Hi, lately windows has been crashing/freezing on me, specially when playing video games. The computer screen will freeze, and I have to reboot. I'm not sure if its actually the computer crashing, or if somehow the signal from the computer to the screen relaying the images is freezing/stopping. I've tried checking drivers and outdated programs and I'm just not sure what to do anymore. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

what do you run for a video card?
another problem could be the games , for example if your running xp a lot of games such as cod5 will not run. although it says it will. vista is a requirement for a lot of new games

Hi, thanks for getting back to me, and sorry I took so long to reply. I gave up hope on this thread . I have a ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Series (get your laughs now). Would it be best just to firstly try getting a new graphics card? I know this one is horribly old... and not the best for playing games anyway.

What games are you playing when it freezes?

What is the make and model of the computer?

Check your Event Viewer for coinciding errors.

Your symptoms are generally hardware related and the graphics would be the first suspect.

Does the computer run OK otherwise?

1.It often happens when I play WoW, or GTA sometimes.
2. It's a Packard Bell AMD athlon 64 processor 3400+, 2.19GHz, 960RAM. it was the first computer I bought, and I would've bought a different one now, had I known what I know now about computers in general.
3.How do I check my event viewer?
4. I thought it might be something do to with the graphics too, I've updated my drivers, which is the first, and only thing I could think of to "fix" them.
5.Yes, the computer seems to run ok otherwise. Only when I'm playing games, or trying to watch a DVD to I get problems.

Do you know your graphics device?

Check start > Run... dxdiag

The Event Viewer is under Administrative Tools. Look under the System as well as the Application tabs. Errors are time stamped so look for errors that coincide with a freeze.

Is it freezing or actually crashing? Shutting down?

Also try this scan for the games you run:

Can you run it ..............................................

Can You RUN It?

I poster my graphics card already. It came with the computer(ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Series). My computer is freezing, but, somehow I don't think it completly stops sending data throught the internet, until I shut it down, (because I can't do anything). For example if I'm doing somehting in-game on WoW I will continue doing it, t|ill I shut down I think. The computer screen totally freezes, but maybe something is still going on inside, although it does quiet down too, after freezing. Gonna check that website now.

Sorry I overlooked the card info.

From your description that would be my first suspect.

Did you try "Can You Run It"?

You could also try the tests listed under: start > Run... > dxdiag > Display

Also keep in mind if you upgrade your card to check the PSU requirements of the new card.

I did try "can you run it". but it got stuck at the downloading part, even though I tried it a few times. Ill try again tonight, and also look through the dxdiag display tests. Thanks for your help so far .

hmm....

Maybe you need a "Can You Run It" for the "Can You Run It"