Computer Restarts during gameplay

[Maniac7553]

When I try to play games such as Age of Empires, and WoW about ten minutes into gameplay my computer will restart without warning...I've googled this problem a few times and people keep saying it's probably because my graphics card isn't updated, But I've got the most recently updated Nvidia graphic card and I still have the problem. When I uncheck automatically restart during system failure a blue screen of death happens with a bunch of numbers and what not, which I'm assuming is explaining an error. I'll try write it down and post it in a little bit.

I have an Acer with Window XP.
Nvidida Geforce 7300 GS graphics card
1022MB RAM

I don't really know what the problem is, this just happened recently.
I used to be able to play games just fine but now its just being stubborn.

Any help on this issue would be usefull!

~Thanks

[Zapper216]

are your graphics drivers updated?

[koala]

Hi, welcome to TSF

The full blue screen message, stop code and file name will help pinpoint the cause of the problem.

As Zapper says, make sure all your drivers are up to date. Also, check in Device Manager to see if there are any red or yellow flags.

Whenever games crash after just a few minutes, it's often caused by overheating. Switch off the computer and remove the side panel from the case. Blow out any dust with a can of compressed air, especially around the fans, heatsink and card slots. Switch back on and make sure all the fans are spinning.

Boot into BIOS and make a note of all the temperatures and voltages.

If the games are still crashing after you clean out the case, leave the side panel off and blow a desk fan towards the graphics card while playing a fullscreen game. This is only a temporary measure to see if the game lasts any longer before crashing, so put the side panel back on when you've finished.