Hey guys im new here and have a problem :/ i purchased a new computer about a year an a half ago from best buy, it is the Gateway FX. It is 2.5 quad core possessor, 6GB of ram,600GB HD, and an Nvidia 9800GT. My problem is if i play any high end/newer games it crashes, Call of duty modern warfare 2, and also Left for dead 1 and 2 to be specific. Well after roughly 10-15 minutes my Game crashes then the computer shuts down and first i was getting a weird error at the bottom left that said "Display drivers has stopped responding and has recovered" but now it just crashes. The only problem i can identify with this computer is the power supply which is only giving out 400W..i have another Power supply from my old PC that is 500W, its a prudent way. do you guys think that my power supply is causing the problem and if so should my 500W be enough to play these newer games?
Thanks.

I think it's the PSU. Get yourself a decent PSU like the Corsair 450VX at least. Also check the temperatures in your system and ensure that you have the latest graphics drivers installed. Modern Warfare 2 should run fine on the highest settings on the 9800GT. It does so on mine.

^Depends on the resolution though, but the 9800GT is an ample solution for all of the games mentioned. If swapping the power supply doesn't solve the problem, I would recommend trying the card in another computer if you can. It's a bit strange that the card has worked in the system for a year and is just now having problems though. Was the 9800GT installed with the computer when you bought it or did you upgrade yourself?

the 9800 GT was already in the computer when i bought it.. i took apart my computer about an hour ago and dusted everything out really good, there was a lot of dust in the processor fan and the heat sink and i mean a lot..i took my old PSU out and swapped it with another one i had laying around which has 500W..i will let you guys know how it goes.

Well so far so good..it froze up like twice for 2-3 seconds but came back while playing COD modern warfare 2..it might have been the grfx card or the CPU over heating from all the dust or me putting in a stronger PSU. And also has anyone found a solid solution for "display driver has stopped responding but has recovered" i have red around and some people say it could be vista and some say the drivers need to be fixed and others say the RAM needs to be lowered. thanks guys

make sure to keep tabs on GPU heat and download RivaTuner if you need to adjust the fan speed. a cool graphics card is a happy graphics card, a rule which can pretty much apply to all computer hardware so make sure your system isn't overheating by using fan controls. same goes for CPU too, which you can monitor through most benchmarking software. i would also recommend a better thermal compound on the 9800GT as they are notorious for running hot, especially the early models.

I would stop using Vista and do a clean install of XP or WIn 7 32bit

probably you need to update ur graphics driver.I have 9800GT too and it's running smoothly all the new games includein MW2.Just uninstall ur driver and install new one.Is it running old games well then?

Yes i all ready installed new drivers, i did not mention that because it is the first thing anyone would do..and a quick question if i have 6GB of ram will XP recognize all 6?

another question..what is the average temp a CPU should run at? i get 77-79 when call of duty is not played but right after i get done playing i get around 92-93..i put another fan in my computer to take out hot air because i just realized that the computer did not have any fans to blow out air..i wonder how bad it was before i put it in there.

that's much too high, temps in general should be lower than 60c at all times! you should def look into getting a better CPU cooler.

no xp 32 bit can only recognize up to 3.5 Gb of ram. like the others have suggested get rivatuner and bump the fan speed up to like 60% and you should be good. also download driver sweeper use it to uninstall the nvidia display drivers then install the newest drivers from there web site.

my gpu idles at 178F but everthing els is fine hmm..i don't know whats going on

Now its clear that ur card is running on high temp which is causing the games to crash.U need to check whether fan is running properly.Also you may want to apply some thermal paste in ur card's heatsink.

the fan is running properly i think, i feel it working just fine..as for adding thermal paste i will pass on that because i don't know what im doing

it's not a difficult job if it were to come down to that, but an overheating card can also damage other things besides the card itself. if you are noticing slow-downs or visual anomalies during games you might want to double check fan speeds and put them to 100% if you need to. like i said before the 9800GT is known for running hot, but the stock cooler should be able to handle it via manual fan control.

i can do that with riva tuner correct? how do i get to my gpu fan settings? i cant find them

yes with RivaTuner you can adjust the fan speed:

from the main screen click the little arrow next to the box that displays how much memory your graphics card has

click the first button (has a gfx card on it) which is your low level system settings

click on the fan tab and move the slider to adjust the fan speed

you can also have RT set the fan speed at startup via registry key so you don't have to do it each time you start your computer

it put me at 171F..hmm i guess i will take the card out and the cover off and dust it out real good tomorrow and see what happens