Computer keeps shutting down while gaming!?

[King3x]

A little while ago (half year) my computer use to shut down alot when playing CS:S and later Red Orchestra. That was in the hotter spring months without my AC on. When it got on, it didn't shut down anymore.

Then, when I stopped using it not too long ago, it started up. I resolved to just not play CS:S or RO because it doesn't seem to crash in Rome: Total War or Warcraft III. However, today, when I was playing AoE3, it shut down again. I don't think I can keep giving up games just because it crashes.

Any help would be nice.

My specs are ...
XFX 7800GT
AMD San Diego 4000+ 2.4ghz
2GB Generic RAM (3-3-3-8) DDR400

When I started back up immediately, I checked the GPU and it read 67. I know that's pretty hot for celcius but I think it should be able to take alot more than that. Any help would be nice.

By the way, it never happened before a reformat, but that was in the winter months.

Also, I have a Antec Truepower 2.0 550 Watts.

The only thing odd is the +12V which goes from 11.79 to 11.90, but I think that is under 'acceptable' ranges. No?

It is mostly 11.84 or 11.90

On another forum, they said it was overloading surge strip, but I removed some plugs and switched and still happens. Then searching around the web I found that a failing power supply and/or RAM might be the cause of the problem.

I have asked this question, but no one could come up with a solution to this last time, so I am going to test the two components. I know I can use memtest86 for RAM but I don't know how to test the PSU.

Is there anything like memtest that could do the task?

EDIT : Also, I forgot to mention but this doesn't ALWAYS happen. Yesterday, I was playing the majority of the day without any shutdowns but at night it started again. So far, since the stopping period, I haven't had a full game yet.

When I start it back up, everything is perfectly fine, but it is annoying as I can't really play all my games. I cleaned out my case, and aside from the dust stuck to fans and coating the heatsink of the CPU, there are no dust bunnies. I plan to get a can of air and spray out the heatsink.

I can't even determine if it is hardware or software. Someone said that if it was something to do with windows or hardware, it would manifest itself over all applications.

[Spiff]

ive been having serious issues with restarts lately.. turns it it was the RAM to blame, but my hardrive is on its last legs too as far as i know. As far as testing to see if the PSU is the problem goes.. there are PSU testing kits you can buy im sure, but id just borrow a friends, install it and see if it still resets

Also.. 67 degrees is pretty damn hot, was that on idle?

[King3x]

I ran memtest86+ a few times and it was fine, and no one I know has one of those kits nor do I really have access to it.

Is there any other way to tell?

It might be my hard-drive, but are there any symptoms for that either?

And no, it wasn't idle. Idle is 50 and under.

[Invoker]

If you can disable the temperature sensors for your CPU and other tracked pieces of hardware (which is usually found in the BIOS), you can then run your computer without them for a little bit and see if it still shuts off. If it does, then it's something other than the cpu being cut off due to temperature readings. Sounds to me like a hardware problem as Windows and everything else is working properly, right?

You also might want to ensure your PC is in an area where it can ventilate well, and you may even want to get in it and clean out the fans and other exhaust areas, as better airflow will lead to better heat management. I think it sounds like a heat problem, but it could be something related to the CPU, motherboard or RAM. I'm no expert in the field, so I can't help with those issues very well.

[Sammur-amat]

just buy a an extra fun for the case ..never hurts/doesnt dry your wallet...and offcourse check the functionality/cleanin perhaps? of existing ones..

[Peter]

its probably CPU overheating thats why i hate summer

[Boudicca]

Does your entire computer shut down or just the graphics and you get a black screen?

I had that with mine and it was due to my grapics card overheating. If not it is propably the CPU. Sometimes it helps just to clean the fan of all the dust it has gathered.

[Gigantus]

Have a look inside your box, maybe its just dust collecting after all this time.

[Invoker]

To clear out the dust from areas that are more difficult to get clean, such as crevices and areas on hardware itself that you don't want your hands or anything else touching, I'd recommend using one of those aerosol can air dusters. I found that they worked pretty well for cleaning areas inside my computer, that is until I got a laptop, which I don't clean inside for obvious reasons.

If you are really interested in spending some money, I believe you can actually buy case fans with filters, thus preventing much of that nasty dust buildup.

[King3x]

I've cleaned out the majority of the fans. Only thing that still has a dust build up would be the CPU heatsink and there isn't much.

For fans, I have oine exhaust in the back, two exhaust on the side (I think, not quite sure), two intake on the front. That and along with the chipset fan, CPU fan, GPU fan, and the PSU fan.

I don't think it is the CPU heating because when I play games, I have not seen it rise over 48C.

On prime95, the load was like 49C. It's weird, because I have tried .... 5 different forums? There just doesn't seem to be a solution to this...

Does your entire computer shut down or just the graphics and you get a black screen?

It is the entire computer shutting down. It just powers off. It's weird too because it really isn't summer anymore. The average temperature is like 65F now (18C). It doesn't happen in all games either. It hasn't happened in Warcraft 3 TFT, Rome Total War, BI, or AVP2. It has only happened in Red Orchestra, Counter-Strike: Source, and now Age of Empires 3.

[Incinerate_IV]

Have you tried running it with just one stick of RAM and see if it gets better or worse? It could be anything, power supply, CPU, GPU, processor... You just have to guess and check.

[King3x]

I ran memtest for a total of 4 passes. There aren't really any symptoms of anything which is what is quite odd to me.

I just can't figure out what could be causing this, and that certainly detracts from a solution.

[Invoker]

Maybe it's some short in the power system somewhere....only problem with that theory is that you say it only happens with certain games.

[King3x]

Yeah ...

3 days of searching and still. Not even a hint on where to start.

[Peter]

How hot is it in your room? i had the exact same problem even with my liquid cooling system. Its just too hot and the fans just blow hot air on the heatsinks which dosent help much.

[King3x]

Not too hot. The average outside temperature now is like 65 Fahrenheit (18Cish)

My computer has good ventilation and cooling because the temperatures drop really quick after a game (IE rome)

[Gigantus]

Not too hot. The average outside temperature now is like 65 Fahrenheit (18Cish)

My computer has good ventilation and cooling because the temperatures drop really quick after a game (IE rome)

It is a little physics = if there is no heat generated than the temperature will drop to the surrounding degree fairly quick. But you should really look inside the box and check your fans and intake slots. This is by far the easiest and in most cases the actual solution. Use a soft brush or an aerosol can ( not your mother's hairspray) to clean the dust.

[Arakorn]

Mine was also crashing while gaming, until I vacuum cleaned the inside of the case :wink:

Try that, it really helped, my CPU got 20 degrees cooler!!! (From about 70 degrees to 50, WOW! Though, it's still quite hot... )

[King3x]

Yeah, the temperature drops quickly enough. That's the thing I can't quite figure out.

It doesn't seem like its overheating =/. Also, could the WGA be a problem? Before the reformat it didn't exist, and now it does. That's the only thing I can think of that's a radical difference between the two installs as I still have same everything else.

[Invoker]

With computers, particularly Windows, it feels like seemingly unrelated programs can somehow screw with each other and cause problems for the whole system. I've had issues that I could never solve, and eventually just decided to drop a nuclear bomb on my computer and reformat it from square one. Everytime it has made whatever was wrong magically disappear. I suppose if you've reached your wits end and you have a way of backing up files you need, you could always just entirely reformat your computer, then see if the error is still there. If it is, then it has to be hardware related.