Sudden Shutdowns without Warning

[Turbine951]

Im having the same problem as several other people. While playing some (not all) games my computer restarts suddenly without any noise or warning. Games that this happens to are (Counter Strike Source, Battlefield 2, Mx vs. Atv Unleashed) games that do not shutdown are (Quake 4, Call of Duty) etc.. However if it is hot enough in the room, even while typing up a paper in Word, it will still restart. However the CPU temperature is currently running at 30C and never climbs above 40C, the case temperature is 13C, and I dont think my video card (radeon 9800 Pro) has a temperature monitor feature. Its very spotty but i never get an error message or anything. All my comp specs are in my user cp and i have the minidump here. So if anybody could tell me what it might be, i would appreciate it. Thank you.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Your minidump crashes at you video card drivers. It has a bugcheck of EA.

0x000000EA: THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

A device driver problem has caused the system to pause indefinitely (hang). Typically, this is caused by a display driver waiting for the video hardware to enter an idle state. This might indicate a hardware problem with the video adapter, or a faulty video driver.

Since you said it sometimes shuts down when your room is warm, it deffinitely looks like an overheating problem of some description.

Take the side panel off of your case and aim a deskfan blowing into your case.

If the restarts happen less frequently, then you will know it`s an overheating problem.

Make sure you case isn`t full of dustbunnies, as dust and debris can cause overheating.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[Turbine951]

alright man, it does happen less frequently with the side panel off, because i have had the side panel off for the last week. (been hot in the dorm rooms) but is it just the video card overheating? because my cpu right now is 24C which is WAY cool. Its a radeon 9800 Pro, and also, is there anyway to tell if i have the latest vid driver installed??

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Go to the ATI website, look HERE and check to see what the latest verion of your video card drivers are. I guess it couldn`t hurt to download and install them anyway.

It does look like a video card overheating issue.

Regards Howard

 

[Turbine951]

alright. well since its an overheating issue, is there anything i can do, to keep the video card cool? Or should i just buy a new one? Like i said the overall temperature in the case is very low, but if there is anything I can do to cool it down let me know.. and i appreciate the help and the quick responses.. very much

 

[howard_hopkinso]

The first thing you can do, is to make sure your graphics cards heatsink/fan isn`t caked in dust.

You could also invest in a vga cooler. Take a look HERE.

Regards Howard