I tried this.
I have a Geforce FX5200 graphics card
Go to Nvidia website.Get latest drivers for your card.mine was
6.1.7.7 released on 15/07/2004
install and reboot.Worked for me!! The games even look better.You have to fiddle about with the settings to get the right ones for your own PC.

I hope this helps you.Anyway back to the fun!!