Okay, I have a really bizarre problem. For months my computer has worked wonderfully playing demanding games such as Doom 3, Far Cry, and Oblivion. However, within the last couple of days it suddenly crashes after starting the game. The game (any of them) will start to load, and usually after about 1 minute the machine locks. No blue screen, no errors messages, just a blank monitor. No key commands work, I have to hold the computer power button for 5 seconds to power down. When I reboot, Windows acts as though nothing happened.

I initially thought maybe heat was a problem, but like I said, it had been working fine for months. Plus, if I start the machine cold, boot a game, it still freezes within a minute or so. Could heat build up that quickly? All the fans are functioning. I tend to think this is NOT hardware issue, since it was working fine before, but I'm first to admit I don't know a lot about computer hardware.

The only thing that I can remember chaning on the system was uninstalling Steam. I had tried a demo of Half Life 2 through Steam, and actually had the demo lockup a few times. Dunno if that could have something to do with it, though the timing is suspcious.

My system is clean of viruses and spyware (I've run it through two independant scanners, nothing significant found).

Here are my system specs:
P4E 3ghz
2GB Corsair Dual-Channel 400 DDR memory
Gigabyte 81PE1000 motherboard
Nvidia 6600GT with 128MB onboard

I'm running Windows XP Home Edition

If anyone has tackled this, I would be very grateful for the help!!

Might be worth a System Restore to a point prior to the demo of Half Life 2 through Steam install.


start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore


Or uninstall and then reinstall your nVidea drivers.