pc freezing
 

I've had my custom built rig for about 3 years now and never had any problems... just recently I've been playing my PC games AGAIN :) and I've noticed my game locks up and makes loud nosies, the lock up very in games apb last about 20 min, while left 4 dead last 5 min max. I've been looking into a lot of forums but haven't been about to find the solution. Any advice/solutions would be greatly appreciated. I have a picture down below to show what happens when computer freezes.

soultions I've tried:
* registry cleaner
*defragmentation
* cleaned out my entire system with duster( also changed thermal compound on CPU)
*installed latest drivers for video card ( also tried the omega drivers)
* tested my GPU with OCCT, tested RAM with mem test, checked my temps on CPU, and GPU and PSU

SPECS
*windows vista ultimate 64 bit
*intel core 2 duo 3ghz
*4 gig of RAM
* Nvidia geforce GTX 280

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/z...1162/photo.jpg <--- after playing l4d 3 mins

At a guess, judging on the screenshot, I would say your Graphics card is slowly dieing. :(
Try the games on the 'lowest' graphic settings ingame, see if the game plays for longer before freezing up (crashing).
Then try the 'highest' graphic settings ingame and see if it crashes any faster.

If the card 'is' dieing it will most likely crash straight away after applying the Highest graphic settings.

Do you have another graphics card you can use as a test, maybe borrow one from a friend to test?

that's a good idea I'm going to use one of my old graphics cards I'm almost certain the gpu is dying on me :( it's strange because I never OC and I only had it for maybe 2 -3 year max. well if it's the gpu then x-mas might be coming early for me LoL.

Power capacitors on motherboards (sticking out metallic cylinders in the vicinity of the CPU) don't last longer than the average button cell (for the CMOS), about 5-7-10 years. (Unless the new solid ceramic ones.) You can replace them (relatively) easily on older motherboards with capacitors (of the same capacity, same or higher voltage and same or higher temperature) bought in an electronics shop. Don't throw out stuff that you can repair/recycle.