[crjdriver]

OK, that is a pretty old system with an athlon xp 3000. Here is what I would do.

1 First and foremost open the case and give the system a good cleaning with a can of air. Now get a bright light and give the board a VERY close inspection. Look for any leaking/bulging/discolored capacitors on the board. If you find any, you have found your problem.

2 If the board passes a close inspection, leave the side cover off and run your game. See if it gives errors now. If it runs fine with the side cover off, the system is overheating.

3 If it does not run OK with the cover off AND there are no leaking caps, then I would run memtest to test your memory.

Here is what you are looking for as far as bad caps. Well it will not let me attach pics now so I will post this and attempt again.

[crjdriver]

Here are pics of bad caps.

[mycomputerfails]

idle...like i said, im not able to play games because my computer will automatically restart. and other games will just give me errors (dont know why) then exit. and the side of my computer is always open and i still get errors.

i also gave it a cleaning with some air a few weeks back after this problem started happening. it didn't do anything at all.

[crjdriver]

55C is pretty hot even for an athlon xp. As I recall the old athlon systems I built would run in the mid 40s or so. Next the hd temp of 42 degrees is somewhat warm as well. This would point at poor case cooling.

What was the result of the cleaning/inspection?

[mycomputerfails]

well my aircan is empty. and i may have 1 or 2 capacitors that are alittle bulging

and i dont really know how to use memtest

i cant seem to reduce the Temp1: 52C (BTW, it has a fire symbol beside it lol)
ive opened all my doors, windows to cool my room and let air circulate

[mycomputerfails]

and despite the fact that my room is much cooler than before, my computer still restarts while playing the game. it also brings my CPU Usage from about 1-8% to 60-100%

[crjdriver]

i may have 1 or 2 capacitors that are alittle bulging

I think you have found your problem; failing MB.

To check for overheating, just open the case and place a small fan blowing air into the case. If it works fine now, you know it is overheating.

[crjdriver]

I have seen some epox boards go for quite a while with leaking caps. Not the most stable however they still ran.

If you in fact have leaking/bulging caps, the only option is to replace the board or recap the board. Socket A boards are just about as rare as dinosaurs now. There are a few new ones left however they are pretty much junk stuff like ecs, pcchips, etc.

[mycomputerfails]

i placed a regular size fan right infront of my computer and put it on each speed and tried the game. it still didn't work. it may have cooled it but i was still getting restarts.

[crjdriver]

You have already found your problem; bulging or leaking caps. Putting a fan in front of your computer is NOT going to prove anything. If you have leaking caps, your only option is what I posted above; recap or replace.

[mycomputerfails]

how do you even get leaking or bulging caps?
just some info i would like to know for later purposes.

and my comp temperature is about 49C+[lowest ive seen] when turning on my computer

[crjdriver]

There is a long story about how substandard caps were used however basically they wear out. That motherboard is probably 6yrs old. Nothing lasts forever; parts wear out.

FWIW I have a few boards sitting here with failed caps on them. One you could not even tell the caps had leaked until you pulled the board.