Video Games Studdering

[Ramor]

So every time I try to play TF2 lately (or pretty much any game) my computer will randomly drop to about 1-5FPS and then stay there. It loads up fine, plays fine for a few minutes, then all goes to shit.

When I type it all goes out fine, even if the video doesn't show it my typing goes out perfectly regardless of how laggy it appears to be, but my sound seems to studder along with the video. I just recently updated my drivers hoping that was an easy fix.

Also it apparently about double/triples the memory usage of my hl2.exe process (TF2), jumps from about 200k normally to 500-800kish it would appear to top out at. It also happens in other video games, though it seems less frequent (although I've really only tried to play TF2 lately). Anything from youtube or video files on my computer run without a hitch.

I'm running WinXP32, GE9400GT, 2gigs of ram, a relatively old processor (if this is relevant I'll just post my dxdiag later).

Anything I can do to find out what the problem is or anyone know exactly what it is and how I can fix it? If my graphics card is shitting the bed on me I'd like to know, I think it may still be under warranty (probably not).

Thanks in advance tech.

[Arnwulf]

First thing I always do when I have that problem is disable my Antivirus software. It has solved that problem more often than not.

[Kaisha]

Got any software tools to measure hardware temperature while playing?

May be worthwhile to play windowed and have one open alongside processexplorer to look for any oddities.

[Ramor]

No antivirus stuff running of the sorts, and no software to speak of.

Any recommendations?