Computer randomly shuts with no warning, while playing games

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

My build is over a year old
3.6GHz AMD Phenom Quad
2TB HardDrive
Zotac GTX570
8GB DDR3 Corsair RAM
MSi Motherboard

The last week or two, my system just shuts down with no warning, when Im in a game
Anything between 10-30 minutes into a game, it just shuts down, no restart or shutting down prompt, nothing, it just blacks out and starts off at the boot screen
My fans are working okay and it runs 24x7 on anything else outside of a game

Any ideas on what I can do?

Thanatos Telos · Aug 21, 2013

What's the PSU make and model?

de5_Roy · Aug 21, 2013

did you check cable connections?
is anything loose?
what power supply are you using?
is your pc connected to a wall socket or through a power strip?
what kind of cooling are you using for your pc, stock or after market (make and model)?

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

Thanatos Telos :

Corsair GS600

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

de5_Roy :

Yea, many times, the cables are fine as best as i can tell
One of those spike buster strips
Fans, around 5 or 6 around the Case, Its a Cooler Master HAF922 and Cooler master 120mm-200mm fans

de5_Roy · Aug 21, 2013

CraigHarrison :

what about cpu cooling?
is the cpu cooler seated properly?
if your cpu is overclocked, have you tried playing games on stock settings? is your o.c. stable for gaming?
did you check if the cards, ram modules are seated properly?
are you using the latest drivers for gfx card and o.s.?
is your pc dust-free (as much as possible) on the inside?
have you tried gaming with a different psu?

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

The cooling fan works fine and the heat sink is as far as i can tell in contact
The drivers are up to date, and no i havent used a diff PSU
Theres some dust but not so much
Everything is fixed in firmly

de5_Roy · Aug 21, 2013

is your cpu overclocked/underclocked/undervolted?
does this restart happen in only one game or any game?
have you tried with a different gfx card to see if the same thing happens during gaming?

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

de5_Roy :

Stock clock speed, no over/under clocking or volting
Uhh, no. I dont have another card

de5_Roy · Aug 21, 2013

CraigHarrison :

you're skipping a few of my questions. take your time and answer calmly.
does the rebooting happen in only one game or any game you try to play? if it's one game, which one? which games trigger the reboot? do any other software (that stress the system) trigger the reboots?

Traciatim · Aug 21, 2013

If you just run Prime95 for a while does the shut down happen, and if you just run Unigen's heaven benchmark does it happen.... how about both at once?

Let them run for a while just to be sure.

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

de5_Roy :

I am calm, its just that you ask so many questions that its hard to keep track, sorry about that
It happens on several games, Ive played FarCry 3, Witcher 2, Black Ops 2, Skyrim, Company of Heroes 2, Ghost Recon and Metro Last Light
All graphically demanding games

I dont think ive used an stressful software
I use a lot of Photoshop, but thats not very stressful and it causes no problems

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

Traciatim :

No I havent, Ill try it out now

de5_Roy · Aug 21, 2013

CraigHarrison :

ah. i can't remember which questions to ask in begining, so i ask whichever comes to mind first. just trying to eliminate probable causes.
do you use hardware monitoring softwares like coretemp or hwmonitor? if the issue is due to heat build-up, a monitoring program may be able to help. you could try setting it to log temperature while gaming.
if you suspect the gfx card, try monitoring it with gpu-z or msi afterburner.

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

de5_Roy :

CraigHarrison :

ah. i can't remember which questions to ask in begining, so i ask whichever comes to mind first. just trying to eliminate probable causes.
do you use hardware monitoring softwares like coretemp or hwmonitor? if the issue is due to heat build-up, a monitoring program may be able to help. you could try setting it to log temperature while gaming.
if you suspect the gfx card, try monitoring it with gpu-z or msi afterburner.

Prime95 has taken my CPU upto around a 100% and my RAM to 3GB
5 min in, nothing

Ill try that too

CraigHarrison · Aug 21, 2013

i Tried Prime 95 for 20 minutes on max load, nothing happened

systemg33k · Aug 21, 2013

I have the same problem. Try running OCCT (http://www.ocbase.com/ ) CPU Test...I get the same reboot within a couple seconds.

Traciatim · Aug 21, 2013

CraigHarrison :

So now try Unigen Heaven, which is designed to test GPU performance but not be very strenuous on your CPU at all. That will help narrow things down.

If that works with no restarts then try Prime95 and Heaven together and see if that restarts again. If so then I would start looking at a failing power supply. If Heaven crashes then you start looking at things like overheating or a driver issue, or possibly your video card failing.

CraigHarrison · Aug 23, 2013

Traciatim :

Okay, Im confused now
Ive run Heaven for 10 minutes, run OOCT for 10 minutes and then Heaven + Prim95 for 15 minutes
I have no overheating, no problems, nothing so much as even lag, Heaven is on Extreme, im getting 30 fps when run alone and 20 with prime95
Im updating this while theyre both running, and it hasnt rebooted
an hour ago, I loaded up Witcher 2 and 5 minutes it rebooted, before that I played a couple hours of Crysis 2 and nothing happened

de5_Roy · Aug 23, 2013

CraigHarrison :

okay, so witcher 2 triggers the rebooting.
but crysis 2 doesn't trigger the reboot.
the stress-programs didn't trigger the the reboot.

does any other game trigger the reboot? you should look into why witcher 2 is causing the reboot.

CraigHarrison · Aug 24, 2013

de5_Roy :

Its not Witcher
The reboots started with FarCry 3
But then subsequently they started happening with Company of heroes 2, Metro Last Light and then Witcher 2, its happened once or twice on Grid 2 as well
Crysis 2, Company of Heroes 1 and Virtua Tennis work just fine

de5_Roy · Aug 24, 2013

CraigHarrison :

you have said that the hardware is fine.
some games (not all of them, by your statement) trigger the reboots.
have you tried re-installing the games that trigger the reboots?
you could also check the support forums (of those games) if anyone else had similar problems. updating the games with patches might help.
you could also try using a different gfx card in your pc to see if those games trigger rebooting with a different gfx card. in that case, the problems would be software-related.

CraigHarrison · Aug 25, 2013

de5_Roy :

CraigHarrison :

you have said that the hardware is fine.
some games (not all of them, by your statement) trigger the reboots.
have you tried re-installing the games that trigger the reboots?
you could also check the support forums (of those games) if anyone else had similar problems. updating the games with patches might help.
you could also try using a different gfx card in your pc to see if those games trigger rebooting with a different gfx card. in that case, the problems would be software-related.

Yeah, I've tried re-installing them, I've even upgrade to Windows 8, had the same problem and then went back to windows 7
I don't have a spare card lying around

de5_Roy · Aug 25, 2013

CraigHarrison :

did the same games trigger the reboots in windows 8 or every game? you need to make sure which games (and/or other programs) trigger the reboots and monitor your pc closely when & how it happens.
if the rebooting happens only with certain games, you could try installing updates from their respective websites.
at this point i don't know if i can contribute further. sorry couldn't be of more help.

Computer randomly shuts with no warning, while playing games

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