My "gaming" PC keeps crashing while playing...

So I got one of those HP ready for gaming PC things for Star craft and League and such

I am not an expert at PCs, I always play on consoles

anyway this PC crashes when I play Star craft, like the screen would go black and it wont work, cant tab out of the game or anything. this never happens when I am not playing so I figured it was from the game, but it also crashes while playing league of legend. so it only crashes when I am playing any game, but it happens randomly, sometimes every 30 minutes sometimes after a few hours and sometimes it doesn't crash.

I have the computer connected to a 32 inch LCD TV and the games always on full settings and the games are running smooth with no problem so the computer can handle it easily

can anyone tells me the problem with this PC?

Could be the PSU failing.

What is the desktop model and its specs?

Temperatures can play a role, drivers, and even the PSU not being strong enough or going bad. Also the gpu may be bad and may need to be RMA'ed. Are those the only two games you have tried?

HP Elite 7000 Microtower PC with 32-bit system

4GB RAM

Intel Core i5 CPU - 750 @ 2.67GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 with 3G of memory (I know outdated, but I had the pc for a few years now)

Also from HP site, it says the power supply is 300 W

I have Age of Empires and World of Warcraft, but the PC didnt crash on me while playing them, however, I hardly played these games so I dont know

I would update your drivers

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Then download msi afterburner amd check your gpu temps while playing

it says temp is 58C with 5% load, i am not even surfing the internet or playing a game

isnt that a bit too much lol?

woah it reached 80C while at Starcraft menu

I guess the GPU is the problem overheating then? I should upgrade that right?

You would also need a new PSU most likely...

Clean the heatsink on the GPU for dust if you haven't already.

Clean out the computer with can of compressed air, make sure to get the gpu and cpu. Once clean check again and if temps haven't improved then look at the case being the problem. Those HP 7000 series cases from what Ive been able to tell only have one fan and that's for exhaust only. You could remove the side panel to allow fresh air, or you can also take the panel and drill holes in for ventilation.

I opened the PC and cleaned it out, wasnt much of dust in my opinion

but after that I left the case open on one side only and the temp of GPU is at 45-49C under 0 load

playing starcraft it jumped up to 76C

Has this solved the crashing?

no idea yet, I left the computer running on starcraft and wait to see in a few hours

sometimes it takes a while to crash

at the moment it steady on 79C with 98% load

Couldn't he crank up the fan speed in afterburner in order to solve the whole problem?

Or is this a passive heatsink?

How can I do that ?!

Are you sure all the fans are spinning when you turn it on? You might need to add another case fan or two. You can try setting up a box fan to blow over the case while you play and see if that stops it. If it does, it was for sure overheating.

If the video card doesn't have a fan cooler, that's my bet.

All fans are spinning, there are total of 4, 2 exhaust, one of them for PSU

small one for GPU and one for the board i think

70-80C on heavy use is not that uncommon for a GPU. my old 8800 GT (infamous for it's insufficient cooling) used to run at 90-100 on load but it didn't crash. after collecting some dust, it started crashing at 120C.

but yeah, i guess it's one of the following; PSU, GPU or GPU drivers. i don't believe that the heat alone is causing it.

I forgot to add that when I bought this PC, the crashing started a day after

I replaced it with another unit and it didnt crash for a week or two , then it crashes from time to time and I didnt care enough to go through the trouble of returning it at the time

so I am sure the dust wasnt the problem. for now I am playing until it crash or I get bored

you replaced the GPU? in that case i think it's PSU that is causing the problems. pre-built PCs tend to have low quality PSUs.

no no, I replaced the whole HP PC with another one of same type, thinking its a faulty PC from the factory

Go into MSI Afterburner and click on the fan option and you should be able to move the slider to control it.

still no crashing

so today the pc finally crashed again and I dont think its was overheating since it crashed around 75C temp

What I am reading from elsewhere that the 300w PSU could be the reason and unable to keep up with GPU power demand and it crashes. so I guess I am upgrading that first to see if it will fix the problem

I think a 500-600W PSU would be a good choice

UPDATE : I removed the stock 300W PSU and got a 650 PSU and now 3 days of playing without crashing so I guess this is SOLVED by now.