The problem I am having is that I downloaded the BF2 1.5 beta patch and then decided to revert back to the 1.41 version. So I UNINSTALLED BF2 (leaving profiles intact when asked if I wanted to remove them also), and then re-installed BF2 along with the 1.41 patch. Now, when I log in to the game, it shows my correct rank on the BFHQ screen (gunnery sergeant), but when I join a game, it lists me as a private with no weapon unlocks. Also, I am having issues now with the game occasionally crashing to the desktop with no ERROR message, which is something I never experienced prior to doing this. At first it was only on the HIGHWAY Tampa servers, so I downloaded and re-installed Highway Tampa, but it doesn't appear to have fixed the problem. When I uninstalled BF2, I did not uninstall BF2 SPECIAL Forces, should I have done that?Is BF2 Special Forces an expansion or addon to the game? If so, yes. You should reinstall that along with BF2. The 1.5 patch would most likely have patched the files for that extension too.
I cannot be 100% sure since I don't have BF2, but I don't see any harm in trying it.It's a little of both, I guess.  I thought after the fact that I should have also uninstalled SF, but oh well....  That's probably my next step, to completely uninstall both BF2 and BF2 SF and then re-install, and then patch.Worth a shot. Well, I'm not 100% sure, but completely uninstalling everything and starting from scratch APPEARS to have fixed it.  At least it hasn't crashed to the desktop yet.

EA support finally got back to me, and now I know why people complain about them.  Their solution to my question, which was ALMOST exactly what I submitted here, was to tell me to empty my temp folder and make sure no programs were running in the background.  That was it.

Wow.