Why does my computer crash when playing graphic intensive games?

Question

My computer crashes when I am about 5 to 10 minutes into any of my games that require a higher level graphics capability.

Here is the data about my computer:

It is a Dell Computer withnan Intel Pentium 4 processor (2.4 Gigahertz)
I have 768 Megs of internal RAM memory
The bus clock is 533 Megahertz

I am running Windows XP professional with all the latest updates, including service pack 2.

I have updated antivirus software and several spyware protection programs.

I replaced the graphics card about 6 months ago with a NVIDIA GeForce 6600. It worked great when I installed it and no games crashed back then.

Warcraft III, Act of War, Command and Conquer Generals, Starfleet Command all crash after about 5-10 minutes of gameplay. The computer just freezes and has to be reset. These games all worked fine when I installed the card, but lately, no luck.

Drivers are all up to date.

Anyone have any ideas where I might be going wrong?

Answer 1

Make sure that nothing is impeding the ability of your system to cool itself. Putting the back of it just one inch from the wall is probably going to let it overheat quickly. If you have software that lets you read the system's internal thermometers, you might want to check them.

If the computer is further than an inch away but still pretty close, try putting it at an angle to the wall, so the hot hair does not largely bounce back into the computer.

See if you have the latest drivers for your video card, and for MS-Windows. Out of date drivers, especially graphics ones, can cause serious problems. On MS-Windows, graphics is done right in the core - the "kernel" of the OS.

The problem with that is, flakey graphics drivers can pretty much crash your machine. Do a lot of graphics, you increase the risk and decrease the time that it will take before this happens.

Check your installed version of DirectX versus the one required by the game(s).

Another possibility is that maybe you have the bad capacitors problem.

If you want to determine if it is a software vs. hardware/firmware problem, set up your PC to run Linux. You can either install Linux in a "dual-boot" configuration, or you can get a Linux Live CD for some popular distribution (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.)

Then just run some Open/GL 3D graphics benchmarking utilities or games. If it crashes after 10 minutes, that points to your graphics card itself, or its firmware.

If it continues to run then that points to something on the MS-Windows operating system (the OS, DirectX, or video device driver) being the problem. If that is the case, then you might want to address those to make sure they are up-to-date. Or, you could simply get lots of free, open source games on LInux and have fun there.

When checking for up to date drivers, don't just rely on MS Windows Update. Check the manufacturer's website.

Answer 2

you might want to get a new vid card..... the power of the vid card has more to on how well the comp will do with high graphic games than the rest of the computer. you are probably using the onboard vid and it can't volume of information required to display the graphics for those games. you should have an open pci express slot

Answer 3

What games are you playing?