2008-09-22 03:49:16 PC shuts off on certain games!

I Just upgraded my processor from a P4 2.66Ghz to a Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53Ghz. I had to buy a new power supply too because the first one would make loud noises whenever 3D games were running. The PC works fine now most of the time, except that on certain games, and in 3Dmark2003 (at a certain part of the Nature Test), the PC just shuts off!

Can anyone help me narrow down the cause of this? the only thing i changed was the processor, and the power supply. I don't know what problem causes this kind of behavior. The games that cause the PC to shut off by itself are Mass Effect, Oblivion, and World In Conflict. But i can play Gears of War, and Command and Conquer 3 for hours without the PC shutting off.

My specs:
Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53Ghz
Geforce 8600GT 512mb DDR2
ECS 945GCT-M2 / 1333
1GB DDR2 ram at 667MHz (i think it's 667)
500W Power supply
1 DVD-Rom drive, 1 CD-Drive, one Hard disk. That's it.

2008-09-22 07:08:03

Sounds like overheating to me. Did you apply the thermal paste correctly/at all?

I don't know, that's my guess.

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Mods, stop changing my SIG! I'm going to end up banning you!

2008-09-22 07:10:01 In reply to LEBATO (2008-09-22 07:08:03)

2008-09-22 13:30:22

I'm running Speedfan software to monitor the temperature levels of the processor and the GPU. They're not overheating, the CPU hardly reaches over 55deg, and the GPU barely touches 75 at the hottest. And even if the 3Dmark is the first thing i run when i turn on the PC, it still always shuts off at one specific point in the nature test.

Could a power supply problem cause this kind of behavior?

2008-09-22 15:32:30

yes, definitely.

2008-09-22 15:46:35

So the PC just shuts down without a warning? No green looking artifacts on the screen first?

Sometimes GPU's memory can overheat too. If you have AA, AF or something like that on in the games that crashes, you could try to disable those and see if it shuts down after that.

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Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...
Demigod

2008-09-22 15:53:09

Also, did you go cheepy on the power supply? Some of those off brands can be flakey

2008-09-22 17:40:12

No green artifacts, nothing. Ok wait, usually in Oblivion and Mass Effect, i can sort of tell when it's about to shut off because i can faintly hear a stuttering sound coming out of my speakers. Kind of like stuttering static.

My power supply isn't the best out there, but it's brand new because the first one was defective. I hope i'm not unlucky enough to have gone through 2 defective power supplies.

2008-09-22 19:58:34

Perhaps there's an option in your BIOS that shuts down the system when your motherboard reaches a certain temperature. You might wanna check the BIOS to see if you have an option like that.

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Keep it clean!

2008-09-23 03:11:00

Yes i know that option. It's disabled by default. I tried it once but i could hardly get the PC to boot up again after. :)

2008-09-23 04:41:50

I think you are just pressing the power button......and holding it :P

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Mods, stop changing my SIG! I'm going to end up banning you!

2008-09-23 17:55:52 In reply to PlumbDrumb (2008-09-22 15:32:30)

2008-09-26 16:52:56

I would say something wrong with the HDD personally, I have had HDD's go dodgy before and they will reboot the system without any notice.

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Marumaro for the WIN !!

2008-09-27 05:29:53

Random reboots are usually easy to diagnose, because it's usually a BSOD, which by default makes Windows auto-reboot. You can turn this function off, and actually view the BSOD, which makes diagnosis a lot easier. This, however, seems like something entirely different since he's losing power. I'm not sure what it could be.. my initial reaction points to a problem with heat or power, but the fact that it seems to happen at very specific moments (he says 3D Mark sets it off in the same scene every time) is very curious.

Honestly.. at this point, with what little information we have from this distance, it's not easy to say if this is a hardware issue or potentially a software/driver problem. It's a strange symptom though.