Computer just shuts off while playing! please Help.

Hello Guys.

I got a Big Problem. Whenever i start to play grafic intense Games,
my Pc just shuts off all a sudden after running for bout 10 - 20 min.

It runs fine though on windows aplications, and when in Windows the temps are:

CPU: 38 - 41 C
MB: 33 - 36 C
GFX: 41 - 44 C

When running games the temps get up to:

CPU: up to 49 C
MB: up to 39 C
GFX : up to 60 C (not sure though, cause temp goes down immeaditly when i switch from game to windows)

All the Fan's and heatsinks are clean of dust.

Another thing i found out is, that when i place a desktop fan to blow air into the PC,
the PC takes way longer to shut down, or doesnt shut down at all. So thats basicaly why i think its an overheating problem,
but i DONT know where the source of the problem is.

The GFX temp seems a bit high to me.

System is as follows:
Intel 3.2Ghz
Corsair 2 x 512 Value select DDR 400
Asus GeForce FX 5700 TD w/256 MB DDR
WD 160 GB SATA HDD
WD 250 GB SATA HDD

Can anybody help?

Thanks in advance!

if your CPU heat sink is dirty that "MIGHT" be what is causing it to over heat and reboot..so u can clean it up and see,another thing i would do is a disk defrag to your hard drive(s)..then a virus scan..then a spyware scan..then do a reboot with a check disk enabled and let it run...then see if it dose the same old thing...

Ok,

So the Heatsink and Fans are clean. There is certainly no Virus on my computer, and i do a spyware check every day or other (You could do a check every 6 hours or so if u surf the web a lot).

No Virus and Spyware is removed like always. I'll defrag the disk over night, but honestly, i dont think that will do the trick.

I should have mentioned it before, but the ambient temperature were i live, is about 36 - 39 C during the day.

Weird is though, that the PC started acting like this a month or so ago.

Is it possible for the PC to just shut off if the Power Supply gets too hot?
I rather think its the GFX Card, getting over 60 C sometimes Causing the problem!

What is the wattage of your power supply? Do you have any case fans?

The pc never has this problem except when playing graphics intensive games? If so, are there any games that it doesn't shut down when playing? How many games do you have this problem with and what are they?

What type of pc is this? How old? What motherboard? What os?

36 - 39c????? shiiiiiiiiiiiit, thats pretty darn hot. I would invest in some aircon for a start. That should generally do wonders for you. Now too the pc.

With ambient temps like that it is probably overheating. The grapfics card should be fine, there designed to take pretty huge temperatures, but if it is you will be getting artifacts and errors in the grapfics of games, do you have any?

Are you sure these temperatures are correct for the CPU, THe heatsink keeping a 3.2Ghz P4 only a few celcius above ambient is strange. Touch the heatsink when its on, is it very hot too the touch?? Or is it just hot.

Whats the wattage of your power supply as well, it should be on the side of it. For that kind of system a 350Watt power supply should be adiquate.

Once you awnser these questions we should be able to help you better

Hey guys, thanks for trying to help out.

Now, i really cant invest into an A/C right now, besides that, with just 12 Hours of Electricity a day it wont really help much either ( YEAH, just 12H/day!!!) And i cant run an A/C with my 3.6 Kw Inverter :-S

The CPU really isnt getting any hotter than 50 C's at MAX, when the fan and heatsink is clean of course!

And i figured out that the GFX Card gets up to 78 Cs when playing...

The Powersupply got 450 W..... what should be enough.

I THINK i figured the problem out....I THINK it really might be the GFX Card. I took a small desk fan and placed it to blow cold air right onto the GFX Heatsink and Fan.... Now in games the Card only reaches bout 58 C and till now NEVER shut down again. I hope it stays that way!

I never heard of anything like this before, but it really appears to be the GFX card to overheat.

I'll be doing some testing..... i'll keep u up.

Thanks again guys!

I would have to agree with you that it is your video card overheating. I think that card has a stock fan on it. Is it spinning? You may want to get a slot fan to put under it as well.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=804

Darn, then ya'll would hate me. My GFX card fans usually die within 3 weeks and start making this annoying sound. I usually reach in, grab ahold of the blades and rip it out as I mumble some obsceneties at it.

But I keep my room at like 65F, so I never have a problem. I like it COLD.

I've actually played intensive video games like that on these fans without a hitch, But my ambient temps, the fact that the case is never completely on the computers, and I have chrome restaurant racks to keep my systems on, and I have constant A/C'd and filtered airflow might be enough.

i found the Solution !!!!! Very Easy One! it is the Bios SETUP! YES! in section "PC Health" you will find option for temperature warning. this makes your pc shuts down instead of giving you a warning. Raise the warning temp! that is it!!! (my warning was at 60. i raised it to 70)

That's bad advice by itself.

First, determine which processor model you have.
Then, find out the safe operating temp for that processor.
If the processors SOT is higher than what you have in your BIOS, then you can raise it.
If the SOT is not higher, then you need to look into cleaning your PC for starters and possibly getting better cooling inside the case if it's already clean.

agreed you might let the smoke out of your possessor or worse$$$

the temp setting is set like that to keep the system from frying or worse catching fire... it you set it too high