Gaming shut-downs, PLEASE HELP!

[Aryonas]

-AMD Athalon X2 5600+ AM2 Socket (with heat-sync)
-Sparkle SLI NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512mb Video Card
-Seagate Barracuda 400GB Hard-drive
-ASUS M2N-E SLI Mother Board
-OCZ "Platinum 2 Revision" 2GB DDR2 Dual Channel RAM (2 X 1GB Stick)

When I play some of my computer games, the game will stop responding, the computer will freeze, or it will reboot/crash. If it stops responding, sometimes I can close it via task manager. Other times, I cannot alt+tab to task manager. The problems all have something in common: 3 out of 5 times, when my PC reboots (either by "freezing/crashing as explained above, or by me) a Microsoft Error Message will appear, saying that my system has recovered from a serious error. The error message says I should either download the most updated graphics card driver, or lower my hardware acceleration to "none." I have gotten the most updated driver already from the NVIDIA website, and I refuse to get rid of my quality by reducing hardware acceleration. Can somebody please help me?? Please! I built this computer 3 months ago when I was 16 (i'm now 17 tho). I really don't know where else to get help. I'm not a pro. Help please.

 

[Bobert93]

download speed fan and tell us what ur temps are,
it could be that the cpu gets to hot and computer freezes ,
what fan have u got

 

[A True Folder]

If the error message is talking about NVIDIA drivers I'd suggest the 8600GT may be overheating, definitely do as cryman suggests and report back with the temperature readings.

What are your room temperatures?

What is your case fan set up?

Latest driver is the 169.21 WHQL, is that the one you have?

Are your m/board drivers up to date?

What bios version?

 

[Aryonas]

According to NVmonitor (in NVIDIA Control Panel), my temp. is at this moment (after playing Gears of War for about 30 mins):
-CPU: 38*C
-System (don't know what this refers to): 30*C
-GPU: 65*C (My GPU was at 78*C-71*C when I was first posting the reply, but quickly cooled)

My fans are:
-A single Vantec Spectrum PCI Fan Card with Blue UV LED
-Ultra 3.5" Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler 2x60mm Fans
-Thermaltake Cyclo Clear Memory Cooler with Blue LED (Really is kind of useless)
-Case includes: Side Mounted 10cm Fan, Rear Mounted 120mm Fan and a Front Mounted 120mm Fan. My power supply has its fan and my GPU and and CPU have their stock heat-syncs still attached.

Thanks! Please help!

 

[A True Folder]

nothing out of the ordinary with those temps.

Drivers? bios?

What psu do you have?

EDIT: Is your card the passive cooled or the active cooled?

 

[Aryonas]

My video card driver is the same number you have, but I don't know about the letters you had. I'm not that advanced really, , so I don't know if my drivers are up to date, for my mother board that is. My power supply is a 450w. Came with my Xion case. I read some stuff about updating BIOS, but it all called for a floppy drive in order to put data or something on. I don't have a floppy drive man. Thats too old! P.S. I thought it may be voltage, so I checked it out and got some advice. I found out that 1.35v - 1.30v is good for my processor. I went to the BIOS setup or whatever it is at startup, and set the value to 1.30. That was actually the highest value possible! OH, ALSO: NVmonitor says my proc. is at 1.56v, so I think that maybe it's not compatible with my MB. So maybe it's wrong about heat too?

 

[A True Folder]

Mate, unless you know what you're doing with voltages leave everything at stock settings.

Is the 8600GT passive cooled or active cooled???

 

[Aryonas]

How do I know if it's passive or active?

 

[Computer Head]

How do I know if it's passive or active?

Active is a running fan, whereas passive is just a heatsink.

 

[A True Folder]

Does it have a fan cooler or not? Which one of these does it look like?

Passive - Click here for picture

Active - Click here for picture