Comp crashes anytime I run games and other programs

[bozanga]

Hey, Hope this is helpful information I'm about to give...

Laptop Satellite P20-S103 TOSHIBA,
P4 HT 2.8GHz
512MB DDR RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200
32MB DDR VRAM
15GB free

Ok, this started last week.
Everytime I run a game, about 10-20mins in, the laptop crashes (shutdown). Even when I play games that were previously running...
This happens when I use other programs and has happened with virus scan and music editting programs.
Tried reinstalling programs, running chkdisk, defragment and registry mechanic.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Venocide]

I have a simular problem.

 

[Whiffen]

Could be due to heat, memory or drivers. As the most likely suspects. See if you can clean your laptop, make sure its getting good air flow. Get a temperature reading program to get estimates of hot hot you are. Below 50oc is good, around 60oc is pretty warm, above 60-65oc you might want to get something to cool it down.

Uninstall old drivers, get the newest videocard drivers and latest version of DirectX.

If you run out of free memory that can cause a crash, maybe buy some more memory.

Before buying new though test your current memory with memtest download the "ISO images suitable for creating a bootable Memtest86 CD-ROM" and get the zip file version, get Power ISO install it and reboot. Now extract the memtest zip file somewhere and open power iso. Click open and select the .ISO you just extracted from the zip file. Then double click that file you just opened and then a new window should open and you should see whats in the pic I posted. Make sure it says Bootable image at the bottom. Then click burn and chose the slowest burning speed. Then before you go to bed restart the computer with the cd u just burned inside the drive.

Choose "1) Test selection" and go sleep. Let it finish a few cycles. Once you wake up see if any errors were found.