Bump. I think its the ram, I'll explain below.
I opened up my computer while it was powered down and removed one stick of ram. I booted it up and tried playing half life 2. It took longer to get the error. I then opened the computer back up and switched the ram sticks inside. I booted it up again and played half life 2. It took less time, but still significantly more then with both sticks in to error up.
This seems to prove that it is the ram that is causing my problems. I wanted to know if anyone here has encountered this problem and if so tell me a good pair that will definitely work.