Whole PC Freezing when trying to start a game in Steam

[davidmayne]

So pretty much as is says in the title; Its just started to freeze today. Was freezing in game on Total War Rome 2 but I could still launch that game and others perfectly fine until it randomly froze when I started up Rome 2 again. Now I can't play anything on steam. Everytime I try to start a game from steam the whole computer freezes and I can't even move the cursor or get into the task manager. Have tried reinstalling Steam, resetting the files and the .blob fix but haven't had any luck so far. All my drivers are up to date as well. My Laptop spec is:

Dell XPS L502X
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601)
Intel Core i7-2670qm CPU @ 2.20GHz (8 CPU's), 2.2GHz
8192MB RAM

Any Ideas?

[Joker]

Your machine might be dusty & overheating.

[davidmayne]

Possibly although it doesn't feel very hot and that might explain if it crashed during games but it was only in Rome 2 which had lots of problems and I literally can't even start up games on steam without it crashing. I can handle more powerful applications as well so it is a steam related issue.

[HiGuys]

it could be what davidmayne said or you might just nbot be able to handle it,it could be your graphics card or anything

[davidmayne]

Well, its definitely not a case of not being able to handle it as I've got a decent spec and trying to playing a game like Football Manager 2012 which isn't exactly the most strenuous. I tried launching it in safe mode and it still froze when i clicked on a game which makes me think that it is just an issue with steam.

[Tresh]

gépeld be a szöveged!

[davidmayne]

Sorry, Tresh; I don't speak Hungarian! Guess nobody else has had this issue then to provide a more conclusive fix? Probably looking at a complete wipe of the Laptop at this rate which I'd really like to avoid!

[Marq]

What graphics card do u have could u post more info?

[Joker]

You could try doing a system restore to an earlier date when things were fine or do a full factory reinstall. If the problem persists then it's probably a hardware related problem.

If you have a lot of programs running on your system then try turning them off. Check Task Manager, Taskbar & Windows Startup. A full Windows reinstall would tell you if it's a software or hardware problem.

[davidmayne]

PaPo - Integrated memory is Intel HD Graphics 3000. Have the latest Drivers for that.

Graphics card is GeForce GTM 540. Driver is 320.49. Apparently I have total available graphics of 4095MB.

I'd be surprised if its a problem with the graphics being able to handle it as they've worked fine until now.

Cereal Killa, I tried a system restore but it was after things started to go wrong so didn't do anything :/ Looking like I may have to do a full factory reinstall soon. Was just hoping that somebody who experienced the same problem may have found a fix and would be able to say for definite what it is.

Cheers for your help guys.