Computer restarting itself in middle of game

Sephiroth_dude · 24-01-2009 2:43am #1

Not sure if this is the right forum or not so mod please move if it is........basically I built a new computer back in september.Recently I have been playing red alert 3 and twice this week while in the middle of a game my computer has restarted itself

can anyone tell me why it did this?or give me a reason as to why you think this may have happened?its has never happened before this and its only happened with red alert 3.........any advice would be great

thank you.

Frisbee · 24-01-2009 2:46am

I remember this happened to me a couple of years ago with 'Neverwinter Nights'

Turns out it was my graphics card. Replaced it and it worked fine from then on.

Sephiroth_dude · 24-01-2009 2:48am

so you think it could be my graphics card?i have a gtx 260 i cant really afford to buy a new one :-/.

BuddhaJoe · 24-01-2009 2:55am

Had a similar problem before. I hadn't affixed the CPU fan on correctly so the CPU would overheat under strain and as a built in safety precaution in my bios the computer would automatically shut down once it reached a certain temp.

Lazarus2.0 · 24-01-2009 3:16am

Does sound like overheating - most likely gfx card as cpu overheating would probably cause shutdown sooner . Have a bit of a clean up inside the case . Clear fans and heatsinks , maybe add a case fan or two if there's room .

Jonathan · 24-01-2009 3:56am

Sounds like overheating as the others have said.

Make sure your case is free of dust.

Overheal · 24-01-2009 4:05am

Overheating either from dust buildup our you did a poor job of applying thermal paste to your CPU's heat sink. Im assuming the latter. You are only meant to use a very small amount of thermal paste and apply it evenly over the contact surface.

Kinetic^ · 24-01-2009 11:04am

Open your side panel and turn on the game, see if the GPU heatsink fan is working. It probably isn't. No need to get a new gfx card, just get a new 3rd party heatsink.

Sephiroth_dude · 24-01-2009 3:27pm

Overheal wrote: »

Overheating either from dust buildup our you did a poor job of applying thermal paste to your CPU's heat sink. Im assuming the latter. You are only meant to use a very small amount of thermal paste and apply it evenly over the contact surface.

well you see my brother built it for me so i dont think he even put thermal paste on it

Overheal · 24-01-2009 5:00pm

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

well you see my brother built it for me so i dont think he even put thermal paste on it

Only one way to tell: Shut down, unplug, and get down there and remove the heatsink from the CPU. Have Paste ready. Theres probably either going to be none, or far too much. You will want to clean the surface completely of old paste before putting on a new application.

thielfer · 24-01-2009 9:39pm

it doesn't have to be an overheating, anyway it's one of common reasons of resetting system during the game
if you have hi-end card or one of the neweggs you must understand that most of that kind of problems is caused by drivers
even approved by nvidia/whql driver final versions are still like poor betas
I have gf9600gt and all drivers since 175 till now 18x.xx are damn bad
I use 174 now as they are good for most of the games that are released now
of course it's regarding DX9 not DX10 as it's still in testing state
try to revert drivers as they may not fit system properly
with your card you have to expect that drivers won't work with some software and they still develop it...

Overheal · 24-01-2009 9:49pm

If it werent an amateur build I might have thought otherwise too - but suspect #1 is thermal paste - I've seen too many botched builds. Flatmate of mine destroyed his CPU trying to run Crysis on full settings... whole tube of paste caked on top of the damned thing. Smelled awful.

PogMoThoin · 24-01-2009 9:59pm

Only get a 3rd party heatsink if youre not wanting your warranty, which I presume is valid as the GTX 260 is only out a few months.

Computer restarting itself in middle of game

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