Random PC crashes in games

[KinSlayer]

Got a new problem for you. (I don't seem to be doing very well with PC's this year....)

With my main PC running Windows Vista-64, every so often when running marginally heavy games, (namely Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Star Trek Online), the pc goes from about 50% CPU usage to 0% CPU usage, which as you can probably tell crashes everything on it.

It is starting to do this within games more randomly and it is usually followed by windows 100% crashing (usually without a BSOD) about 10mins later.

I would like to know what it going off. Though I still reckon it is the RAM I have in it, but i can't test it out with other RAM, due to the fact that I don't have any, nor the funds to replace the 3Gb RAM inside.

Main PC Specs:

QuadCore AMD Phenom 9750 2400MHz
3Gb RAM (2Gb DDR2-800 Corsair XMS2 CM2X2048-6400C5 and 1Gb Corsair XMS2 DHX CM2X1024-6400C5DHX1)
Sapphire TOXIC Radeon HD 4870 OC (Running through HDMI to a 23" Samsung SyncMaster HDTV @ 1920x1080 - 50Hz
Hitachi 320Gb SATA2 - Windows Drive (77.8Gb free)
Samsung 500Gb SATA2 (100.7Gb free)
Windows Vista 64-bit SP2
DirectX 10.0

Hope that info helps you. if you need more, i will attempt to get it.

---------- Post added at 07:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------

Additional info for you.

I just did a temperature sensor monitor of the pc when in the Star Trek Online game, (as it just crashed yet again), and the temperatures were as follows:

Motherboard - 40C
CPU - 55C
GPU DispIO - 50C
GPU MemIO - 70C
GPU Shader - 55C
GPU VRM - 65C
Hitachi HDD - 42C
Samsung HDD - 37C

[Calum]

Download Memtest86+, burn it to a disk and boot from it. Let it run overnight, this will test your RAM so you know if it's faulty.
It does sound like a RAM issue to me.

[Stix]

Download Memtest86+, burn it to a disk and boot from it. Let it run overnight, this will test your RAM so you know if it's faulty.
It does sound like a RAM issue to me.

Try this.

And if you can, get the STOP code you get during the BSOD.

(Sorry for the late reply)

[KinSlayer]

I found out what the problem was....a lot more expensive than just the RAM.

It was a combination of duff memory, a dead hard drive and a dying graphics card.

Anyone got any gold bars they don't need?

[Calum]

Wow, sucks to hear that.
At least you figured the issues - any chance of RMA'ing any of those?

[KinSlayer]

Sorry to hear about the site.

What is RMA?

[Calum]

RMA = Returns Merchandise Authorisation, if you want to get technical heh.
I just meant, any chance of returning any of those parts under warranty, so you don't have to buy new ones?