Please help memory problem

Hey people my problem is nearly every game i run on my pc crashes with no error just crashes the pc after 10 to 20 minutes of play, games like half life 2 and republic commando.

I was thinking of increasing my memory i have 512mb ddr-sdram but im not sure what ram do i buy for it? its an evesham pc my graphics card is a radeon 9600 is that needing upgraded? it a athlon xp3000 processer

Any suggestions welcome thanks.

 

Run memtest it can be found in the download section on majorgeeks,see if it finds any errors,other than that it could be a heat or power issue,the gfx card does need upgrading but it wont be causing your issue. If it crashes roughly every 20 mins it is probably heat thats when things start getting toasty.

 

Thanks rikky, I did think it may be something like that. What do i need to get another fan i take it? can u tell me where?

 

one thing at a time run memtest first.! Do all the free things first,then think about spending money!

 

k will do thanks.

 

okay ran memtest and got no errors.

 

Take device manager,
Rightclick atiradeon under display adapter>properties>resources
Is there any device conflicts?

 

An easy way to eliminate heat is to take the side of the case off then let a benchamark program run on loop like 3dmark2003 its a large download,2001 is a smaller file but not as taxing set it to loop and just let it run for a couple of hours"if it makes it"see if it locks up.

 

Theres no conflicts under the radeon card in dev. manager i have tried taking the side of and running 3dmark and everything seemed ok got a score of 27010 if that means anything to yous!!

 

If it worked without the side off leave it off and see if the problem still occurs during regular use if it doesn't theres your prob.
Also make sure you download the latest driver for your video card.