game crashing problems.... help

[deviation56]

Ever since I recently formatted, I've been having tons of problems with my computer, mainly game related problems as follows:

Half Life 2 - Crashes as soon as it starts saying there's an error with HL2, the game still starts leaving the error in the background and is playable for about 5-10 minutes then it will exit crash to desktop.

UT2004 - The FPS will start out fine around 70 and then will slowly continue to drop for about 5 minutes until its about 2-3fps and unplayable.

Command and Conquer: Generals - Works fine for about 10-15 minutes then crashes to the desktop with an error stating that I either have a virus(nope, just formatted), my hardware is inadequate(obviously not), or my hardware is overheating.

Need for Speed Underground 2 - No apparent crashes yet.

System Specs as follows:

500w Aspire Power Supply
MSI K8N Neo Platinum Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Clawhammer-CG CPU (OC: 2.2ghz)
1GB (512MBx2) Corsair XMS PC3200C2 DDRAM (2.5-3-3-6)
HIS ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Excalibur IceQ 128MB Video Card (OC: 412/365)
120GB Seagate Serial-ATA Hard Drive

I was pretty convinced it was a driver problem seeing as I just formatted and everthing was working fine prior to format so I tried installing older drivers (catalyst 5.4 and 5.3) and there's still problems. So tomorrow I'm going to try putting in an older Nvidia video card and I'm also thinking about getting rid of the SATA drive just because its constantly getting corrupt and crashing... but any other ideas as to what might be wrong?

thanks

 

[Dillusion]

set your BIOS back to default, and use this sequence when reformatting windows and installing drivers:

XP > SP2 > Chipset > Chip. Accel. > Vid. > Everything Else...

 

[deviation56]

set your BIOS back to default, and use this sequence when reformatting windows and installing drivers:

XP > SP2 > Chipset > Chip. Accel. > Vid. > Everything Else...

I usually only install SP1 because I heard SP2 slows down some PCs and has other random problems... should I try SP2 anyway? And what do you mean by Chip. Accel.?

 

[Terra]

Not installing SP2 is asking for troubles...big security holes.

But it sounds to me like it could be a bad OC.
Try returning the 9800 to stock speeds..and see what happens?

Terra...

 

[deviation56]

i've had my 9800 pro OCed to XT speeds about since the day i installed it, its overclocked through the bios and i've never had a single prob.... what would cause it to suddenly screw up?

 

[Terra]

i've had my 9800 pro OCed to XT speeds about since the day i installed it, its overclocked through the bios and i've never had a single prob.... what would cause it to suddenly screw up?

Thermal dissapation eg.
There more you "squeze" silicium, but making it run with more Hz or more voltage, the more you shorten it's lifespand.
You have taken a piece of harware outside it's normal specs, and then shit can happen.
And if you notice you problems occur in 3D apps, after 5-10 minutes of gaming...a pretty big hint of a to HIGH OC...

Terra - Try going back to stock and see...and please don't RMA the card...because it can't OCC anymore...

 

[deviation56]

well i just formatted for the third time since i started having these problems and so far HL2 is working just fine without any crashes.. I haven't installed any other games yet but things are looking good, the video card is still OCed but the bios settings for the mobo are back to default... guess it must have been something in there... and thanks for your help guys