Quake3World

My problem started after I restarted my computer when Half-Life 2 froze. Ever since then, I've been unable to run any graphics intensive programs like Quake 3 and Half-Life 2. When I try to play these games, at first it will run fine, but once I get past the main menu and start playing the game, it only takes about 10 seconds for the game to glitch up and pretty much freeze. I'll see a pattern of green and red dots form on the screen, and the video is either completely frozen or close to it. Trying to alt-tab or control-alt-delete out of the program doesn't really do much good because of how horrifyingly slow the computer is running. Pressing the power button will eventually cause the computer to turn off after about 10 to 15 minutes. This sort of problem has also happened a few times when I'm just watching videos in VLC. What always happens is a few seconds after the initial freezing, the screen will flash black every few seconds.

I've tried reinstalling and updating the driver for my graphics card and it didn't change anything. I tried running the DirectX diagnostic tool, and though it didn't find any problem with the files, the program will freeze while its performing the Direct3D tests. I don't really know what to do besides install Windows XP, but unfortunately I left my XP cd at home when I came back to college after winter break. Because of this I would really like to try and fix the problem without reinstalling.

Sounds like a hardware/heat issue. I'd guess that the problem you first had with HL2 was a symptom and not a cause.

Check temps, get a can of compressed air and clear the heatsink on your card/fans/boards. If none of that works, card might be frazzled.

How can I check the temperature? I've never done that sort of thing before.

Depends on your PC/motherboard.

If you have a motherboard driver disc, check it for a monitoring utility.

Also reboot and check your BIOS, some have built-in temperature readings. Even if its just for the CPU, it'll give you some idea of whether the PC is too hot or running comfortably.

Failing that, there's a program called Motherboard Monitor which'll read temperatures on all your components, and fan speeds etc.

Also if it's a modern ATI or nVidia card, I think the latest drivers usually show temperatures under their control panels.