BIG Problem with Aspire 3023wlmi - all games audio and video crash!!

Hi all, i've been having a problem with all games on my Aspire 3023wlmi and i wanted to ask if anyone here had any other ideas.

Basically i recently started playing Half-Life 2 episode 1 and before long it crashed on me, it happens every time i try to play. I might get 5, 10 minutes or 30 seconds but at some point the graphics on screen go very corrupt with lines and funny triangles etc everywhere, and the audio crashes and makes high pitched squeaks n other nasty noises. Some times the graphics are completely messed up, other times they don't change too much at all, but always the sound is aweful. So....... i thought it was half-life 2, especially with all the problems everyone has with it, but then i tried Prey and the same thing happened, though not as frequently and i managed to play through it. Now i have just installed Star Wars empire at war and every single time it lasts no more than 30 seconds and the same thing happens!!

The Aspire 3023 is a 3000+ Sempron, 80gig, 512mb 333 ram, Radeon X700 128mb, Realtek ac97 audio.

I have already updated the graphics and audio drivers about 3 times each, and always take care to do clean installs when i do. Am currently running all the latest drivers, Catalyst 6.8, audio 3.91 or whatever it is but def the latest, have reinstalled latest directx 9.0c, have latest cat 6.8 southbridge driver, have checked ram is seated fine, really not sure what else to try. I am running win xp media centre and don't have any other problems whatsoever. I no reinstalling xp would be an option but i use the laptop for work and i have so many programs and so much work loaded and set up how i need it that it would be a really big job and i hope not to.

When the games crash i can nearly always get back to the desktop and everything else is ok, however the icons particularily on the taskbar are always corrupt afterwards with black parts or black and white lines on them, and the sound is aaalways still messed up, if i do anything in windows it still screehes and is corrupt, and the sound played when shutting down/restarted is always corrupt.

so.......any ideas anyone?

Thanks for the reply. Ok i got the program and i've had a look. With the notebook cooler, or in a cool room/good surface etc, when the laptop is first turned on, the cpu is usually at about 50 degrees, and the hard drive is at about 40-45 degrees. I started playing empire at war and kept a constant eye on it, with the cooler the game ran fine and i played about half an hour without problems. The temperature slowly crept up to about 60-65 on the cpu and 55 on the hard drive. At 55 the program was warning me about the hard drive temperature. But it stayed hovering at 55 degrees. I took off the cooler and within about 5-10 mins it crept up 55, 56, 57, then it crashed, and checking it again it was at 60 then 59. The cpu seemed to stay at about 65 throughout. So maybe its the hard drive overheating??? The thing is the cooler doesn't always fix the problem so maybe if my rooms too hot it pushes it that bit further? I normally use it so i dont think it'll fix it. Any ideas what else i can do? Or is there a problem with the laptop?

Do you have a 3023 nicolin? Would you check your average temps for me?

Many thanks in advance.

Ok i was working in Adobe Premiere today, and whilst rendering a film it crashed with the same corrupt icons etc. I put on the monitor and did it again, and it crashed again. But i was able to keep a better eye on the temps. The hard drive was ok, the cpu however...... it was going up to 80 degrees!! then the fan would kick into high, and it dropped to 74, but not for long. It managed to hold out for a bit, but then at the most it reached 84!!! And crashed. I def have an overheating problem i think. There's nothing else i can do? I have an acer advantage warranty, but really can't got without the laptop for long. Any idea what the usual turn-around is? Many thanks in advance as always.

Weeellll............does anyone have any other ideas?? I bought some compressed air and cleaned out the fan and ducts, not much dust but the temp for cpu seems to stay around 50 now. It did however still constantly crash when trying to render in premiere. Aaannd the temps always stayed low!! As far as i can see. Strange thing is though, after about 10 failed attempts i went out and left it, when i came back it did it fine first time! Which does make u think it could be temps but they seem ok?????

I then bought 1gig of new memory thinking it might be bad or overheating memory (but i needed the upgrade anyway), and hoped it might fix it. I just tried half life 2 episode 1 again and after 2 mins it crashed again. Temps were only 48 for hard drive and 50 for cpu! And with brand new stick of ram!! So i'm completely stuck, any idea's anyone???

Hi andufa, only thing is i have removed the old memory and installed new 1gb stick and still have the same problem :/