my DELL XPS M170 keeps on reseting, HELP PLEASE

[t229955]

hi. I have a dell xps m170;

penitum m 2.0ghz
256 geforce go 7800gtx
1gig ram (512 x 2) ddr2
60gb hard drive
etc etc

when I play battlefield 2 on maxed out settings, a couple of minutes into the game the pc just freezes up and restarts itself. can it be a driver issue? or is something overheating and this is sort of like a defense mechanism to prevent the laptop from burning out? all input is appreciated!

 

[n0odle]

Do you see a blue screen when it crashes? The dreaded BSOD. As for the cause, there can be a number of issues. Do you overclock? How hot dose your gears run? Do a temp check on all, CPU/video card etc. And what power supply do you have? Are you getting enough power for that 7800?

 

[tool_462]

n0odle...he is running on a laptop...

t229955: Chances are it's a heat related problem. See if you can check the temps and post back. Also, as n0odle said, if you are getting a BSOD before shutdown it is probably a driver issue. Does it only happen when playing that particular game or is it consistent throughout others.

 

[t229955]

I bought this laptop used about a week ago. everything works perfectly fine except for this reset thing. I dont get a blue screen. It happens during battlefield 2, but thats because I havent had the time to install others games. Once it happened as I was doing all sorts of things (multitasking).

The power supply is the genuine thing that came with it, except the cable that connects to the adapter is from another laptop. can that be a problem?

I dont really know how to do a temp check. can you advice me on programs?

 

[Ycon]

Are you playing on battery?

 

[t229955]

of course not, im not playing on a battery

 

[t229955]

anyone?

 

[Ponk]

Firstly, check your mobo, secondly, check RAM...If either of these passes, then it's either a driver or OS problem. Had this problem (not with battlefield, with B&W2, it would randomly stop, crash and then reboot...Managed to route it down to mobo...)

hope this helps.

 

[t229955]

what do you mean by check? run some software or what?

 

[Ponk]

Search for mobo and ram diag tools (google it, their are loads about) can't remeber what one I used, but it will cheack everything within 1-2 hours.

 

[t229955]

basically I ran SiSoft Sandra and this is what I got;

"bios can be shadowed so check whether it is"
"bios does not support EDD (enhanced disk drive) specification. check for an update."