Computer help

[Italian Stalion]

Ive been having some weird crashing issues during certain games where the game freezes my screen turns a random color, than black, then my monitor loses connection with my system, then black, then goes back to the game. This happens like every 30 minutes in Starcraft 2 other times the game will straight up freeze in SC2. also in HL2 episode 2 every 15 minutes the game will just freeze, there will be an audio loop screen will go black ill alt tab and hl2.exe has stoped working. I have tried changing my "pagedpoolsize" In regedit (as advised by the internet) which didnt help me at all.
I'm on my computer of which I built
my specs are
CPU 3ghz 440 triple core processor
RAM 2gb gskill ram 1600mhz
PSU 460 watt psu (coolermaster)
GPU saphire 5670 1gb
FANS1 80mm intake fan 1 140mm output fan
CASE micro atx rosewill
MOBO am3/ddr3 Asus micro atx board

I am almost 100% sure heating is not my problem, I'm thinking the sc2 problem is because I dont have enough ram because I run most settings on ultra and when I look in task manager its taking like 90+% of my ram. I have had the weird freeze unfreeze error with other games however like Tropico 3
THANKS FOR ANY HELP YOU GUYS GIVE ME
PS. when i run sc2 on medium settings same thing still happens

 

[BonsaiK]

Sounds more like virus behaviour to me. I'd check that first.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Have you tried updating your drivers for the screen card/graphics card?

 

[Corpse XxX]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102465-Blizzard-Offers-Fix-for-StarCraft-Computer-Melting-Bug


Or maybe it is this??

 

[Italian Stalion]

ive already updated my drivers and ive been having this with other games besides starcraft 2 but thanks anyways guys

 

[Danzaivar]

Sounds like overheating to me. Get some compressed air and blow out all the dust, maybe stick another intake fan on the side and make sure the cables are bundled out of the way so you get good air flow.

How hot is the air blowing out of the graphics card?

 

[merf1350]

Having read the article Corpse linked to, I would say that is a possibility. Maybe try opening the PC after such behavior and see how toasty the GPU is. Otherwise, yeah the drivers. I had similar issues for over a year when I made the mistake of running Vista. There was no good driver for mu GPU, and it would behave similarly to what you describe. Updating the driver when it was finally released fixed the issue like a charm. Give it a try, it's probably the easiest thing you can do to find out.

 

[Italian Stalion]

Sounds like overheating to me. Get some compressed air and blow out all the dust, maybe stick another intake fan on the side and make sure the cables are bundled out of the way so you get good air flow.

How hot is the air blowing out of the graphics card?

I actually did use compressed air on my cpu along with putting in some artic silver thermal paste, I really don't think its heating cause when im playing sc2 (after my computers been idle) ill start playing and it will do this in like 15 minutes and other times ill be playing for like an hour and then it will happen, usually happens after 30 minutes.
Do you think it could me lacking ram? because ill alt tab out, look in me task manager and see that 95% of my ram is in use and i know the games ram usage changes as more stuff comes on screen so maybe i'm overloading it?

 

[Continuity]

Do you think it could me lacking ram? because ill alt tab out, look in me task manager and see that 95% of my ram is in use and i know the games ram usage changes as more stuff comes on screen so maybe i'm overloading it?

No, in a word. Having low RAM does not cause crashes, it causes poor performance - unless the game is overflowing the memory which is pretty damn rare, Supreme commander is the only game I know that can do that on its largest map.

Have you monitored your temperatures whilst gaming? and have you done stress testing on your RAM, CPU and GPU? Also are all your drivers up to date and correct? even something silly like a dodgy sounds card driver could cause what you're experiencing.

1) Stress test your CPU and RAM with Prime95 for about an hour at least, monitor temeratures as you go with something like Speed fan.

2) Stress test your GPU with Furmark, stability test with temperature logging, max AA and native res for your monitor - keep it running until the temperature plateaus - watch for artifacts and note down the top temperature.

3) Make sure your BIOS and all drivers (motherboard, sound, graphics, even network cards and controllers) are up to date, and that your RAM & CPU are correctly recognised and setup in BIOS.

4) If you're new to building computers crack open the case again and make double sure that everything is correctly and firmly seated e.g. RAM, Graphics card and CPU heatsink, PSU connections.

5) Check event viewer to see if there are any logged errors under application or system, see if a particular cause or driver is indicated.

 

[Danzaivar]

Sounds like overheating to me. Get some compressed air and blow out all the dust, maybe stick another intake fan on the side and make sure the cables are bundled out of the way so you get good air flow.

How hot is the air blowing out of the graphics card?

I actually did use compressed air on my cpu along with putting in some artic silver thermal paste, I really don't think its heating cause when im playing sc2 (after my computers been idle) ill start playing and it will do this in like 15 minutes and other times ill be playing for like an hour and then it will happen, usually happens after 30 minutes.
Do you think it could me lacking ram? because ill alt tab out, look in me task manager and see that 95% of my ram is in use and i know the games ram usage changes as more stuff comes on screen so maybe i'm overloading it?

The stuff you did would fix the processor overheating. It sounds like your graphics card is overheating, especially if it takes a while to heat up and is crashing quicker on the more intensive games. More airflow to the graphics card (A fan blowing at it would be best) and a good clean would probably do it.

 

[Italian Stalion]

Id like to thank y'all for the advice, After thinking for a while I remembered I had some problems putting in my gpu, well I put it back in and it felt like I did it correctly this time so im going to go play some starcraft 2 and see what happens,
PS. my gpu was advertised as low heat output and low energy consumption :/

 

[Italian Stalion]

I guess i had it in right the first time anyway I was playing sc2 with the case open and while playing sc2 i put my finger on the gpu (was grounded) and it was hot! so I'm guessing that ill have to put a fan there and that should solve my issue, THANKS GUYS!