Computer is screwed up

[Cevlar]

Problem: When I play Rome - Total War or Simcity 4, around 30 minutes into the game, it will freeze, the sound will turn off, and it will sit like that for a minute or two, then it will shut down and restart. I thought it was a virus, but I ran a virus scan, a few came up, so I deleted them, I no longer have any viruses... at least any that can be detected by it (Norton 2006). Then I thought it might be my Graphics card, so I reinstalled that, I thought I got it, but no, after 30 minutes into the game, it froze! The funny thing is, it only happends on those two games! The other games I have are fine.

System Specs:

Manufacturer
HP Pavilion 061

Processor
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.60GHz

Memory
504MB RAM

Hard Drive
120 GB

Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce 6200

Monitor
Plug and Play Monitor

Sound Card
Realtek AC97 Audio

Keyboard
USB Root Hub

Mouse
USB Root Hub

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)

If you could help please do, could you also please tell me if my current system is out-dated and I should start to look for something better or maybe upgrade this one? If you could help or tell me my computer is a peice of crap it's greatly appreciated !!

[GX1_Man]

Have a read here:

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1149804407

Does this only happen while gaming?
 
The most common causes are heat, bad RAM or bad power supply. To test #1 take the side off the case and blow a fan directly in there while gaming. See if this makes a difference.
 
To test the RAM get the free download at www.memtest86.com
 
What is the make, wattage and age of the power supply? It should be printed on the side of it.

Has it always been this way or did this just start? A Celeron is not a great gaming processor, and HP's are not great gaming machines. Track will be along shortly to advise further.

There are other things than viruses which may or may not be fully removed. Did you do the scans in Safe Mode with System Restore turned off?  Have a look here:

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1149948530

[Track]

Well, there could be many possibilites to this problem..

Your PSU may not have enough power to deal with the hardware, but since the PC was cutom built that dosent make much sence. So the only possibility is that its faulty.

You could STILL have viruses or malicious programs, running around ur PC.
Download "Ad-Aware SE" and "AVG Free Edition", the latter being an anti-virus so ull have to disable/un-install Norton 2006.

Rome - Total War is a new game, released at the very end of 2004. Your PC reaches the minimum sepcs required, but it is still quite a restraint for it to run on a Celeron and a 6200. If ur CPU is being used for other things, beside the game then it could be the problem.

Wich leads me to the possibilty of the CPU/GPU not working well or being faulty.
This could also have to do with their temperatures. If they are high, then the PC will shut down.. but it wont freeze so its probably something else.

[Neil]

Track I have played RTW on computers [highlight]much[/highlight] worse than that (talking MX 400 64MB here) and his computer surpasses the minimum requirements of 1Ghz and GeForce 2. So give the your-computer-just-isn't-good-enough thing a rest. The over heating suggestion is a good one, just keep the rest of the baggage out, OK?

On the display properties, go to settings, advanced, troubleshoot, and move the slider two notches left. Any improvement?