PC hardware: Half Life2 episode1 freezes while i'm playing

I'd have to say...

...this would be a question for the gaming forum, and as Half Life in all it's versions has many huge and specialised forums of it's own, Cnet just isn't the place to be.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/

Thousands of players on hundreds of specialised forums to help you, are just a google away.

However, it's unlikely a leading edge graphics card like a 7800 is overheating, especially as you can play HL2 "for hours" without problem. While Episode 1 does have some shader updates, and a some detail tweaks, I'd doubt this would be the difference between working and crashing.

Thermally speaking if heat was an issue, lowering details and res after a crash doesn't do much, as the temps would be already high. Thermal crashes, get progressively quicker and more frequent, and are simple to diagnose. Set a timer...play util it crashes, then play again and watch the timer. If after 3 or 4 crashes the times are getting smaller and smaller....you're overheating. If not, you're not!

Good luck

Extra cooling...

...can be as easy and cheap as you like (add an 80mm case fan to direct air into the desired area), or as complicated and expensive as you fancy (water cooling, or larger replacement coolers).

I can't say I've ever seen a review of the 7800 graphics card that suggested it's heatsink wasn't up to the job. But this can be greatly affected by ambient air temperature, and air flow through your particular case too, especially at this time of year.

Doesn't the nVidia graphics driver actually have a little tab to show the GPU temperature in the "Advanced" menu? You should be able to display that menu, play a bit and ALT+TAB out to see how temperatures are getting on.

GB.

(NT) thanks for the replys and help