Computer keeps shutting off, hardware fault?

G

G-Snake

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Dec 26, 2006
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Ok I'll try to make this as short and to the point as possible.

AMD X2 4200+
Windows XP Pro
2GB Ram
ATI Radeon 2600HD 512mb
400W Power Supply (likely the issue)

I started playing Fallout 3 on PC, it was running fine, but eventually it would crash, and shut down my entire computer 10-15 minutes into a new session. I thought it might be caused by Fallout 3 itself, but this has since happened with a variety of other games (young and old), so it's not a problem exclusive to Fallout 3.

What hardware would have the capability of shutting down my machine completely during a crash? My first assumption is that the power supply is getting taxed more during gaming, and can't handle the load, in which case I just need a new power supply. I also can see how this might be caused by the Video Card overheating and forcing a hard shutdown.

I wanted to see if anyone here might have a better grasp of what could cause a computer to completely shutdown. If it's merely a system setting in Windows that protects hardware, I can disable that feature, although I expect it to be either the Vid Card or Power Supply.

Thanks in advance.
 
Does it just shut down completely, no power, or a bsod? Do you know what brand the psu is? and do you have any idea what the temps are on the gpu. I would suspect the psu is the problem mainly if its an off brand, but cant say for certain.
 
eastpetersen said:
Does it just shut down completely, no power, or a bsod? Do you know what brand the psu is? and do you have any idea what the temps are on the gpu. I would suspect the psu is the problem mainly if its an off brand, but cant say for certain.
Click to expand...

The PSU is the stock one that came with the PC (which is an Acer Aspire).

I'll play a game for between 10-15 minutes, and the game will go black, and then the machine shuts itself off completely (no restart, it's a hard shut off). I have to manually restart the computer after this crash.

I've been playing games on PC for over a decade and I can't remember a time where a game or games could cause a PC to completely shut down. I've tried to clean out all of the dust in the case, but it's still happening.

It's probably my fault for buying such an inferior computer package from Acer.
 
Take a pic of the PSU label and post it here. It sounds like your system is overheating, but unless you check your GPU temps, it'll be hard to figure out just which exact part is overheating.
 
enginurd said:
Take a pic of the PSU label and post it here. It sounds like your system is overheating, but unless you check your GPU temps, it'll be hard to figure out just which exact part is overheating.
Click to expand...

Yeah, after reading a few other resources, I think overheating is the issue, at least I've pinpointed (or close to) the core issue. I'm also going to check my Bios to see if there's an option to auto-shutdown after it exceeds a certain temperature.

Thanks for the responses. I'm at work so I'll take a shot tonight.

I went out at lunch and bought a 500 Watt power supply, brand new, so I'm hoping that will fix the problem. It's not a bad idea to have an extra power supply kicking around anyway in the event it's not the issue, as I find it doesn't take long to go through Power Supplies, especially if you leave your PC on the majority of the time.
 
It doesn't take long to go through shitty PSUs, but if you buy a good one, it will last you 5+ yrs.

Which new 500W PSU did you buy? Not all 500W PSUs are made equal.
 
Unfortunately Future Shop (a retailer in Canada) only had one brand, Dynex, so I was limited by choice. I have used Dynex in the past (before my current Acer tower), and I had no issues with that Dynex PSU.
 
Dynex isn't very consistent with their products, and most of what you'll find on them is bad. I'd return it and order a much better quality PSU online instead. Check out ncix.com, newegg.ca, or canadacomputers.com. Look for a Corsair, BFG LS series, Seasonic, Silverstone, PC Power & Cooling, Antec Earthwatts, Truepower Trio, or Neopower, Enhance, or similar PSU.
 
Thanks for the advice.

It seems as if the PSU was never the issue in the first place. I just swapped in a 500W PSU and the same issue is happening. I've cleaned out my video card pretty well, there was a large build-up of dust buried deep within the heatsinks, perhaps that was the culprit. The only other things I can try are updating the vid drivers (I'm using older ones since newer ones break some games for me), and ultimately trying to re-install a fresh copy of Windows XP.

I'll try to update this as I figure out a solution.
 
You can run Prime95 blend test to see if its a problem with your RAM or CPU. Run it for an hour or so, and if no crash, your RAM and CPU should be good to go. Then run furmark or loop 3DMark (but I think furmark is more strenuous on the GPU) to see if its your GPU overheating.
 
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