PC locks up during games :(

[SaintZubb]

Hi folks,

I've been having this problem for a little while, but put it down to the virus I had that HH so very kindly helped me get rid of.
Basically, when I play ay kind of game on my computer be it on-line games or off-line, after an unpredictable amount of time, my computer locks up. The mouse freezes and the only way to get out of it is to switch off the PC at the power button.
I thought perhaps it may be a graphics issue, so I uninstalled my drivers and all GC related software completely and downloaded the latest version.
I thought this had fixed it, as I enjoyed an evening of trouble free gaming last night. Sadly, it has come back again today and is as bad as ever.
Also, when I then reboot the PC it sometimes doesn't recognise the existence of the Hard Drive and asks me to insert a system disk.

Has anyone else had anything similar and if so, what did you do to fix it?

Thanks

Desperate Gamer

 

[Rik]

It could be a heat issue!!!

It could be a power issue!!

It could be an overclocking issue!!

It would help us to diagnose if we knew things like, what is your pc? What windows version are you using? What power supply have you got? What have you added to your pc recently?

 

[Darth_Terra1]

seems like a power issue to me are you sure your power supply is able to power the graphics card plus everthing else your running ? what wattage is the power supply and what graphics card do you have ?

 

[Shoupie080]

I had a similar issue on an older pc and it was due to the GPU overheating. That's just one of the posibilities but take that into consideration.

 

[EdenB]

I have the exact same issue, minus the hard drive problem.

Everyone keeps telling me it's power or heat, but those have been ruled out pretty much, so keep in mind that it could be something else.

 

[Darth_Terra1]

I have the exact same issue, minus the hard drive problem.

Everyone keeps telling me it's power or heat, but those have been ruled out pretty much, so keep in mind that it could be something else.

how did you rule it out ?

 

[EdenB]

how did you rule it out ?

Using a Power Calculator (which are admittedly inaccurate) totally everything in the PC and it coming to quite a lot under the capability of the PSU and installing fans inside the case and checking that all components had a low heat (roughly 25 degrees C rather than about the 40-60 it says it can take).