Computer freezing in games (inexperienced in hardware)

[BenT]

first of all i would like to say i am very inexperienced in computer hardware

recently my computer freezes whenever i play any games or videos when it used to work fine. i know the computer isnt that great but it could run all that i needed until it stoped working. for example, i cant run warcraft 3 anymore when i could usualy run elders scrolls oblivion at high settings and wc3 is like 5 or 6 yrs old.

what hapens is the screen freezes and then the monitor turns black after a few seconds and i have to force it off by holding the off switch. after this often the computer boots up w/ low color/resolution settings.

my guess is that my video card is broken but it could definately be something else.

specs are:

Power Suply: 500W Thermaltake
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8Ghz (800Mhz front side bus) (2Mb cache)
Motherboard: nvidia 650i core 2 quad
memory: 4Gb ddr2 corsair @ 667 Mhz
Hard drive: 80Gb Western Digital (8Mb Cache) (less then 5Gb empty if that helps)
Video Card: nvidia geforce 8500gt 256Mb
OS: Vista Home Basic

Any help will be greatly apreciated and thank you.

 

[nickc]

with less then 5Gb empty it is a wonder u're computer is not giving more problems. I am not saying that is the only problem u have, but u need a new hard drive as none will work like that.