Second opinion on PC error
 

My PC currently is shutting down after a couple minutes of playing. Its fine in windows doing normal tasks. When I enter a game be it BF3 or Clod after a couple or few minutes the PC will either shut down or in CLod the game will minimize and then sometimes launch another exsistance of the game.

My best guess is that my power supply is probably dieing and not supplying enough power during games and this is causing the shutdown. Any thoughts???

I'd think it might well be heat-related. Can you monitor the CPU and Graphics card temperatures?

Well, when errors occur I like to start with the question: "Did it work before, and what has changed since that point?". If your power supply worked before it really should work now? (but sure - they can get problems with age like everything else ;)). It really sounds like a typical low power or overheating problem as it only happens after a number of minutes of full load? So, have you tried running Prime95 for some hours and checked your temps?

From another post I did here recently, this is my tests after building a new PC...

I always run Memtest86 over a full night to verify that the memory and CPU works as it is supposed to do (you download the ISO and burn a CD that you boot it from):

http://www.memtest86.com/

Or you can of course use the built-in memtest in Windows 7 from the boot menu but I like the stand alone memtest better as you boot it from a CD so you don't even need to install the OS first.

After that I run Prime95 a full night to see that it's stable and not overheating under load in the OS...

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

Combine with Core Temp while running Prime95 to watch the temps:

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Starting out with these could get you started, but the important question is still - was the computer stable for months and then suddenly this happens under load? Are you heatsinks and fans maybe filled with dust? Complete specs would help when talking if your PSU is too weak too.

Good luck! /Mazex

sounds in everything like PSU not giving enough power, i had the same problem when i went from a 8800GTS 512MB to GTX 570, had to buy a new PSU (happens when the graphics card demand for power is not met, then it tries to divert power from other components like the CPU, the MoBo detects the power fluctuation as an instability and for protection shuts down the system); if you do that don't go cheap, you'll regret it. also, is the PC new, upgraded any parts recently?

Id be checking out ur heat sinks first on both ur cpu and vga card (atm, to me it sounds like it could be cpu overheating). As mazex said, they could be filled with dust.

Do you ever get the old "ATI/ NVIDIA driver kernel has recovered from an error" during any sort of play? This problem sometimes rocks up and is a good indication that its ur graphics card either not getting enough power, or overheating due to dust.

clean out the dust bunnies! :grin:

had that happen to me 6 weeks ago, i had not cleaned my PC for a year (i know...thats a NONO) and was playing BF3 when the whole PC just shut down...i turned it back on and the CPU was 65C in the bios...which was what the protection level was to set to shut it off at :)

What's your current PSU? The shutting down sounds like it may be a PSU problem.

I figured out most of my problem. It wasnt heat related or PS related. I was looking through my bios and noticed that i had turned on aouto core unlocker prior to my problems. I unselected the core unlocker and now the games play fine, no more shut downs. Apparently my quad core doesnt like the bios core unlocker.