Computer randomly shut off.

Last night when I was playing Left 4 Dead my computer just randomly shut down. There was no warning or anything, it just totally powered down. Right after that I tried to turn it back on and there was no responce from it. I pulled out the power cord to my power strip, plugged it back in and THEN I could turn the computer back on. That was all done in about 5 min. It seems to be working fine at the moment, but im not sure what could have caused that to happen. I recently purchased a new Geforce GTS 250 and has been working great with games for about 2 days, so im pretty sure that isn't the problem. Maybe it was just something to do with my wall outlet?

Considering it's been working great playing games (HL2 and CSS) for a couple of hours before, and then this happend after playing (L4D) for about one hour, I don't think it has to do with overheating or a RAM problem.

I'll have to play some more today and see if it happens again.

overheating or power supply

I dunno about overheating. My CPU tends to get overheated at timnes and my computer and my computer automatically RESTARTS, not shuts down and refuses to turn on.

Yeah, my guess is overheating. BTW above poster, different CPUs do different things when they overheat.

Thanks for all the responces!

I will try a program to monitor the CPU and see if that might be the problem. I may have some dust and crap in the computer that I will try and clean out once I get home today. I should have the latest display drivers (downloaded them from the nvidia website two days ago) but will also check and see.

If the CPU turns out to be ok, and it shuts down again, is that a pretty good indication to be a PSU problem? Just wondering that since I played fine with it for a good solid two days with no problems, unless it is just now crapping out on me. I can look to get another one, I just want to make sure that is the problem before spending more money on parts :P.

Ok, I just played through one level on Left 4 Dead and no problems so far. I was running CPUID while playing and the max my CPU Core #0 got to was 58 degrees Celsius. My GPU's max temp went to 68 degrees Celsius.

Are these temps to hot for the CPU and GPU?

Sometimes throughout the game i would minimize to see what they were up too and i noticed the temp would drop so im guessing the temps would have gone up a little bit more than they registered. I'm going to go through another level in a bit without minimizing and see if something happends or i get a higher reading on them.

Ok, I just played through one level on Left 4 Dead and no problems so far. I was running CPUID while playing and the max my CPU Core #0 got to was 58 degrees Celsius. My GPU's max temp went to 68 degrees Celsius.

Are these temps to hot for the CPU and GPU?

Sometimes throughout the game i would minimize to see what they were up too and i noticed the temp would drop so im guessing the temps would have gone up a little bit more than they registered. I'm going to go through another level in a bit without minimizing and see if something happends or i get a higher reading on them.

callthepress

Go to your Event Viewer and look for any errors your system might have logged. If you see a red x, or a yellow triangle, double click it and it'll tell you what the error is. It's a fantastic utility that's included in Windows OS's, that many people just don't know about. If you don't know where to access it, follow these steps;

1.Click the Start button.

2.Click Control Panel.

3.Click System and Maintenance.

4.Click Administrative Tools.

5.Double-click Event Viewer.

Once your there, again, take a look around for any errors in your system or application tabs. You might not find all your computer problem answers there, but it's a great place to start.

[QUOTE="callthepress"]

Ok, I just played through one level on Left 4 Dead and no problems so far. I was running CPUID while playing and the max my CPU Core #0 got to was 58 degrees Celsius. My GPU's max temp went to 68 degrees Celsius.

Are these temps to hot for the CPU and GPU?

Sometimes throughout the game i would minimize to see what they were up too and i noticed the temp would drop so im guessing the temps would have gone up a little bit more than they registered. I'm going to go through another level in a bit without minimizing and see if something happends or i get a higher reading on them.

Chris_53

Will definitely do the stress test and see what happends. Was going to ask if someone would recommend a stress test program that they liked :P

Go to your Event Viewer and look for any errors your system might have logged. If you see a red x, or a yellow triangle, double click it and it'll tell you what the error is. It's a fantastic utility that's included in Windows OS's, that many people just don't know about. If you don't know where to access it, follow these steps;

1.Click the Start button.

2.Click Control Panel.

3.Click System and Maintenance.

4.Click Administrative Tools.

5.Double-click Event Viewer.

Once your there, again, take a look around for any errors in your system or application tabs. You might not find all your computer problem answers there, but it's a great place to start.

joseph_mach

I think I had checked that and didn't see anything, but will check again once I get home.

Well I checked the event viewer and there was no errors of any kind. I also ran the game in windowed mode to check the temps and they basically stayed about what there were before. So I figured it was a one time thing and started playing again not worrying about it and nothing happend, until today. Was playing earlier for about 2 hours (also played alot the two other days without a problem) and nothing was wrong. Just came back into my room, started to play, and about 5 min in it shut off again. I immediately turned on my computer (couldn't again normally so I unplugged the power strip from the wall and it worked just fine) and went into the bios to check the temps and there were just fine.

I guess it has something to do with my power supply or something on my Mobo is crapping out... it just doesn't make sense its doing this only when my games are running. I would also check into changing my power strip but I'm pretty sure since it's ONLY happening when playing games, that isn't the problem.

Maybe the GPU isn't getting enough power? would the computer just turn off like that if it wasn't getting enough? it looks to be fine... and since i've been playing for sometime before it happend again, that leads me to believe the GPU is fine the way it is...