If i try to set the game to fullscreen rather than windowed, it freezes up and i need to reinstall to get it windowed and working again.

='( Help

well, you dont need to reinstall, just edit the setting files.

What graphics card do you have ?

Do you see anything in the file stderr.txt which is in the Toribash folder after you switch to fullscreen ?

Try getting the latest version of sdl.dll from this zip file: http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL-1.2.13-win32.zip and extract it to the Toribash folder (overwrite the existing sdl.dll)

I also have problems trying to activate fullscreen mode.

When I press Enter after setting the fullscreen flag to 1 in the options menu, it tries to go fullscreen... It goes black, I can see the little mouse pointer and move it around... Then it blips away for a single frame like I closed it, returns to black, no cursor for a while...then the cursor reappears and the cycle repeats.

I have an nVidia xfx GeForce 8800 GT 512mb video card, 638MB RAM, running windows xp sp2...

Try what I wrote above about the sdl.dll file,
Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers from the manufacturer's website.

Then try this:
type /re 1024 768
then switch to full screen.

No luck.. doesent seem to do anything except give me more graphics options in windowed mode.

My graph. card is an nvidia geforce 7600gt with 256 vidram, running on xp sp2

i had this problem when i tried opening "toribash_wide". it works fine with the normal one tho? u dont use wide do u?

Nah, i use Tb.exe or toribash.exe
i dont have a widescreen monitor
='(

It is rather annoying having it windowed when im trying to concentrate.
any help would be appreciated

Like I asked:
Do you see anything in the file stderr.txt which is in the Toribash folder after you switch to fullscreen ?

The problem might be with external, completely unrelated software or drivers interfering with fullscreen. 7600 and especially 8800 should be able to run it fullscreen without any problems.
For the 8800 guy, do you have Dx10 drivers for XP? (There are homebrew versions of those. Just curious.)
For the original poster: This is a longshot, but have you done a virus and malware scan recently?
Have you tried playing Toribash with every other possible program turned off?