Ok, it could be a number of things i know, but my PC switrches off during intensive gaming, at first i could play for maybe 40 mins before a shutoff, then 20 mins, now i can't even play for a minute?
 
Is a bad PSU the most likeley cause here.
 
And YES, before you ask, my PSU is easily capable of running my system, easily capable, it's SLI certified.

Did you tjeck your temps? sounds like something could be over heating.

 
that doesn't mean jack, give us your full specs including amps. and yes, like albenza said it could also be overheating. also, if you oced cpu or gpu or ram have you tested it for stability/monitored temps?

 
 
Temps are fine, GPU, MOBO, CPU - nothing is OC'D.

try re-seating cpu cooler and re-apply thermal com., sometimes that helps.

"that doesn't mean jack, give us your full specs including amps"
 
As i have told you, my PSU is EASILY CAPABLE OF RUNNING MY SYSTEM EASILY CAPABLE - i understand the amps thing i am not a PSU noob.

I never said you are one, I am just trying to help...

 
 
Been there done that, CPU temps are fine. I even replaced the cooler. The shutdowns occur within a couple of minutes now.

 
I know man, but i told you, its easily capable of running my system, easily. I'm sick of answering quiestios about the suitability of my PSU, it's up to the job - if working properly.

I never experienced RAM problems my self, but as I see it we are now down to two options.. either bad/faulty RAM or HDD, try running with only stick of RAM at the time.
 
Edit: 3 options.. could still be the mobo. (4 options, counting local power shortage)

agree ^, or it well could be a bad mobo, first try to do what albenza suggests if that doesn't help, well, you're down to mobo

 
 
 
The RAM has been tested it's fine, but i will try with one stick. The HDD refuses to format properly.

A also have a broken driver which i cannot get rid of because of the inability to reformat, and yes guys, i have been thru every single concievable way of removing the driver, and reformatting, nothing shifts it.
 
Now, i know you'll say "there's the trouble" - but oi had the shutdowns BEFORE the borked driver.
 
Unless i can remove the driver and install the lastest ones i'll never know if that's the root of it all, but i can't get rid of it.
 
I just wondered wanted to know whether my hunch that my PSU is faulty, given the length of the problems was likely.
 
It may well be that the drivers if broken, and my PSU is too, fixing one might not fix the other, so far this system has had a broken GPU, overheatong CPU, RAM that only works in black slots and not yellow slots - it just goes on and on and on..........
 

why don't get a new psu at a local store, if that doesn't fix your problem return it for a refund
 

??? that only shows that mobo might be the issue

 
 
But the thing was, i used to get constant hangs, and BSOD in the yellow slots, and as soon as i switched them to black the hangs and BSOD'S stopped immediatly - therefore leading me to believe that the MOBO were fine, if a little tweaky.
 
This a ******* nightmare, i could be be anything.

I belive (since you say that your PSU can easily run your system) that if your PSU was the problem you would have noticed.. smoke, smell, no power at all.
 
English is not my native language so forgive me for asking. Did you try reformatting but couldn't do it because of an error, or didn't you do it because you are not sure how to do it, or did you do it? got me a bit confused there...
 
problem with black and yellow DIMM slots sure indicates something is wrong with the mobo, could still be the RAM though, I would still try em' one at the time just to be absolutely sure they are not the reason for this.
 

hmm, i would have said ram straight off as that is the usual suspect, however, it could very well be a faulty PSU.  It could also be a bad power connection in your case,  
 
  can yu try loosening the timings or lowering thr voltage to your ram, see if that does anything.  
 
  As a final resort, you may wish to re-install windows.  if you cannot do that for some reason, you may wish to try downloading a linux live disc and using the partitioner that comes with most of them i believe, then you can delete the partitions on your hard drive without using windows, i manage to format my dell laptop doing that as dell blocks it.

 
agree, good idea.

Problems that cause reboots after short amounts of time, while running a program.  
 
1.  Ram instability, may be due to not enough voltage going to the ram sticks.  Some boards don't support high voltage ram(2.0v+)  Or will have stability problems.  Also could be some kind of a problem with the ram.  I've seen ram that caused a system reboot pass testing on ram testing devices.  
 
2.  Not enough wattage or Amps output from the power supply.  This can be caused by manufacturer defect some times, even if a PSU is rated much higher than what is needed.  Also don't forget systems with lots of HD's and optical drives use more power than you'd think.  Not to mention if there either isn't enough current or power output, the extra load caused by running an intensive program, that has a lot of HD accesses or constantly reads off the dvd/cd, can cause a faulty PSU to overheat.  That will cause the psu to shut down or reboot as a fail safe to prevent dmg or fire.  
 
3.  Problem with the mobo.  Again, may not be able to support the proper volts for the RAM.  Or there could possibly be some kind of a short occurring.  I've seen that happen before, the mobo was somehow shorting against the board tray.  
 
4.  Windows not installing properly on the HDD.  I've had this problem personally.  Was shortly after I bought my SATA 2 drive.  I was running it on a pci add in card since my board didn't have sata ports..  For some reason, the hd would not run stable or format at full size or properly until I removed the jumped that limited the drive to sata 150.  After removing that jumper the system would run stable, even though the card it was attached to was an sata 150 card.  Though it still wouldn't show at it's actual full size while installing win xp till after I got my new board that supported SATA2.  The drive in question is the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160gb version.  
 
It would also help a lot if you'd post system specs, that way we know exactly what we're dealing with.  Doesn't matter if you're a vet or newb computer builder on that one.  If I'm having a problem I always post specs, and I've been working on computers since I was 7 years old.