PC keeps shutting down my games!

falcon · #1 05-26-2003, 08:53 AM

Hello All,

I hope some-one can help me here as everytime I play a game for half an hour to an hour, the PC shuts down, I am getting really fed up with this, I thought I had cracked it when I shut down the XP Firewall, but looks like that was not the cause.

If anyone can please help I'd be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance

Falcon

Daeymon · #2 05-26-2003, 09:31 AM

does it crash? or does it actually go through the shut down process?

falcon · #3 05-26-2003, 09:35 AM

No it does'nt go through the shut down process, it just powers off, if that makes sense, the only thing that has a light on is the Monitor, other than that the Tower is silent, no lights on nothing.

Sorry if my description is weird, but its one of those awkward things to explain, well it is for me (like everything) lol

Cheers

Falcon

scouse · #4 05-26-2003, 10:02 AM

it sounds like a heat issue to me when your PC gets to hot well the CPU your comp will shut itself down.

you say this happens when playing games, so to me i would say you are putting your CPU under work load during games and playing games always raises the temp of CPU and your Graphic card.

i may be wrong but i would say it is a heat issue if this happens with any game you play after a while.

also how big is your PSU?

falcon · #5 05-26-2003, 10:05 AM

You say how big is the PSU? well I hope this is the right answer, I have a AMD 2200 XP

Is that right, if not check the bottom of my message as I have put my specs there

Cheers

Falcon

falcon · #6 05-26-2003, 10:07 AM

God I'm so dense! sorry it say's the same thing there!, all I know is that its 1.8gig I think

Ignore my ignorance! lol

Cheers

Falcon

scouse · #7 05-26-2003, 10:11 AM

Falcon i mean your power supply unit "PSU"

is this happening with any game you play??

remember playing games puts more stress on your CPU in your case your 2200 xp and makes them hotter so if you do not have good cooling it may get to hot which will shut down your computer it is a safety thing so you do not damage your chip.

does your case have good cooling does it ahve acse fans ??

falcon · #8 05-26-2003, 10:17 AM

Forgive me for being so stupid but I really could'nt tell you the PSU as I don't know.

This is a virtually brand new system, and the chap who built it put fans in.

Funny thing is though that all day and evening yesterday I was playing G.T.A. Vice City and it was fine! weird I say.

Today I was playing Grand Prix 4 and then it started doing it again.

I'm so cheesed off with this as I paid alot of money to switch from a Pentium to AMD as recommended to me by several people and now I could quite easily string em up! lol

Seriously its very annoying

Is there somewhere I can find out the PSU?

When it comes to things like this I just don't know, sorry

Falcon

scouse · #9 05-26-2003, 10:32 AM

you say you can play games and it will be fine al day then at other times it will crash, then don't wory about heat if it was heat you would not of been able to play your game all day yesterday so thats good news

but why your pc shuts right down is strange, because you do not know enough about the workings of the inside of a computer yet there is no point in asking you to try things.

remember this you can only learn and get better as you go along, i know some but not enough there is so much i still need to learn, but i knew NOTHING 18 months ago i was even scared to switch a computer on lol (true) but now i built my last computer myself i am confident to do anything to my pc now, so with time you will get to learn

yoiu need to read books on computers also you need to read these pages and listen to others answer problems and learn from that that is how i have learnt.

back to your problem, what drivers do you have for your graphic card??

do you know how to install new drivers for your graphic acrd?? it is straight forward realy if you download them of the internet.

you may have a faulty power unit that is why you lose all power to the computer.

you may have faulty ram.

your graphic acrd may be faulty.

there is a few things you need to check.

what i ahve said does not mean i am right so do not worry and thinbk you ahve a bad cmputer you have'nt you just have a fault we allget them, but it may be one of the things i have said.

do you have a friend who is good with computers and will help you test a few things??

you need as friend who can check the inside of your computer for loose leads to make sure everything is sitting correct, and to check othger things??

but the main thing is you can use the computer it is just when you put load on the computer playing games

falcon · #10 05-26-2003, 10:41 AM

Well I really hope its none of those problems you've listed as I cannot afford to buy anything new right now, I also have NO friends, (might sound odd, but its god's honest truth)

No-one would be my friend, even if I begged them!

Anyway, I use the 41.09 drivers, and tried to install others but my Monitor went off on re-boot, and I had to do a complete format, and re-install of XP, however on installing it, the disk exploded in the drive, then I had to go to the bloke who built my PC and borrow a XP disk to do it all again, now I have XP installed again, but I have no XP disk, I have to wait until Microsoft have done their stupid tests to see if they will allow me to have a new one!

I always thought that installing new graphics drivers was a case of over the top of the old ones, but I don't think that's the case anymore, or ever was, so no I guess I would be stuck doing that.

I tried to get that book out of the library but its out at the moment, so I have to wait.

Falcon

falcon · #11 05-26-2003, 10:52 AM

Would'nt it help if I was to remove one of the side panels of the Tower? the side which you can see all the workings etc.....might help to keep it cooler

Falcon

scouse · #12 05-26-2003, 11:04 AM

sorry to hear about the xp disc mate

the drivers you have are fine so it won't be them, to install new drivers all you have to do is goto control panel add/remove find the nvidia drivers click delete, then download the newer ones from the internet after the downlaod is finished press open and it will install the drivers for you.

you are going to need your xp disc incase youever do need to reformat and install again as you know.

how long have Microsoft ahd your broken disc?? i hope you get it sorted mate.

as for books just try and get any books from the libray that learn you there is many books about computer rapair computer programming computer software so on.

also the shop that built your pc do you have any warrenty left they shoulod take a lok of it for you mate.

i doubt the problem you ahve is anyrthing major, your computer siworking fine you can play games only sometimes it crashes, it could be anyone of a number of things, but none bad or expensive

andygeeeeezer · #13 05-26-2003, 04:59 PM

I got offered to have a pc built for me for £500 but i declined and went out n bought 1 for £1000. I was told afterwards that the £500 pc would have been the same specs as my £1000 one.
I did not care as i know i have 1 years callout repair on me pc and also everyone who I know who has had a pc built for em have had problems!.

My reccomendation is do not buy a pc off a mate who can build one(unless he wont mind comin round to sort it out for ya if ya have problems)/someone you have been told will make ya a cheap pc/secondhand pc
Unless you know what yer doin inside of a pc cuz otherwise the odds are that u will run into problems.
But that is my personal opinion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BUT ANYWAY, I have a solution for yer problem...
Play yer game for 20 minutes then save and shutdown your pc for 20 mins then start back up and resume game

lol only kiddin

As to yer question should i take the side panel off. YES it would be good if you tried that. ..all that will happen is that dust will get inside which will not cause ANY damage at all (just make sure you dust it off every 3 months or so) and if you find that
works and yer pc dont shut itself off when playing games you can consider going out and buying and fitting a fan (its very easy)
Hopefully that will solve your problem
If someone has built yer pc for ya they may not have put a good enough fan or not enough fans in for the processor!
Laters

falcon · #14 05-26-2003, 05:30 PM

Hello andygeeeeezer,

I hear what you say, but the guy who built my PC is actually a professional builder (of PC's I mean) lol

He's been building for more than 25 years, and has his own business, and he's good at what he does, and has helped me out alot of times, even when I've given him whatfor! but that's me and my bad temper! through PC frustrations!

Anyway the problem, may, I say MAY have been solved I hope!!

I had a look inside the Tower today and looked down on the Motherboard and saw that the square gold Chip was half in and half out of the Mobo, how it got like that I have no idea, but I pressed it gently back in and tried the game I was playing when it did shutdown and all was fine, so its a case of waiting and seeing now as to whether it happens again, then of course its bound to be a heat problem, I hope not though!!!

Cheers

Falcon

falcon · #15 05-27-2003, 10:05 AM

Looks like I was wrong yet again! and it may well be a heat problem, I went and saw the guy who built it and he said that it may well be a heat problem and he's having it in to look at it on Thursday.

I'll let you all know how it goes

Cheers

Falcon.