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For some reason, my laptop is crashing whenever I play games and whenever I open my anti-virus scan to scan for viruses.

Why on earth would this be? My friend thinks it might have something to do with the RAM stick.

hi,

I assume that you are a windows user. so have you checked the error log for events during the machine crash? else it could be alot of things or a mixture of components which when they come to work at the same time just crash the machine...
what you can do is make an exception list. try different memories, maybe different disk with a fresh installation of windows, plug out all you don't need (e.g. pcmcia cards or usb devices).

You can laugh at me. I don't know how to go look at an error code, and the computer does closes, and I have to open it manually.

I'm thinking of taking it to a computer guy whilst my dad buys a new laptop for himself.

go to the control panel, then open administrative tools and there you have the event viewer. inside the event viewer you can see logs from applications, security and system.
its always difficult to diag system crashes from remote. so maybe a computer guy who can have a look at your machine can see things better and fix the problem if this is possible.