Computer shuts off during games...

[Nycea]

I hope you guys can help me, my computer started turning off (not restarting, completely shutting off) when I started playing Team Fortress 2, pretty much the most graphically intensive thing I do on my PC. Obviously at first I suspected my power supply, so I replaced a 430w for a 500w, hoping that would do the trick. That didn't work so we considered it might be a heating problem, ran a temperature monitoring program, everything was running at around 40C to 60C. So we tried running it with the side of the case off, hoping the airflow would help with the cooling and turned on the alarm in the BIOS so we could see what was having trouble. Near as we could tell it was the CPU fan making all the fuss. But we were looking right at it and it was spinning just fine! We even blew the dust out of it.

Here's where it gets confusing for us: when we restarted the system the alarm started going off randomly; during the start up, stopping, starting, silent for several minutes and then alarm forever. THEN we turned the alarm OFF and it actually still beeped at us- though it was once and very briefly.

So we've ordered a new CPU fan in hopes that will fix it but honestly we're stumped. Later I tried playing Age of Empires II, a VERY low graphic game and the alarm STILL went off. We're thinking that it may be that the gauge is reading the temperature incorrectly. Any help will be much appreciated.

Here's my specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+
2.11 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM
Windows XP
Gigabyte motherboard
Wester Digital Harddrive
and an AMD stock fan on the processor

*Gamer Girls Unite!*

 

[subcan]

have you tried defraging and cleaning the registry? There are many great programs for this. Don't use Windows defrag. Try Diskeeper. For Registry just google or try tucows.com

SUB

 

[jonisaksson]

Hmm 60 degrees doesnt sound very hot for an AMD.

It sounds like either heat or the Power supply, but you have replaced your power supply already....

I wonder if it could be the gfx card.... Are you overclocking your gfx card? and what make is it?
Make sure it isnt loose and that it is properly fitted into the pci-e port.
Also check that its fan is cleaned from any dust.
If you are overclocking the gfx you should obviously dropped it down to the normal settings and see if that makes a difference

The next thing to test, though it sounds unlikely, is the memory. Run memtest on the memory and see what that comes up with.

 

[Nycea]

Well we've figured out the problem, while opening up the case we noticed that the CPU fan was significantly slowing down during games- which would explain the shut downs. We blew the dust out but it still seems to do it although not as often. Luckily we've already ordered a new one. Thanks guys!

 

[Bruce2]

I would replace the thermal past between the cpu and heat sink while you at it. Just a reminder. Good luck.