Computer Freezes While Playing Any Game

[HardwareTwitch]

I have been facing problem with my desktop pc from past 2-3 weeks.
My pc completely freezes/hangs and stop responding and it happens when i am playing games on it.
On the other side when i do general purpose work i hadn't faced such problem.
 
So i think it may be game related.
 
Other options which i came to me is some kind of-
-virus
-hardware error
-some unknown error

Therefore, If someone has faced such   frequent freezing/hanging of pc as soon as you start playing game,Please do help me out on this one or anyone who can give guidance on how to rectify this error.
 
My hardware specs,If it is helpful to know:
processor: intel pentium 4 631 cedar mil cpu 3.00Ghz
mainboard: intel D945GCCR
ram: ddr2 1.5gb(333 Mhz)
graphic card: 7300se/7200gs

(Note- Also i wud like to add that if this section is not meant for this topic,then please guide me where i could post this kind of requests)


Thanks in advance.

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening HardwareTwitch and welcome to CH

Thank you for supplying some of the specs on your PC but you didn't say what games where being the issue.

You may want to look at the video card if the video card was worked to hard the heatsink may have over heated and the heatsink is coming loose from the video chip. Those cards are on the low side of video cards and are only a 64bit interface. Also check that if the card has a fan it is not plugged with dirt & dust or maybe the fan is burnt out.

Hope this helps, Mike

[HardwareTwitch]

Good evening HardwareTwitch and welcome to CH

Thank you for supplying some of the specs on your PC but you didn't say what games where being the issue.

You may want to look at the video card if the video card was worked to hard the heatsink may have over heated and the heatsink is coming loose from the video chip. Those cards are on the low side of video cards and are only a 64bit interface. Also check that if the card has a fan it is not plugged with dirt & dust or maybe the fan is burnt out.

Hope this helps, Mike

As you told i checked the video card, my card does not have a fan and yes it has a heatsink attached to it on lowerside and and its little loose.

The problem i am facing is freezing of pc whenever i play game(online mostly), as soon as i start it my pc freezes.

On the other hand when i run any normal or heavy programs rather than games , my pc works fine and does not hang as it does whenever i try to play game.

I have used some programs like prime95 and furmark(around 15 mins) to stress test cpu and graphic card and they ran without any difficulty and didn't led my pc to freeze.

Its only happening when i try to play games, games might not be the reason i guess cuz they used to work fine earlier.

Guide me in any other manner possible to rectify this error as it has started to happen more frequently.

Thanks in advance
 

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening HardwareTwitch

If you think you may have a virus / bug download and scan with malwarebytes http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=malwarebytes&platformSelect=Windows&tag=srch%3Ba&searchtype=downloads&filterName=platform%3DWindows&filter=platform%3DWindows If it comes out clean which I think it will.

If you think it is just under heavy loads, update your chipset drivers, video card drivers and see it that helps.

Check for updates for your (for XP only) DirectX if needed, check for Java / Flash updates if the main issue is only on line.

Check the event viewer logs for errors that you have received that may point us in the direction that you are having the issue in I would tell you how to do this but you didn't say what your OS was. 

The video card still maybe the issue and may be failing.   

If it is happening more and more start with the above and let us know how you make out, Mike 
 

[HardwareTwitch]

Good evening HardwareTwitch

If you think you may have a virus / bug download and scan with malwarebytes http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=malwarebytes&platformSelect=Windows&tag=srch%3Ba&searchtype=downloads&filterName=platform%3DWindows&filter=platform%3DWindows If it comes out clean which I think it will.

If you think it is just under heavy loads, update your chipset drivers, video card drivers and see it that helps.

Check for updates for your (for XP only) DirectX if needed, check for Java / Flash updates if the main issue is only on line.

Check the event viewer logs for errors that you have received that may point us in the direction that you are having the issue in I would tell you how to do this but you didn't say what your OS was. 

The video card still maybe the issue and may be failing.   

If it is happening more and more start with the above and let us know how you make out, Mike

Os i have------>windows xp sp2
I followed your options and these were the results i got-

-installed malware bytes and got 2 detected but that was some kind of installer in download section,removed them .Now none is there as detected by it.

-2 months back i guess i installed new driver for my nividia 7300se/7200gs.

- direct x i have is 9.0c, and that is the latest i guess.
  checked flash version,newer is available--so installed it.

-in event viewer, under different logs i could not find any entry written with error sign
only found single warning sign under application log..it was something like this "source:userenv event:1517 user:system"

One more point to mention-i installed driver for graphic card 2 months back and then few days back uninstalled it, after reboot i didn't got any display.after 2-3 trials it gave display and had no nividia software in it.
so i again installed the downloaded driver version(6.14.12.8558) which.

Is it possible some sort of driver error may be existing which is causing such freezing?
if it is ,please do tell me how to uninstall it properly and then re-install the new version of it and where to get the newer version for my graphic card 7300se/7300gs.

All that is happening is whenever i start playing game, immediately after 1-2 minutes it hangs and jarring sound comes and i have to restart the machine manually.

Any more options to try out,please do mention it.
Thanks in advance.
 

[DaveLembke]

I'd suggest Memtest86 on it. Burn this ISO from  http://www.memtest.org/   to a CD or DVD and run it for a full test, might take a while on that P4. I have had a similar issue a while back with my Pentium 4 2.8Ghz HT and found that my memory stick when addressing around the 700MB of the 2GB Ram ( 2 x 1GB Sticks ), there was a problem. I limped along on 1GB and sent my defective Ram stick back to Kingston and they sent me a replacement stick all was well after that. Games that locked up on me were World of Warcraft, and Need for Speed Carbon. I was running a GeForce 7800GT videocard. In addition to this WoW was crashing with memory dumps. Need for Speed Carbon was a bit much for this system, frame rate wasnt the greatest, but it was playable. When running this game the minitower was pumping out lots of heat.

Also, your running 1.5GB Ram so you are not running a matched Pair and sometimes 2 sticks dont play well together. Also if your motherboard supports dual-channel, your running single-channel on 1.5GB, so if you can match at least in size another 1GB stick or if you have 3 512MB sticks of 4 slots stuffed, find another 512MB to get 2GB matched pairs to enable dual-channel