Codemasters' demos fail to run

I'm not sure but i think Codemasters must hate my computer:

A while back i downloaded the demo for Colin Mcrae DiRT to compare it to the PS3 version of the game that i already have, it installed fine, when i click the icon it starts to load up but then it throws up the generic "<Program> has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." every single time. Yesterday i downloaded the new Race Driver GRID demo, again it installed fine, this time when i click the icon, it shows the thinking timeglass for a couple of seconds then does nothing, absolutely nothing.

I've many other games, some being demos though most are full games. They all run totally fine, none of them being Codemasters products. Those two demos are the only Codemasters games i've tried to play on this computer, both being the only games that have ever failed to start. Coincidence?

I thought that maybe it could be something to do with a pain-in-the-@$$ copy protection system (Why they would employ it in a demo, i wouldn't know) so i even went and uninstalled DAEMON TOOLS and rebooted the computer, still, both don't run. Does anyone have any ideas?