Computer Freezes, need a bit of advise

[Sungkoo]

I built a new computer about 2 months ago and just within the last week it has been freezing up on me. This tends to happen most while I play either CounterStrike:Source or another game called SecondLife, which is also kind of graphically demanding. It also happens randomly during normal computer use and a couple times while idling. Ive ran antivirus stuff and all that which came up negative. I'm thinking its a power issue and that I should buy a new powersource, but Im catious on this since the computer seemed to run fine before this week. Any advise would be appreciated, thanks.

Asus p4p800 se mobo
512 x2 corsair memory
p4 3.0e prescott
windows xp home sp2
ati radeon 9600 128mb
350w power (max)

 

[bigstanklo]

Do you have a utility (should've came with your mobo) that will show you the temperatures of the CPU and different zones on your PC? Sounds like it could be something overheating and causing it to freeze. Just a possibility to check before buying something new....

 

[Nitestick]

does sound like it could be a heating issue. i wouldn't rule out a virus as a possible cause yet though. too many times a worm has gotten past my AV even though i had the most current definitions.

 

[Sungkoo]

Ya, my case has very poor cooling at the moment. I currently run it with the side open with a large fan blowing into it whenever I play large games. I do have the utility, and as of right now, with the fan blowing in, the cpu is at 38 and the mobo is at 29. I've checked immediatly after leaving a game and the cpu has been up near 50. I'll run something really quick and let you know more accurate load temps.

 

[Sungkoo]

Looks to be 49/30 for full load

 

[Law]

Everytime someone complain about thier computer freezing or crashing during a game or intense application they are using an ati graphic card which to me is very unstable. You might want to try and disable fastwrite and set agp speed to off.

 

[Sungkoo]

bump