I had a similar problem, but I realised something was wrong when I got an empty pointer error "player.x", which is used in the old templates. I am using the new templates.
I also just got a new GeForce 6800GT, and I changed some of the shader code to PS3.0 (i.e. changed TEXCOORD2 to TEXCOORD1 in the vertex and pixel shader input STRUCTS, then in the technique two_pass section, I changed