computer crash

[[SD]happynoobing]

for some reason my computer started crashing a lot lately (during games of course). usually it doesn't give any error, just goes straight to reboot. i dont think it's due to the game because it crashes on a number of games: BF2, cabal, mabinogi, etc. I've ran virus scans and nothing came up. what could be the problem? memory leak? vid card over heating? any ideas on how to fix it?

[William-CL]

Is it a Laptop or Desktop?

[agent420]

mine and my wife's laptops shit the bed last week. she had a mack daddy hp and the lcd went on it. i had my shitty dell for work and the power supply fried. i tried to change it out but the peice of shit is built right onto the board! hopefully my cheap ass boss will buy me a new one this week. till then, i don't have a computer at home!

[[SD]happynoobing]

Is it a Laptop or Desktop?

desktop.

[Morgoth]

go to Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - System - Advanced tab and click Settings under Startup and Recovery

under System Failure there's 3 options, if "Automatically Restart" is checked the un-check it and check "Send Administrative Alert" instead (that's what i did and it seemed to stop the restarts for me)

tell me if your comp stops restarting with this

[Sharp324]

go to Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - System - Advanced tab and click Settings under Startup and Recovery

under System Failure there's 3 options, if "Automatically Restart" is checked the un-check it and check "Send Administrative Alert" instead (that's what i did and it seemed to stop the restarts for me)

tell me if your comp stops restarting with this

Usually just toggles the BSoD on and off, errors would still happen but instead of it auto restarting it pops a BSoD. But that would work to see the error it shows

[spyboy1o1]

does it go to a blue screen at all?

[Reise]

Overheats or power failure. Check your temps next time it restarts.

[[SD]happynoobing]

go to Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - System - Advanced tab and click Settings under Startup and Recovery

under System Failure there's 3 options, if "Automatically Restart" is checked the un-check it and check "Send Administrative Alert" instead (that's what i did and it seemed to stop the restarts for me)

tell me if your comp stops restarting with this

Usually just toggles the BSoD on and off, errors would still happen but instead of it auto restarting it pops a BSoD. But that would work to see the error it shows

what's BSoD?

@spyboy: just before it restarts it goes thru a quick bluescreen, but it's not the "normal" blue screen of death...

@reise: how do i check temperature? (other than stick a thermometer in my case? o_O)

[Reise]

When your PC is still in the boot and memory check, usually around the time you hear it beep, hit delete and it will bring you to CMOS. From there you should have a menu with a bunch of settings and such, find the one that has your core temperatures and stuff. It's called PC Health Status on my CMOS menu, so look for something like that. To exit just hit escape and it will reboot again.

[redneck]

go to Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - System - Advanced tab and click Settings under Startup and Recovery

under System Failure there's 3 options, if "Automatically Restart" is checked the un-check it and check "Send Administrative Alert" instead (that's what i did and it seemed to stop the restarts for me)

tell me if your comp stops restarting with this

Usually just toggles the BSoD on and off, errors would still happen but instead of it auto restarting it pops a BSoD. But that would work to see the error it shows

what's BSoD?

@spyboy: just before it restarts it goes thru a quick bluescreen, but it's not the "normal" blue screen of death...

@reise: how do i check temperature? (other than stick a thermometer in my case? o_O)

I had that problem on my old comp...
It froze a quick blue screen with some crap written all over it and it restarted...I managed to get it to work in safe mode but it kept restarting more often over and over...

In the end ..I put a CO2 bomb in that shit and blew it up at the lake...

[StealMySoda]

go to Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - System - Advanced tab and click Settings under Startup and Recovery

under System Failure there's 3 options, if "Automatically Restart" is checked the un-check it and check "Send Administrative Alert" instead (that's what i did and it seemed to stop the restarts for me)

tell me if your comp stops restarting with this

Usually just toggles the BSoD on and off, errors would still happen but instead of it auto restarting it pops a BSoD. But that would work to see the error it shows

what's BSoD?

@spyboy: just before it restarts it goes thru a quick bluescreen, but it's not the "normal" blue screen of death...

@reise: how do i check temperature? (other than stick a thermometer in my case? o_O)

Theres your answer

[mosiac]

sounds like you need more RAM.

[San]

sounds like you need more RAM.

or better cooling

over heating is probably one, Power Supply may also be a problem(my problem last time)

[Morgoth]

could it be something to do with your graphics card?

[[SD]happynoobing]

ok, i've checked the temperature after a restart. there are two temps, the CPU one is 18 degrees C, and the other one is 37 degrees C, so i doubt it's over heating...

also i have 4 gb of ram (yea i got more than enough ram) with GeForce 8800 GTS vid card, they work fine when i was playing Crysis on max setting a while back. dont know what happened between back then and now... i've installed the latest directx, i'll see if it worked its magic tmr.

[Blindfire]

If your pc is in a cubby hole under your desk pull it out a bit so the PSU fan has more space. Also, check if the fan on your gfx card is working, that could be causing it to overheat and shutdown.

[Morgoth]

37 degrees C, so i doubt it's over heating...

umm.. thats 98.6 degress Fahrenheit; seems pretty hot to me

[[SD]happynoobing]

37 degrees C, so i doubt it's over heating...

umm.. thats 98.6 degress Fahrenheit; seems pretty hot to me

but what is that temperature tho? it started with a 'M'... and i forgot the second letter :/

[-Evan]

Clean your CPU.. it might be overheating from dust. If it's not dirty.. move your PC to a cooler room.

[[SD]happynoobing]

i opened it, both CPU and graphic card fans are working fine, and there isn't that much dust in there either.

oh that 38 degrees was MB temperature... is that normal?

[Shynygamie]

internet?

[mosiac]

try deleting your current graphic drivers, then re-download them and reinstall.

[Morgoth]

try getting a hijack log to see if there's something else that is wrong for someone to inspect

[Reise]

ok, i've checked the temperature after a restart. there are two temps, the CPU one is 18 degrees C, and the other one is 37 degrees C, so i doubt it's over heating...

also i have 4 gb of ram (yea i got more than enough ram) with GeForce 8800 GTS vid card, they work fine when i was playing Crysis on max setting a while back. dont know what happened between back then and now... i've installed the latest directx, i'll see if it worked its magic tmr.

What's your PSU and how old is it? If you're not overheating you could be getting shorts from wear/use on your PSU. That kind of stuff can damage other components also, I had a PC way back that died from a PSU short and I had to replace most of my gear.

Also, 30-40C is normal for a newer CPU. 50-60+ is getting hot, 80-90 is dangerous.

[[SD]happynoobing]

ok, i've checked the temperature after a restart. there are two temps, the CPU one is 18 degrees C, and the other one is 37 degrees C, so i doubt it's over heating...

also i have 4 gb of ram (yea i got more than enough ram) with GeForce 8800 GTS vid card, they work fine when i was playing Crysis on max setting a while back. dont know what happened between back then and now... i've installed the latest directx, i'll see if it worked its magic tmr.

What's your PSU and how old is it? If you're not overheating you could be getting shorts from wear/use on your PSU. That kind of stuff can damage other components also, I had a PC way back that died from a PSU short and I had to replace most of my gear.

Also, 30-40C is normal for a newer CPU. 50-60+ is getting hot, 80-90 is dangerous.

my psu is not even 1 year old. i built this computer myself late august last year.
btw i opened the case up, put a fan right next to it to drop its CPU temp down to 11 degrees while motherboard temp to 32 degrees, and it seemed to be fine at running games now...

now that's odd, im sure CPU and MB can handle temp higher than those numbers :/

[Silkroad]

ur temps are just fine

most likely u getting shorts just like Reise said ... thats what was happening to my comp up until a few months ago until i disasebled and then reasembled everything ( not saying this is gona fix it as i know my comp still has a problem, but its working as a temp fix for me)

[Reise]

Well you could have great temperatures and just an absolute shit PSU. When mine died the PC didn't overheat at all, but the PSU was cooking from the crappy fan on it, and eventually a component fried and everything went to hell.

[[SD]happynoobing]

so i should be changing my psu then?

[pr0klobster]

find out what the BSOD screen says, usually there's a .sys driver listed, that'll point you in the direction you need to go.

Vid card could be overheating too, look for Rivatuner or something else that displays temp on the card. You said you pulled the case off and put a fan on it...that tells me vidcard temps. Mobo should be able to do up to 40C, depending on the manufacturer. My CPU runs @48 load, mobo around 35-38C (older dual-core, cheap mobo).

PSU - meh, it could be. you could try disconnecting power to a CD or DVD or something to see if that helps, depending on whether or not the PSU runs 12v and 5v on the same rail.

Or, try lowering your settings big-time in the games, see if that does it. Less to display = less power consumed, less heat and maybe less crashing, although it's not much of a difference.