i fell on black days

this is a sad story. anytime i try to play half-life 2 anymore, it locks up and dies, giving me some stupid error message. i can't figure out what could be wrong with it; i updated my video driver and reinstalled the game, so short of totally reinstalling steam and half-life 2 again, i don't see what it could be on my end. it's strange, i played through the entire game and it only died on my a few times, over a several month period. then last month it would die after so long every time i played counter-strike. now when i try to play the game (last week and today) it dies every time i start playing, usually after a minute or two.

maybe it's for the best though, because for the 20 minutes i managed to play just now before it died, it was so slow it was hardly playable. it seems even slower than before. i think i should avoid playing it for now, i don't want to drag it's greatness through the mud simply because of my inferior machine. my dad had to mention a dell ad he saw for a whole brand new pc with the works for $350. it's almost enough to make me not want to move out soon. maybe i'll consider it if, once i look at my finances, i decide i can't afford to move out. i definately can't justify doing both... or can i?