Okay, I recently set a new computer up with...

-Intel DX38BT Motherboard
-2 x 1GB of DDR3 SDRAM 1600 Memory
-eVga GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GPU
-Intel Core 2 Extreme 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

I've been crashing on multiple games. It's always specific parts of the games at least for the Singleplayer parts like for CoD4 and HL2:Episode 2. On CoD4 it'll crash on the car scene while you're being driven as the president guy and HL2:Ep2 it'll crash at the part after the portal implodes near the end. It also does random crashes on Crysis and CoD4 Multiplayer but not often.

When it crashes it draws one single color across the whole screen and loops the last sound that ocurred. The color seems to either be random or possibly the dominant color that was being displayed before it does the crash. I found that other apps that I have running still respond so it's not the computer that crashes I assume. People in TeamSpeak were talking still while it ocurred.

I have updated my graphics drivers with the latest EVGA drivers then tried the NVIDA official drivers and still got no luck so I switched back to the EVGA. Does anyone have any advice for me? What could it be? Thanks a lot!

Are you using Riva tuner? if your not, get it and OC the vid card a little, and see if it helps, sounds like the video has a issue of some sort

do NOT OC, it never helps with stability and its not an issue with an 8800 gts being too slow to run the game - although rivatuner could be useful to control the fan and check your temps, if it gets to about 90 degrees then you should be concerned, and i agree, it does sound like a video issue

yay funky intermittent computer glitches. Check all of your drivers to make sure you are using the newest for sound and motherboard as well. Check the video card temps and fan speeds, if that looks good then look at the usual suspects... Memory, power supply, and motherboard.

Any suggestions for the best thing to use to check my CPU and GPU temp while in game?

Check your graphics card manufacturer's website, if they don't have a tool for it then check Nvidia's website.

For the CPU you might want to check Intel's website.

speed fan... it will defo tell u ur cpu temp and i think it tells u the gpu temp for nvidia cards, get it here..

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

its not always 100% able to controll and read all fans acurately but if the temps are ok under load then theres no need 2 worry 'bout fans speeds

try speedfan. usualy cpus want to be below ~60.c and gpu below ~80.c (maybe 90.c depending on wich gpu, but i dont like having anything above 80.c)

other thing to try mainly is drivers... get the newest drivers for sound & video first.. then give some games a try.

btw wot psu have you got and how many and wot size of case fans do u have

Okay, I logged my GPU temperature while I was playing that part of CoD4 and within less than three minutes it went from about 62ºC to 78ºC and then crashed. Is that a critical temperature or does that totally cancel out the GPU temperature from being the problem?

Well, I hadn't had a chance to use a CPU temperature monitor but it appears that that is what the problem was. I have the heatsink/fan that Intel provided with the Core 2 Extreme and I had the switch on quiet mode. When I put it on performance mode and tried that same part of CoD4 that always crashed (at least 15 times) it actually passed it. I'm so happy now! Now to play pass that part of HL2:Ep2!

never tone down the fan speed on boxed coolers
if you build your own passive cooling systems with low noise fans, that's something else, only for advanced builders tough