guru problem?

[Fragmonkee]

This might seem obvious to some but I cannot figure it out to save my life. I recently bought HL2 on steam and everytime i load HL2 it would restart instantly (the computer that is). now when i play need for speed underground 2 it crashes shortly after i get a game going (or if i bump up the graphics settings). I didnt have that problem before i installed HL2 (and directx 9.0c). I formatted and reinstalled everything (including HL2 and directx 9.0c) and the same problem exists.

system specs:
athlon xp 1800+
512 ram
128 mb geforce 4 4200 ultra

[npor]

I'm guessing you're not overclocking. What kind of PSU do you have?

[Fragmonkee]

580 echo star ps. i had the geforce oc'ed but i clocked it back down to see if that was it.

[npor]

Hmm, thats a hard one. The only things I can think of is to, in specific order...

1) Decrease your ram timings, if not already, to something like 2.5-3-3-7

2) Try different video card drivers

3) Update your mobo chipset drivers

4) Flash your mobo BIOS