I need help

[Josher]

Ok so, it's been about a year since I purchased my really cool new computer but now it seems to be having this weird problem where it randomly shuts off in the middle of whatever I'm doing (be it playing Warcraft 3 or something else). Before this I was having trouble turning it on, if I hit the power button nothing would happen so I resorted to flipping the switch on the back of the computer off for a few seconds and then switching it back on. This seemed to get the power button to work. This new problem of shutting down though is new. My power supply is a "OCZ PowerStream SLI 600 Watt ATX12V V2.01 BTX 24PIN Low Noise Power Supply" (copy pasted from the invoice). Please help

[Cyberlon]

Did you add any new hardware to the system recently?

Maybe posting your specs for the whole system will help, as it MAY not be related to the PSU. I had a system come through the shop a couple of weeks ago that had bad RAM causing the exact same problem. Does it shut down ONLY when using intense 3D graphics programs? -- Do you have anything to monitor heat on the mobo or processor or video card?

I seem to have more questions than answers here.

[Josher]

Ok, yes I do have a program for monitoring heat and from the getgo it has said that my video card was running at a really high temp.....Since I've only seen two shutdowns (both while playing War3) I really can't say, but I think that yes graphics might be the case as I haven't suffered one right now and I've been on for a while. No, I haven't put anything new in the system.

[gvblake22]

It's probably something software related. Do you have the latest patches for the game? Try putting all of the 3D image quality settings back to default in the nVidia driver control panel. What were the actual temperatures of the components you observed (the highest temps you saw)?

[Josher]

126 C on my vid card and yah my game is patched. Somehow I don't think the software being bad would actually turn the power off on my comp...I've been playing some CS:S and nothin bad has happened...hmmmmm.

[Jokerswild]

Software related problems can do funny things. Other than that maybe the power supply is bad.

[pc_guy]

Originally Posted by Josher

126 C on my vid card and yah my game is patched. Somehow I don't think the software being bad would actually turn the power off on my comp...I've been playing some CS:S and nothin bad has happened...hmmmmm.

126C!!!!

You sure it's not 126F?
It must be.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by pc_guy

126C!!!!

You sure it's not 126F?
It must be.

Yeah, I sure hope it's not 126ºC, I don't think even a GPU can survive that kind of temperature!

[Cyberlon]

Does your motherboard monitoring utility allow for logging of the temps on your system? I'd say look to see if there are spikes, as most machines have it in their BIOS now to simply turn off if heat exceeds the threshold of tolerance. Any errors showing in the Event Viewer? (right click 'My Computer' and select manage, then click event viewer for application, security, and system logs)

[Quakindude]

Keep it simple. The first thing you need to do is open the side of that computer up and do some dusting. I use compressed air in a can to clean out all the heat sinks in my computer once a month. There's a heat sink on your video card, inside your PSU and on your CPU. If you haven't done this, the cleaning that is, in over a year, dust build up is likely your problem and your computer is shutting down from over heating. Clean out any case fans with air as well.