On both AA and T:CE, and just about all my FPS games, my computer will lock up for about 5-10 seconds, and then keep going. During this time while I am locked up I can hear just about everything going on, excpet about the center of the lock up, everything will go dead, sound as well. My movement also locks up, if I am walking south, when I get out of the lock up my guy will be further south than where I was on the lockup, usually walking into a wall.
So I am thinking it's a graphics problem.

My brother is a computer technician, and I asked him to help. He came over, played in paint for about an hour, said he didn't see any lock ups. I told him it only happens in game, and he said "Well I don't play games now do I." And walked out the door, so basically this is my last way to fix this.

I am on a GeForce FX5500, it has a different fan on it than a normal one because my original fan locked up. It's a Compaq computer, I don't know abotu the processor. And it only started until after I labotimized it and tried again.

your computer is lagging out, get more ram. When running games, try turning off useless software (useless whan playing games). Turn of MSN Messenger or any chat software, if possible turn off all torrent downloading services and disable system activity like scheduled virus scanning, system updates, and other scheduled tasks. Afte that download an adware removal program and scan for background adware (meaning they are using your ram in the background even while you play). Lastly, guard your system like fort knox, nothing comes in that you dont know about and nothing gets out without your permission.

To prevent a fan from locking up, make sure you clean it from time to time. I clean all my fans once a month and is now curently due for september cleaning. Also when using compress gas to clean your computer, do not let the fan's blades spin.

I can give you a better description of the problem and a possible solution if you gave me the specs of your machine and it's current situations and past logs etc.

Hmm, I'll go see if I have anything else running, pretty sure I shut most of that stuff off, but my computer has this tendency to get crap and run it when it feels like it. Can't right now I thinking I got a migrane coming, trying to get a good nap in for a bit.

Sooner or later you have to, thats the only way to actually fix it.