Completely unsure of what the problem could be

[Straps]

My computer is fully functional when it comes to web browsing and etc. But, whenever I launch a game from Steam I can play for about 5 minutes before I need to reboot. I can do anything but play games for however long I want. As soon, as I launch it game, 5 minutes later, it freezes. I dont know if its something wrong with Steam or another program conflicting with it. Please help.

Computer Specs:
Intel Core i5 4430
EVGA Z87 FTW
EVGA GeForce GTX 760
Crucial Ballstix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5'' 7200 RPM
Corsair 500W ATX12V
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

 

[clutchc]

It might be the PSU. That is a marginal size for that card. It could also be that you have a bad stick of RAM. Run memtest on each stick individually for at least one full pass. http://www.memtest.org/

It could also be driver conflicts. You could run this driver uninstaller from safe mode, then install the latest driver for your card and OS. https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/550192/geforce-drivers/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu-v12-9-3-4-released-06-09-14-/

And of course, there's always the possibility of a system that is full of bloatware, ad-ware, and running too many apps starting with Windows. Run CCleaner and do the Clean and Registry portions both. https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
And try to eliminate as much stuff in your tray that you don't need to start automatically as you can.

 

[Straps]

It might be the PSU. That is a marginal size for that card. It could also be that you have a bad stick of RAM. Run memtest on each stick individually for at least one full pass. http://www.memtest.org/

It could also be driver conflicts. You could run this driver uninstaller from safe mode, then install the latest driver for your card and OS. https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/550192/geforce-drivers/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu-v12-9-3-4-released-06-09-14-/

And of course, there's always the possibility of a system that is full of bloatware, ad-ware, and running too many apps starting with Windows. Run CCleaner and do the Clean and Registry portions both. https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
And try to eliminate as much stuff in your tray that you don't need to start automatically as you can.

I have Norton and I did a full system scan. It came up with 23 security risks and resolved them. I can uninstall graphics drivers and re-install latest ones for GPU and OS. But, could the graphics card be the problem thats causing this? And I dont understand how to use the memtest thing, sorry. My computer also SAYS that I have 8GBs of RAM installed and I think its also worth mentioning that Ive been playing games for 2 months now and this problem has just arose. So I was thinking that it cant be my hardware that it has to be a program conflicting with Steam.

 

[clutchc]

Yeah, it sounds like a software conflict. If you've done the driver uninstaller and CCleaner, the next thing would be to check your tray. See how many items running in the back ground you have. Start disabling them and testing for the problem. One of them may be poorly written code that is causing the problem.

To do the memtest thing, you download the .ISO file and use it to burn a bootable CD. Then you boot to that CD and let it run for at least one FULL scan on each stick of RAM individually. If even a single error is reported, the stick is bad.