hi all

first time here and obviously i got a problem.

my computer turns itself off usualy when im playing a game. it will wait for a random amount of time then turn orr . totaly off with no restart.

anyone please have any ideas?

well the failure to turn back on could be specified in BIOS configuration. There is a bit there about auto startup after ac power failure.

My guess is that it could be a power problem, perhaps you have an awesome graphics card that requires more power than your power supply offers.

All of the tweaks for graphics cards I've ever seen have been to get additional performance out of them, this means increasing voltage though, so it is likely of little use to you for this issue.

Are you getting a BSOD? (blue screen of death). If you are, it'll report why windows crashed (if you're using windows) and you can check the Microsoft knowledge base for a solution to the issue.

I had a similar issue with BSOD occurring and was able to resolve it (thus far there have been no further issues) by deleting filters in one of my registry keys.

I think if it was a driver failure though, you would have the game terminate, not the PC. Or you might have Windows (if you're using Vista or 7) revert to basic theme which you notice, because the look of your desktop changes from glassy black or pink or whatever to a simple blue that isn't so fantastic.

Hardware might be another good forum to ask your question, those guys will have more specified information for you on how to deal with the issue if it is related to your graphics card or power supply.

The fact it does it during gaming suggests heat. You need to make sure the system is clean of heat trapping dust and all fans are spinning.

What are your temperatures, particularly, the CPU temps? Your motherboard utilities disk should have a monitoring program (or check for a more recent version on your motherboard or PC maker's website). If none, I recommend CoreTemp for newer Intel and AMD64 CPUs. SpeedFan is a great and popular alternative, or you can try Motherboard Monitor. Unfortunately, I have found that these programs often have problems properly identifying and labeling the sensor they are reading. The temperatures shown are as accurate as the inexpensive, low-tech sensors will allow, but it may say System Fan instead of CPU Fan. Fortunately, the programs do allow you to edit the labels, so I use Everest to verify the temperatures (as it is able to put sensor to label correctly), then edit the label in the monitoring program. In Everest, look under Computer > Sensor, then wait a couple seconds for the readings to appear. Unfortunately, Everest does not minimize to the system tray to show real-time temperatures, otherwise, you could use Everest instead of the others.

If you are overclocking, don't - at least not until this is resolved.

If the above does not help, we will need specifics about your hardware.

heat. guess it was on the back burner. good answer.

ok hes where im at now and thank you all for such fast replies.

first time it happened the computer had been on for some 6 hours ish. then a totaly loss of power(like someone had yanked out the power plug.) but my external hdd still showed a blue light of power and so did my usb hub. but the computer was totaly dead. no signal to the monitor and no fans working etc....

so i cleaned out all the fans and gave the psu a good cleaning.Also checked all the power cables and made sure the fans are running. still did the turn off thingy.

so far its not turned off during normal windows use. only when games are involed.

as for a blue screen of death no i dont get one. i did a month ago. but i solved that, it was due to the old dvdrom i had that was broken and my graphics card had overheated. replacing these solved the problem and i was fine for nearly a month.....

that was till tuesday night, when i had my first poweroff playing civ4, which happened twice. ive also had a power off with WoW yesterday.

i checked my bios and all the fans and temps are in the green. something im thinking of doing is re thermal pasting the cpu.

(btw i did mean for this to be on the hardware section, but embaressingly got confused and it ended up here. sorry all. no offence:P)

was also thinking of getting some software to check my memory just incase its that. i also have a spare HDD i could try and a spare graphics card.

what are ppls thoughts. please.

my system is....

e6600 core 2 duo @ 2.4ghz

mobo nvidia 680i lt sli

psu oczgxs700 700w

ram geil PC2-6400 4gig

graphics card is... gforce 250 gts palit green

running on vista ultima 64bit

I moved the thread to HW so no worries there.

You have a good, brand name PSU of ample power so that's good. It does not mean the PSU is still not the problem, it just means the odds are in your favor it is not a PSU issue.

my external hdd still showed a blue light of power and so did my usb hub. but the computer was totaly dead. no signal to the monitor and no fans working etc....

The power on the ext. drive and USB hub indicate the PSU is still cranking out +5Vsb, the standby voltage it is required to pump out whenever the computer is powered off, but still plugged in (and the master power switch on the back of the PSU, if so equipped, is set to on). So that's normal.

something im thinking of doing is re thermal pasting the cpu.

This should not be necessary if (1) it was done properly the first time and (2) the cured bond was never broken - that is, you did not remove the heatsink fan then replace it without applying a fresh application of TIM. My point is, TIM does not go bad on its own. However, if you do proceed down this line, see my sticky on TIM.

You might try running with the side panel open and a deskfan blasting in there to see what happens.

I doubt this is a HD problem, but trying another graphics card might be a good idea.

Here is my canned text on testing memory:

You can test RAM using one of the following programs. Both require you to create and boot to a bootable floppy disk or CD to run the diagnostics. Allow the diagnostics to run for several passes or even overnight. You should have no reported errors.

Windows Memory Diagnostic - see the easy to follow instructions under Quick Start Information.
or
MemTest86+ (for more advanced users) - an excellent how-to guide is available here.

Alternatively, you could install a single RAM module and try running with that to see if it fails. Repeat process with remaining modules, hopefully identifying the bad stick through a process of elimination.

thank you for those ideas and details.

yes i did break the seal of the tim and no i didnt reapply, i was a bit naughty there. i have redone the thermal and i still get the drop outs.

im jsut about to take out this gcard and put in an old 4550hd ati.

if it still does it after that im guessing its either the psu or memory?

gods above this comp is getting on my nerves now!

thank you for help so far. ill let you know how i get on. wish me luck.

Good luck and keep us posted.

ok just swapped gcards and its running, but....

when first turning on the computer it wouldnt turn on. the fans would start for a sec hten it would stop. this happened 3 times then i turned the power supply off for a bit and turned it on again. this time it started for a brief bit adn then switched off. next time i tried it came on and ive had wow running with half decent settings for a bit now and its not died. so i dont think that helped any. because i guess it still could be the psu and not the gcard?

what do you digrati/all think?