Massive problem with games....Bioshock2, RF:G, Crysis

Hello everybody,


I have tried to fix this issue before looking for answers to this problem I'm having on tomshardware.com, but I have not found a fix yet.

This is more or less what happens. I attempt to open a game, it begins to open, then just freezes the computer. I can ctrl+alt+del for about 5 seconds after starting said program, and then it will freeze, and eventually I will have to physically restart the computer.

List of games with issues so far:

All 3 Crysis games
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Bioshock 2

These are the games that do this to me, at least the ones I know about. I have many games though, about 30 on steam and another 20-or-so hard copy games. Some games I have are just as, if not more demanding than the 3 I have listed above. Wings of Prey, Rise of Flight, Empire: Total War just to name a few.

The Bioshock 2 issue is making me even more mad than the others though, because I have a huge desire to play the game. The issue I have with this one is that, when I install it, it will install fine UP TO THE "Activating Bioshock 2", then the computer will freeze just like everything else.

The extremely odd thing about this problem though is that Crysis (The game that first started doing this) ran perfectly fine for quite a long time. I stopped playing it for a while, then tried it again, and bam, freeze. This was before I ever added additional ram and a second videocard to my computer, and was before I ever attempted to overclock my CPU.

My specs:
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Intel Core2Duo E7400 OC@ 3.8GHz
8GB Mushkin DDR2 800
Two Sapphire HD 4870's in crossfire.

Things I have already tried:
Disabling crossfire / Removing second videocard all together
Returning my CPU to original clock speed
Removing the extra 4GB of RAM
Checking every cable inside of my computer.
Torture testing all components to be SURE that it wasn't that.
Reinstalling Games for Windows Live


The one thing I DO notice though, is that each of the games I have problems with always state that they are installing a directX component. I'm not sure what exactly this is, but it seems that the only games it does that with are the ones that give me problems.

So please, can SOMEBODY help me fix this issue. I'm completely lost as to what this could be.

You say you tried with only 1 card, but did you swap both to rule out a faulty vid card?

Bump