Computer restarting...

[PrimeSuspect]

Today when i installed a game called Medal of Honoracific assault and when i was playing through second level my computer restarted. Than i stop playing it and played mods for HL and my computer restarted. Is my powersupply weak? Should i let me computer cool off for the whole day? Whats going on here :O



My Specs:

AMD Athlon 3200+ 2.21ghz
1gig RAM, 160 gb space
ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256mb ($500 dolla card)
WinXp, 6 fans inside

 

[lePobz]

Could be a lot of things, ranging from bad drivers to faulty hardware (specifically memory) to a weak PSU - since your case is fanned to the hilt i'd say it's not an overheating issue.

The fact it's only just started happening would suggest its more likely to be either software or hardware and not actually a weak PSU (otherwise you'd have noticed this on the day you got/built your PC)

 

[PrimeSuspect]

well i extracted lots of files today. Could that be the issue?

 

[gweedodogg69]

Do you get a blue screen? If you do check Event Viewer.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

no blue screen.


I havent turned it on for about 3 hrs. so ill check on it in a bit

 

[dart321]

Check your power supply and/or power cable. It could be that your cable is bad or simply not plugged into the computer and/or power socket far enough.

 

[psyno]

no blue screen.

XP's default behavior is to skip the blue screen and simply restart. It just hides it really.

To enable the blue screen, go to System Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > System failure and clear the check box Automatically restart.

Then you'll actually be able to tell if you're getting a blue screen or not, at least...

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Well my computers not restarting anymore. I guess it was becaus ei used up lots of ram when extracting files and than right after that i played a game

 

[PrimeSuspect]

XP's default behavior is to skip the blue screen and simply restart. It just hides it really.

To enable the blue screen, go to System Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > System failure and clear the check box Automatically restart.

Then you'll actually be able to tell if you're getting a blue screen or not, at least...

I did this and my computer still restarted. No blue screen happened?


can some 1 help me? Why is this happening........ how i fix it?

ps- happens when i play games only

 

[PickledGecko]

Hmm, if it was a power supply over heating thing, it would restart after a certain length of time, not just when playing games.

I'm guessing its graphics card related. I would have said it wasn't getting enough power if it was a GeForce, not sure about Radeons, and you don't give your power supply wattage.

So next on my list would be your graphics card is over heating. Do you have any temperature monitoring software, my Nvidia card used to give the temperature in the graphics options, don't know much about Radeons, sorry. Try a google search for a temerature setting monitor program.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Yes i do! This is what im getting!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v393/primesuspect/mycardtemp.jpg

its mostly at 68 when not playing games. But when i play a game and after im done playing i check it says around 71.

is this is the problem...how i make it lower

 

[PickledGecko]

Hmm, 71 seems fine. Graphics cards generally can handle much higher temperatures.

You say it started after installing Medal of Honor. So it wasn't a problem before that?

What do you mean by "well i extracted lots of files today"?

 

[PrimeSuspect]

I had this big file that was zipped with tons of information. It was about 5gig and than i than i restarted and i played a game and my computer started to restart.

Than i thought maybe because the quality of the game is very high... let me try a Halflife mod like dod. And when i played dod it restarted after 5mins of gameplay .

im so worried. I even did a virus check and theres no viruses. im clean.

 

[PickledGecko]

Ok. Do you have;
firewall?
antivirus?
anti-spyware?

And next time it restarts go into the BIOS and check the CPU temperature.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

i have no antivirus or spyware...

And i dont know how to check my CPU temperature. Is there a program i cna download where it tells me ?

 

[PickledGecko]

This program will tell you temperatures;
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7309,00.asp

Here's free antivirus software;
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/Programs/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

Here's free anti spyware (theres a microsoft beta somewhere, i dont use it but if you want to search go ahead);
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Now the reason I bring up the whole antivirus thing is you say you decompressed a large game sized file and then started to play a game for the first time. I'm not accusing you of anything, and if it is a copy its best you keep it to yourself, but you see where I'm going with this.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

lol i didnt want to say it in these forums and get banned. Well u get the point.

Ill download this things now and tellu the info! ty!

 

[PrimeSuspect]

hmm this CPU Temp. program is weird. Im kind of a newb to the computer crap. You have to put in all computer info and all that? wont it just give me the temp. so i can tell u?

 

[PickledGecko]

Do you know how to get into the BIOS. There's usually a section called "PC Health" or somthing similiar. It tells you the CPU temp and the fan speeds.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

this program is confusing. Just tell me how to check my cpu temp. when i restart..

What do i exactly press when my computer starts back up?

 

[PickledGecko]

As soon as it starts to POST. That is, when it tells you what hard disks and CD/DVD drives you have connected you have to press a button. Its usually the "Delete" key (not Backspace btw), or it could be an F# key. It'll tell you somewhere as it loads.

Try restarting and just pressing delete over and over, if you end up loading windows, then you need to try again with another key. If you cant see it tell you the right key, check the manual.