Computer resets when playing games

[craigles]

Hi All,

Just upgraded a friends computer to a duron 1200 processor with 256mb ddr ram and a geforce 4 mx 200.

The major problem at the moment is the computer keeps resetting when playing games, like war3 or age of mythology to name a couple.
It will last for anything between 10 minutes to 30-40 minutes and then, bang reboot.

I've tried all the latest software upgrades, nvidia detonators, sound drivers, etc to no avail.

Does anybody have any idea where I should start to look?

Thanks in advance.

Craig

 

[dboy]

My first guess would be heat - are all the fans working (particularly on the vid card, since it dies during gaming)?

 

[craigles]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I've checked the fans on the cpu, power supply and the video card and all would appear to be working fine. My guess is that something may be wrong with the video card, since it works fine when using normal windows applications that don't require any video card grunt.

Ta

 

[Mitzi]

Could also be a flaky power supply not providing enough juice. Is it a decent brand or just some generic POS? Have you tried looking at the voltages though something like MBM?

 

[craigles]

Its a generic POS! It might only be a 250W power supply now I come to think about it to.

What is this MBM program and where might I obtain it to look at the voltages.

I might try putting a decent 300W power supply into the machine and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[modedepe]

MBM simply lets you monitor things on your computer, such as voltages, fan speeds, temps, etc. You must have the appropriate sensor chips on your mobo and such for it to work. Get it here.