Computer just "shuts off" during games

[Gaidal]

Hey guys: recently built a new computer with the following:

Asus A8NE nforce4 MB
AMD X2 dual core 3800+ Manchester
2 GB Corsair PC 3200 DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon x1800XT (512 MB)
Fortron 500W PSU
Scythe Ninja heatsink/fan
Cooler Master Centurion case

So everything looked great initially (I didn't even have to reinstall windows - booted right up. One advantage of having AMD/nforce board before I guess). I played a few games, etc, etc. All of my drivers are up to date.

Unfortunately as I got a little more into gaming (HL2 w/ widescreen LCD = goodness), a few problems are evident. I can only play for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour before the computer crashes. And it isn't a typical crash, it's that my computer just shuts off. Normally this would sound like a heating/cooling issue to me, but when I look at the hardware monitor, my CPU is only 44C afterwards and I get no error messages in Windows.

This got to be more annoying when I booted up Tiger Woods 2003 to play - which crashes (identically as above) about 10 seconds into the game in hardware mode. It definitely doesn't make sense that this is a heating issue since HL2 would be by far the more graphically demanding software.

So just from my own research, it seems like this may be a power supply issue. I thought 500W would be adequate for my computer - perhaps not? Is there a way that I can test this through software without voltmeters and stuff? Any other ideas?

 

[Topplayer]

i had a similar problem i would like to know the answer

 

[DaiShan]

Check the event log for details of the crash, post here if possible. If not I would start by running dxdiag and see if that turns up anything, then re-install your video card drivers.

 

[SantiClaws]

If reinstalling video drivers doesn't help, try another (maybe older) set of drivers. Try the same thing with chipset drivers.

Try running different stress tests for CPU, video, memory. If you have access to another PSU, I would try running with a different PSU as well. Hopefully if it is a hardware issue you can narrow it down to the component and then take it from there.

 

[Gaidal]

only thing i see in the event log is some bad sectors on my hard drive.

just had a nasty crash where a bit of my registry got corrupted. i was worried a little bit about a virus, but nothing popped up on an AntiVir scan.

well i'll try reinstalling some drivers and see what i can find out.

as far as different 'stresses" it only happens while I'm playing games. if i run a virus scanner, defrag a hard drive, no problems. makes me think there's a problem either with the video card or the psu (since I would guess that's the biggest "drain" on power). I might try switching the PSU connection to the video card as well and see if that makes a difference.

Oh and unfortunately the only PSU i have is a 300W that is many, many years old so i'm not sure it will be very helpful.

 

[ojai00]

If your BIOS supports it, you can probably get voltage readings to see if that's the problem.

 

[Gaidal]

Vcore = 1.36V
3.3V = 3.4V
5V = 4.91V
12V = 11.84V

All from the BIOS. Looks close to me?

Anyway I also have updated my BIOS in addition to reinstalling drivers, etc. After doing a little researching on some boards (including this one), it's also possible that this could be faulty RAM?

Again this issue only occurs when I'm playing games (any game).

 

[SantiClaws]

It could be bad RAM, certainly--memtest86 will give you a pretty good idea. Like I said, you need to go in order:

Start with the drivers, since it is usually the easiest thing to test/fix.

Next, test each component, RAM, CPU, video, HDD individually to determine where the problem lies. If this is a new build, could also be a bad mobo, or a bad CPU. I just built a system based on the ASUS A8N5X/Opty 146 combo and after RMA'ing the stuff twice they finally figured out that I wasn't crazy and that both the CPU and the mobo were bad. It happens.