Computer Crashes/Restarts when playing gmaes

[Pentap]

So, as the title says, when I play video games, my computer crashes and restarts. I can start playing video games, but after about 5-10 min the screen goes blank, and the computer "restarts" but some times it doesn't even fully reboot, but instead stalls, and just sits idle, but the lights are on and the fan is still running.

How do I find what the problem is, and fix it?

I am unsure what is causing the problem, but assumed I would start in this sub-category (since I have to choose one).

 

[ttcboy]

What is the complete spec of ur PC ?

It might be CPU overheating or bad/under powered PSU.

 

[TenPc]

Usually older PC games on x64 Windows 7 causes much of these problems and also not using a recommended video card as per the game specs will also cause the problem.

Please specify what games you play, whether you use virtual drives for some games, and your PC specs.

 

[Pentap]

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
Hard Drive: Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 ATA Device (I think)
64 - Bit.

3 Fans not including the little one on the GPU

Unsure of PSU - how do I find this?

Anything other computer parts I should be listing?




As far as games go, it has mostly crashed on more demanding games, but has also crashed on such games as Awesomenauts from Steam. Any games I have been playing recently were on steam. I do play older games, but it has been a while and I am not sure if I ever experienced crashes last I played them.

I have done some registry cleaning, and I am about to do some defragmenting as I have read in some threads that Windows 7 can have problems with that too.

I will get back once I have done some maintenance and give an update, I will try a less demanding game and see if even that causes a crash.

 

[Pentap]

Is it possible I could have deleted a key startup program? I remember at one point deleted ones that I didn't want or thought were unimportant so I could boot faster.

 

[Pentap]

So after some cleaning up, and re connecting my card and turning down my clock a tiny bit (just in case, idk), I started off with "Mark of the Ninja" on Steam for a while, no problems, so then I started playing "War of the Roses" on Steam for a couple of maps, no problems either. It seems I simply do not have the specs to play "Of Orcs and Men", which was the game that has been causing reboots.

However, I am still stuck with two troubling problems:

1) I distinctly remember my computer rebooting after playing "Awesomenauts" which cannot be much more demanding than "Mark of the Ninja" and certainly not as much as "War of the Roses".

2) I still cannot manually restart, my computer freezes after the shutdown part of a restart.

 

[ttcboy]

PSU is the Power Supply Unit (a small box) where ur power cable from the wall socket goes in and cables to ur mobo,graphic cards,cd drive,hdd etc.. come out.

U have to open up the casing and be able to read it's specs. Normally on the side of the PSU.

I would suggest to re-format but try these out first.
1) Update your Bios with the latest one from mobo manufacturer website.
2) Update your soundcard (if it is onboard, get it from the mobo manufacturer website) or else, download it from the respective site
3) Update your Graphic card driver from nvidia website.
4) Monitor ur GPU temperature using this http://www.gputemp.com/
5) Monitor ur CPU temperature using this http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

 

[Pentap]

Ok, thanks for the response. I may not get to this until the weekend, here are my complete specs though

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz 39 °C
Wolfdale 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 360MHz (6-6-6-17)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. G41M-ES2H (Socket 775) 28 °C
Graphics
Acer S201HL (1600x900@60Hz)
896MB GeForce GTX 260 (EVGA) 44 °C
Hard Drives
466GB Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 ATA Device (SATA) 30 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223F ATA Device
DYRSFQJ LE3SLQF SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

Power Supply:

The model number written is PSAZ - CP600, when I search that model number I get "Xtreme" stuff but nothing that looks like mine. The brand seems to be CyberPower, that is after all, where I got my computer from.

 

[Pentap]

I updated my GPU driver, updated my Audio driver, and downloaded a couple other drivers from here:

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/download-center.aspx?kw=G41M-ES2H&ck=

However, Neither of the BIOS from there work... when I download, extract, and click on the file, it tells me it is not for the right verison (32/64) but there is no way to download different bit versions from there...

I also tried downloading the VGA driver, but it fails to download.

 

[shizanky]

Sounds a lot like your processor is overheating. Go with the links ttcboy provided above. Anything >80c is worrisome. >90c is bad. 100c is usually when it'll shut itself down.

 

[Pentap]

I just played Gothic 3 for 2 hours, and would check my heat levels reported off of CPUID while I was playing, everything stayed below 53C except for the GPU, which eventually hit 76C max, but would flux from about 70-63 for the most part once it had heated up.

I need to take a break, but will try a bit more graphically demanding game tomorrow, if I have the time, but if not I will be away from the computer for a while.

 

[TenPc]

I'm surprised that your rig works at all so if you can get a few hours of gameplay, just be grateful...

What the heck is "RAM - 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 360MHz (6-6-6-17) ", 360mhz?
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3468#sp

2 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 8 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR2 1066(OC)/800/667 MHz memory modules

 

[Pentap]

It wasn't a few hours of gameplay for all games, just dated ones. And it made me uncomfortable doing something that seemed "unhealthy" to my computer.

So after never being able to solve what was going on, I stopped using the desktop, and just recently started looking into building my own rig. After getting my potential build looked at and confirmed, I decided it was time to hook up my current computer for the night so I could back up all my files, and downgrade back to the OEM OS (vista). Upon starting up, it did one of those "self repair" things, and about after an hour, finished and let me restart. Upon restarting there was a "pop" and smoke blew out the back exhaust fan. I opened it up (the PSU that is) and found a bulged/leaking capacitor. I imagine the PSU has been my problem this whole time. It's not quite a solution, but now I am going to buy my PSU for my new rig, backup/downgrade/wipe, and recycle/sell pieces that are dated.

Now that my computer is taken apart, I can tell you the RAM was 2X2GB Kingston DDR2 @ 800MHZ. (It also helps that I understand what that all means now... before I just "knew" higher GB was better) - not that it matters at this point.