Computer and Programs chrashing for unknown reasons

[TVOut]

Hi, recently my computer has been crashing for reasons I can't determine. On Monday, I tried to run a game (Empire:Total War) for the first time in a while and while in the middle of playing my computer crashed.

Now my computer crashes pretty often, and individual programs crash even more often. (So far I haven't had a program that hasn't crashed to desktop, including my anti-virus program) I haven't installed any new software or hardware recently.

The error message on the blue screen change pretty often. Sometimes it say page_fault_in_nonpaged_area, or irql_not_less_or_equal, or a few other message or no message at all!

I've tried a few things, I completely reinstalled my video drivers (or so I think), I defraged my hard drive, I performed a system restore to a date prior to the crash but that simply made things worse so I undid it.

As for what I can say for my computer, it's about 11 months old. I have never cleaned out the dust

The specs are:
OS: Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: Core 2 Duo E8500
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
Video Card: XFX Geforce 9800GT
RAM: 4 gigs made by g.skill

 

[MrLinux]

Have you checked the Motherboard temperatures?
Could be either over heating (North Bridge) or a faulty RAM stick; if the Motherboard temperatures are OK, try running a RAM test (MemTest86 or similar) for a few hours.

 

[TVOut]

Tested the RAM and no errors reported. At this point the computer just completely turns itself off, and I think it might be overheating. (If I restart right after it completely turns off then it will turn off again while booting the computer)

How can I check my motherboard temps, and how can I cool it down if it's overheating?

 

[tatoruso]

Hi!
to check ur mobo temps, enter BIOS immediately after bootup and go to the "PC HEALTH STATUS"
There you will find the CPU temps, voltages for a variety of items and "system temperature" or somethig like that.
if you enter there just after a crash, perhaps you will see if temps are higher than usual.
You can lower Northbridge temperature changing the stock heatsink for a beefier 3rd party one, it´s relatively simple to mod an old socket7 cooler to fit, or buy a special, adequate one online.
Always put a very thin layer of thermal grease at the chip-heatsink joint to optimize heat transfer.
Check if your case has adequate ventilation, or else add a 8cm fan or two and see if things improve.

Im thinking that just by removing the case side cover and leaving it open, your system should get good ventilation enough to discard the overheating northbridge problem...

sorry for my bad english, not a native speaker.

 

[thephilly]

Check temps in BIOS as above or you can use Real Temp for CPU temps.

Cleaning dust out is the easiest way to drop temps. Otherwise you need to determine what is overheating. I.e. if the CPU is overheating adding case fans or a chipset fan isn't going to help.

You may want to take a look at minidump files generated from the blue screens. If the culprit is consistent it can point to bad/corrupt drivers. If they are seemingly random it points more towards hardware.