Okay so the problem I am having is that my computer seems to be incapable of playing certain games. I can't even reliably find out why they are crashing. I know in Stalker Call of Pripyat when firing at an enemy and some physics happen the screen flashes for a second, and then goes black freezing my entire computer. In Borderlands the same thing happens when firing at enemies, but no idea if physics are involved in this. Finally yesterday while playing Borderlands I didn't think much of it, but my screen freaked out. It went purple, and started flashing all sorts of colours but primarily black and purple. Crashed the game, then steam, and finally my computer froze and crashed.

I know for a fact I can play Company of Heroes fine. So does anyone see some patterns I'm missing? I updated my drivers as well and this is still happening. Is it software, or hardware?

Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
2Gigs of Ram
SLI Geforce 8800GT

Your basic specs ought to play most games just fine. That said your rough description indicates a hardware failure, probably your video card. However the problem is likely being caused by a marginal power supply.

Check processor and GPU temps, as well as PSU voltages.

PC Wizard: http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

Sounds like overheating to me, or voltage issue.

Okay will install and run. Also I just cleaned this computer a month ago, there's barely any dust inside so it can't be overheating. Last I checked with the CPU temperature thing it was well within normal temperature ranges.

I'm pretty novice when it comes to the voltage, so someones going to have to explain it a little better to me. Let me know if it's operating within parameters.

Processor Voltage : 1.34 V
+3.3V Voltage : 3.26 V
+5V Voltage : 4.87 V
+12V Voltage : 12.29 V
+5V VCCH : 4.92 V
VBAT : 3.14 V
TMPIN0 : 37 °C
TMPIN1 : 38 °C
TMPIN2 : 24 °C
Hardware Monitoring : ACPI
Thermal Zone : 40 °C
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo : Sensor DTS
Core 1 : 37 °C
Core 2 : 40 °C
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT : nVidia Driver + anolog Devices ADT7473 +
Temperature : 78 °C
Temperature (Ambient) : 59 °C
Temperature (GPU) : 78 °C
Temperature (Card) : 59 °C
Fan : 30%
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT : nVidia Driver + anolog Devices ADT7473 +
Temperature : 78 °C
Temperature (Ambient) : 59 °C
Temperature (GPU) : 79 °C
Temperature (Card) : 60 °C
Fan : 30%
Hard Disk Monitoring : S.M.A.R.T
Hard Disk WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA0 : 28 °C

Edit
I'll post my power supply tomorrow, I couldn't find the bill of sale. So I'll have to take a look at the part itself.

Hate to bump this so soon, but now I can't even play something as simple as Counter Strike Source. Time to be bored out of my mind now.

Okay I finally found my parts list. I have a "CM 750w Real Power" supply.

Just for the heck of it and to see whether it affects anything, try disabling SLI. If it helps, it can be a driver problem. If not, we'll have to try something else.

8800GT at 78 when in full power? Could you tune up the fan to 50% and see if that helps? I know my 9800GT went nuts when it hit around 75-80 degree. I had to forfeit the case and blew a big fan directly at it to calm it down to around 70.

As for the possible voltage issue, if your PSU doesn't provide stable current to the video card, it doesn't matter how many W it has. I had a 350W PSU capable of pushing my old 8600 better than a 450W PSU.

How would I turn up the speed of the fans?

Edit
As for the driver. These problems started happening before I updated my drivers, and I don't know if it was because of the driver update or hardware problem but now it's getting worse. As I said I can't even play CSS anymore. So unless the stable drivers I had been using for months just spontaneously broke (can they even do that?), I doubt it's a driver problem.

Edit2
Just went and looked it up, going to use RivaTuner to increase the fan speed on the graphics cards. I'll assume by increasing their fan speed, it also increases the power they use.

Thats true, but the additional power consumption is marginal.
Bad you HAVE TO turn up the fan. 80°C is crazy. More than crazy, thats insane.
My 8800GT had about 50 to 60°C or so when running a game.

My guess is that the graphics card just overheats.
Try turning up the fan speed to 50 or 70%. You can also try to put it up to 100% (very loud) and play games and look if it still crashes.

Maybe try to play with an opened chassis.
It could be that the cables inside your PC are blocking a good air flow.

Okay did some testing, one of my graphics cards was causing the problem. So I've simply removed it and it's running fine now. Also I was told for running SLI that 80degrees or so was roughly okay for the unmodified card.

Good to hear!
80°C normal? I don't know how it is with SLI, but those poor transistors on your card won't survive that long with such high temperaturs.
So if you want to keep the cards for a longer time then upgrade your cooling system or get the temperature down somehow.

And now enjoy your games.
:thumbsup:

Considering they have been running that high for 3 years just fine I doubt it's a problem. Regardless, I'm going to be upgrading my computer soon. I just wanted this one working as a back up, hell might even give it away to someone I know.

What is the temp when there is just the one card? If it's still around 78C, you're not out of the woods yet.

Also, I would be concerned about the fans only being at 30%. The cards fan controller should have bumped that right up at those temps.

I am aware of an issue with some versions of nVidia drivers not controlling fans properly, however the exact details escape me. Maybe a trip to the nVidia site and it's forum is in order?

high 70s and low 80s, is normal for most graphics cards during moderate to high load (70%+). Most graphics card can technically run at 100-120C before damage will occur to the chips. Obviously cooler temperatures would increase the life of the card, but again 70/80C is normal.

Most likely your issues aren't directly related to heat. I could still be a graphics card problem, like a defective memory chip.

***

First thing I would do is run a memtest86+ test. RAM may cause BSoD/crashing during games, especially those that are more demanding. RAM is used an a overflow buffer, so more demanding games may exceed the video memory limits, or the graphics card may call the graphics aperture for other reasons.