Games are Freezing... What Can I Do?

Hi, there.
I'm new here and it's my first post.

I have a big problem with my laptop...

When I play some new games, it's freezing...
Then I must restart.
It's saying "ati stopped graphic... etc... etc..."
(Freezers: Sid Meier's Pirates, Age of Emp. 3, Doom 3, Swat 4, Half Life 2, and other new games...)

My notebook's properties:
Intel Pentium M Centrino 1.6
128mb ATI Radeon 9600/9700
512mb DDR

I think my system is enough.
Isn't it?

What can I do?

 

You might be running into overheating problems.

If your notebook is getting too hot on the surfaces or underside, you might want to consider investing in a notebook cooler pad.

edit: Did you try to get the newest vga drivers and install them?

 

I bought my laptop in august, 2004. So drivers are not very new.

And yeah it's getting hot sometimes, when fan is starting very speedly games are freezing...

 

ok try the drivers from www.omegadrivers.net those are just modified drivers of the latest release so that they work on laptops.

I am not sure how new the drivers on dell's site are, if they are new, you can also try those.

So rule out software issue, which is easier to resolve, before looking for the hardware issue.

 

Thanks, I'll try new drivers.

I'm thinking to buy a new 512 mb ram.
could it finish my freezing problem?

 

It doesn't seem as if the memory is the problem, although adding more RAM would make the games run smoother. If the memory itself was the problem, you'd be getting memory errors, not VGA problems.

Definitely get those new drivers.