Computer restarts after games

[vendetta]

I need help.
I have an uncle who lets me use his comp. for almost a year now.
We tackled all sorts of problems before but recently thing are very...odd.
I play Age of Empires II,III,Axis & Allies,and a Company of Heroes demo.
I could play them for hours with the graphics on low.
Anyway...About a month or two ago we got a new video card.
After installation I played Age II-good.
Then Age III on high settings-great!
But when i tried Company of Heroes and Axis & Allies they both played well without lag,etc.
But after 10 min my Gateway monitor goes blank screen but I can still hear the sound from the fighting or music.So I go back and play Age III and after 2 hours it does it too!!
I know the computer has surpassed the requirements for all the games.
I don't think it's any programs or virus's because we wiped the comp clean before installation and one time before all this I played Age III with 30 programs on and it never restarted.
I don't know what could be causing this.
I'll post the specs later for better analysis.
This is really bothering me ... I haven't played any games because of it .

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Have you attempted to monitor the video card's temperatures to ensure it is not overheating?

The specifications and/or model number of your PC would indeed help.

 

[vendetta]

The comp has a little screen that always has the temp. for something.Is that it?

I'm still working on the specs...this comp is so confusing.
One thing I learned is that when the MHz are at 200 AGP in the BIOS the internet works and AOE III works.When I put it on 150 AGP Axis & Allies and Company of Heroes works but the internet doesn't work.

Okay I downloaded a driver catalyst for my Radeon X1350 video card and it helped AOE III (I play a long game and it hasn't gone blank screen) but playing the other games still goes wrong.
All and all I don't feel any closer to the answer....

Oh!!! I mean Radeon X1650. (If you've been reading up to this point you can tell I have no idea what I'm doing.)

 

[mailpup]

When you installed the new Catalyst driver, did you uninstall the old driver first (through Add and Remove Programs)?

 

[vendetta]

?

I might not have ...I'll look.
Does it come with the video card?
Or how do you see if you have it?

 

[mailpup]

I'm not sure what you're saying. It doesn't make sense to me.

1) If you uninstalled the old graphics driver, I'm sure you would have remembered so I guess you didn't.
2) Does what come with the video card? The driver? I thought you said you downloaded the driver already. When you said "downloaded" did you mean INSTALLED? Sorry, I'm a little confused. For the most recent graphics card driver, go here: AMD/ATI After downloading it, you still have to install it.
3) As I said, go to Add and Remove Programs to find your existing graphics driver and uninstall it from there. However, I recommend that you download the new driver before uninstalling the old one. If in doubt, there are instructions on the AMD/ATI website on how to uninstall the old driver.

 

[vendetta]

Sorry if you are confused.
My uncle is away alot and he uses the comp more than I do.
(He could download something and leave and I wouldn't know unless I looked)
He probably cares less about the comp. than me but I love it because it has good internet and plays the hell out of games.
Anyway...I was wondering if when you get a video card it comes with a real update driver.(My uncle's the one who installed it)
As for your solution I might have just downloaded an individual driver piece. ( below the full version )
So I will try downloading the full one today.(9.2 version)
.....also when my uncle doesn't download something personally he lets windows do it every day,(The windows updater or something) is this a good thing letting windows update everyday?Or is it messing with the comp?
...ALSO he reformatted the comp and then put the NEW video card in.(Just posting that to see if it matters)

 

[mailpup]

Most retail graphics cards come with a driver CD but the driver on it is usually not the most recent. In fact it can be fairly old. Usually you download the latest one. Most of the time when I let Windows Update install new drivers it does mess things up. Not all the time but in the case of graphics drivers it has for me.

It's not necessary to install the full Catalyst Suite but you can if you want. Remember you should uninstall the driver that's already installed first.

 

[vendetta]

Speed Bump

"sigh" I accidentally removed my USB connection or something.( My uncle knows the problem and is working on it) so it will be a day or two before I make any more progress with my problem and your solutions.
On a side note my uncle says that it is always a good idea to use windows to automatically update all your stuff.I don't know much on the subject so I couldn't say otherwise.

 

[mailpup]

If it works for him, that's fine. After a couple of failed tries of updating graphics drivers through Windows Update, I no longer bother. Besides, the graphics drivers you get through the AMD/ATI site are more up-to-date than the ones Windows Update offers.

 

[vendetta]

One more thing...

While my uncle is reformatting the comp I thought I would try and compile most of the things I posted together with a little new info. I found out what the other video card was.
It was a Nvidia 5700,and on it we played AOEII,AOEIII,DiabloII,Axis&Allies,and Company of Heroes pretty well.(Insane graphics are not a priority for me)
My uncle then took out the Nvidia 5700, put in the Radeon X1650,and reformatted the computer.
I then preceeded to play AOEIII on High settings and it worked well with minimal lag on 4V4 fights.Later I tried to play Company of Heroes on high and it lagged badly (It's default setting was high on everything) so I cut down everything to low or off and it played pretty good but then suddenly the game froze and the monitor went black and displayed a "no signal"message.(It's a GATEWAY monitor)
I could still hear the game music,etc...it also did this on Axis&Allies.

A while later AoE III would barely work on 4V4 fights on low setting, it's possible me or my uncle changed something in Bios.(He would mess with MB like 64,128,and 256 settings,and I would mess with the AGP MHz by putting it on 100Mhz-200Mhz.)

Months later after I put in the catalyst driver(not the full one just the display part) I played AOEIII and I played a couple games on expert 4V4 on low settings on.
The lag was still there a little but My games were pretty long and it didn't "no signal" me.
I then tried Company and Axis and they seemed to go from 4 min to 8-9 min before "no signaling" me.
So I could play AOEIII now but to get the other games (Axis and Company) to play I had to go to bios and set the AGP MHz from 200 to 130-150.
After that they would work with some lag but the internet wouldn't work unless I put it back on 200MHz. My uncle says that the Radeon X1650 is better in every way than that Nvidia 5700 card.I don't know much about cards though so I don't know if it is true.
This is the most baffling problem( computer-wise) I have ever seen and appreciate all the help you guys are giving me.

 

[mailpup]

Your uncle is right about the Radeon X1650 being better than the Nvidia 5700. I wonder if your power supply is the problem. Power supplies can lose power with old age. Maybe yours wasn't too strong to begin with and it's having trouble with the demands of the newer, more powerful card. The new card has a external power connector, a floppy drive type correct? Just checking, but it is connected to the power supply isn't it? It probably is but I just wanted to touch that base.

 

[vendetta]

Temperature or power supply?

"Sigh".... every time I post here and get a reply from you I tell my uncle the advice/help and I feel like he does not even listen to me.
He swears on his lifetime with computers that it is the temperature.(that the comp. overheats.)
I don't know...it's not my comp. so I don't have a say in the matter but I don't want to see him waste more time going down a "dead end".

p.s. he said the power supply is new.?

p.p.s. maybe the power supply chord wasn't good in the first place. I'll ask him....

He said the external thing is connected.
But now I'm thinking it is that the power supply trying to keep up with new card but, I have to ask.
What is the power supply?Obviously it supplies power but I don't know how it works or how you can tell if it's too old,etc...
I know it has to be something involving the video card.