PC gaming lock-up

[riot]

Hi all,

I'm having some serious problems with my current rig, which locks up at random intervals for about 20secs, on Half Life 2, Mafia and UT2004 (havn't tried out any other games)

Here is my PC spec:

CPU:

Pentium 4 2.8 (533FSB i think)
512mb DDR RAM

MoBo:

Via P4X400-8235 - BIOS v6.00PG

Graphics

Gainward Geforce4 4200ti 128mb AGP8 - Latest Drivers
Running @ Mem:626 Core:297

If you need anymore infomation, just shout!

It's only really started happening recently, and i have heard of no problems with the driver for this card. Could it be to do with heat, because my PC is pretty dust, but it always has been, why now? :S

Anyway if you could help I would appreciate it hugely, as i'm missing my Frag Feropy

ps. Just had a thought, I recently raised the refresh rate of the desktop to 72(ish) at 1152X846 - could this make my games crash?

 

[Avalanch3]

have you run spyware and virus scans ??

 

[nuke]

over heating may be..

 

[Anphrax]

You should get more RAM for one, but does it happen more than one time? If not maybe a codec... if so probly overheating.

 

[riot]

Turns out it was heat, because when I removed the side panel of my case, HalfLife 2 ran great

Weird it has started doing it now, I guess it's just buildup of dust

Thanks for your time and advice all

riot

 

[nuke]

dam, i was right lol.