PC shuts down during gameplay

ok the PC shuts down about 10-15 minutes into the game, its not a specific game, but it happens with games like C&C 3, Medieval 2 and the Sims 2

but when i play games like Starcraft it works fine,

ive checked and the computer is pretty much dust free on both the outside and inside.

so what is it?? a hardware of Software problem??

thanks

Enermax Modu 82+ 425W power supply

2.20 Ghz intel core 2 duo
4 GB Ram
2 hard drives with 160 and 500 GB
2 DVD-R drives
ATI Raedon HD 2600XT

the games are all legal,

by GPU i assume you mean the ATI Raedon HD 2600XT 512Mb

guess its time to upgrade bro..

the problem only started recently well after i put in the ram

ive updated the GPU driver and nothing, could it be the BIOS needs upgrading (the power supply was upgraded but also before all this happened

no the old power supply is a generic one and isnt enough for this setup so i doubt the PC would even start with it

besides ive just done a test and checked the temprature of the CPU when on, even with the case off, the temprature is around 20 C when just on the desktop and around 30-35 when playing C&C 3 so i doubt its overheating

i heard securom causes system lock ups do u think thats it??

never experienced that..

no the old power supply is a generic one and isnt enough for this setup so i doubt the PC would even start with it

besides ive just done a test and checked the temprature of the CPU when on, even with the case off, the temprature is around 20 C when just on the desktop and around 30-35 when playing C&C 3 so i doubt its overheating

i heard securom causes system lock ups do u think thats it??

Darkman2007

I experianced similar problems with a Power Supply (PSU) that wasn't powerful enough to run the two cards I had installed. If the PSU isn't powerful enough it will just shut down when the PC tries to pull too much power. Some games use the GPU more which will cause a higher power drain. I'd recommend a new PSU if you are still running off of the old generic one.

thats the thing im using a decent power supply with 425 W which should easily suit my pc

by shut down i mean power is off and i have to press the on button again to start the PC again

ive updated everything. and the temprature is fine

no i use XP pro

with Service pack 3

by shut down i mean power is off and i have to press the on button again to start the PC again

ive updated everything. and the temprature is fine

Darkman2007

Most likely a bad or underpowered power supply if your PC is powering off. The fact it only does it when running games that require more power makes it even more likely...

425 W is quite adequate for my system.

plus i did a test where i disconnected one of the hard drives and one of the DVD drives to see if power was the issue and it still shut down

425 W is quite adequate for my system.

plus i did a test where i disconnected one of the hard drives and one of the DVD drives to see if power was the issue and it still shut down

Darkman2007

A faulty PSU can still cause a system to crash even with the miniumal of componets connected.

i suppose its a possibility but i used a program which tests the computer under heavy workloads by using up lots of resources

it worked fine and the test lasted well over 20 minutes.

so i doubt its faulty since the test really made the PC lag while it was doing all sort of animations and short 3d movies

no i dont over clock the system at all

as for the GPU Temp im not sure, the CPU gets to about 33-36 C when playing games and the fan on the GPU is working

the same goes for every other fan both the the CPU one, the PSU fan and the fan on the inside wall of the computer

yes it did 3d tests, showing all sorts of animations, that test was really straining the system, the mouse barely moved with all the lag, so...

i got told by someone i know (a computer technician for about 20 years, he helped me build the PC) told me it has to be a software issue

i cant take my PC to him cause he lives in another country :(

he suggested its either Windows corrupting, Drivers conflicting or even a virus (he said there are viruses which can shut down a PC when certain conditions are met)

does anyone think thats the problem??

ok i got GPU-Z and got some numbers

this was taken before i loaded the game, just the desktop

GPU Temp = kept on going between 55 and 63 C

fan speed = 40%

GPU load = 0%

after running C&C 3 for about 3 minutes i went to the desktop (without exiting the game) and got these numbers

GPU Temp - moving between 75- 80 C

fan Speed = 54%

GPU load = 0%

so what do you think??

I think that temp is fine... I know it is for the latest ati cards. You might try bumping the fan speed up to 100% and see if bringing the temp down makes any diff.

If your running the latest drivers, you can do it in the ati control panel. Go to ati overdrive in the advanced CCC, enable overdrive and manual fan control.

ill try and see if it makes any difference

but wouldnt that shorten the life of the card?

Well, just try it and see if it makes any difference. And I don't know about shortening the life of your card. Maybe the fan, but lower temps are always better... but I doubt you could tolerate it running at 100% all the time anyway.

hey again, ive set the fan and nope, its still happening....

this is frustrating, i might have to format the PC

the prob with that is if its not the problem, ill format the thing and its will still shut down :(

This happened to me as wel, this is what you should do

Remove the RAM chipset 1 after 1 and play the game that crashes the most and play it for a really long time and wait and see to see if it crashes or not, do this to all the RAM chipsets, this takes patience :P

This may have to do with your CPU as well, but in my case it was the Sound Care :\ yea, the sound card coused all the crashes!

But i'm still learning, so i would do this as a last resort!

Have you done anything with drivers yet? Uninstall CCC and uninstall the video driver from device manager, then reinstall the latest drivers?

yes i re installed the display driver and CCC V 8.10 , as well as the sound drivers.

nothing

its worth noting that i did uninstall any old drivers before re installing them so its not that

could it be driver conflict, since the display driver has for some reason its own sound driver called "ATI HD audio rear output", what is that anyways, right now im using the computer's own sound driver "soundmax HD " maybe that??

im just brain storming here but could it be hardware acceleration of some sort

Well, I'd say try installing a new copy of windows. Don't format unless you have to, or unless you don't care about losing your current OS. I'd just install the basicas (sp2, updates, drivers) and see what happens. I think you've got a bad PSU. But last night I thought my video card went kaput, when it was a driver issue... XP started crashing (bsod, never happened in two years), weird artifacts... Fortunetly uninstalling ccc/drivers/reinstall fixed it.

well i think ill format it anyways

the registry is full of junk, the PC probably has viruses on it and the PC just needs a good clean.

it will clear up any old drivers which might cause problems too... if it still doesnt work properly well after going berserk, ill go to the repair shop and get it checked

thanks everyone :)