Comp Freezes in games...

Hello I finally bought my first brand new computer about a week ago. Its a great comp and its super fast...for what i use it for...*gaming* except the video card witch im getting a Nvidia Geforce GT 7800 in a couple days. The one i have now just isnt cutting it... its only a geforce fx 5500. Anyway i bought FEAR Quake 4 and Battlefield 2...and also i have world of warcraft. When i bought my new computer world of warcraft never froze once on it and then i got FEAR...it worked for a bit then all of a sudden it would freeze randomly sometimes id just get into the game and the whole computer would freeze. So then id restart. Now its doing this with Battlefield 2 and world of warcraft Quake 4 i havent played much but it hasnt given me any trouble yet. Ive checked my fan and its working that seems to me that would be the problem...a non working fan or some sort of overheating. The processor fan is also working...If anyone has any suggestions please post.

Specs.

Amd Athlon 64 - 3500+ 2.2ghz
1 gig of ram
256 nvidia geforce fx oc 5500
160 gig hard drive

 

Just because your fans are working doesnt mean that its not overheating. If its freezing after you've played a while then thats most likely the problem. Otherwise, i dunno...

 

Well yes but whats wierd is even after i leave the comp shut down awhile to cool off sometimes it will freeze right when i get into the game...i dont think it gets that hot that fast.

 

Try running a benchmark such as 3dmark and if that also causes a freeze then its probably overheating your video card or processor. Did you build the computer yourself? If so then the proc heatsink may not be stuck on their properly, you really have to push on those things to get them settled on there correctly....also try sum thermal paste ie) arctic silver

 

My bro was having a similar problem last few days, everything studdered every few minutes, turns out his hdd was about to pass away, happened after i reformatted and reinstalled windows today. Although it can be an overheating issue or an improperly installed drivers.