Gaming Computer shuts off at 38c? Help!

[JimboUK]

That's odd, only the launcher has any protection on it, the fallout3.exe is clean.

[Thor.]

Cool i did not know that worked with fallout 3 to, it used to work with Oblivion as well but they disabled that feature for some reason, now that saves me some time, even Call of Jaures bound in blood doesn't need the cd either, double bonus ah.

 

fallout 3 mod manager rules.

[x BattleHeart x]

Coming back to this topic...I've been playing Oblivion for awhile on it and it does the same thing. I'am quite sure it isn't the overheating problem I thought it was because it shut off at 36 C and around there as its cooler in my home now.

From these conclusions I'am suspecting my graphics card. Maybe it hogs too much memory and my comp has to shut off? Because of not enough Power Supply? Or something that has to do with my card idk....please help if you know a solution.

[Illiad86]

Well your PSU is more than sufficient for what you have there...what kind of graphics card do you have? Are you seeing artifacts or strange graphical glitches before it crashes? If it only happens when you are playing games, I really suspect that your graphics card is overheating. You can check the temperatures of an ATI card in the Control Center or get an application like RivaTuner to see the temps of Nvidia card

 

You can't go by the BIOS temperature readings, they really won't tell you anything. The minute the load is dropped off the CPU, the temperature drops pretty quickly. You have to get Windows based application to read real time temps...I use Everest.

 

And may I ask what the heck is Turbo Mode? lol

[Vagrant0]

Look in your case and see if you have any spare room for another fan. Most stock fans kinda suck. Extra fans can help move more air through the case and keep things cool, having a fan with higher cubic feet per second cam also improve things. You should also make sure you have the best drivers and Dx version available for your card as display processing errors can cause crashes in certain cases.

 

It might also help knowing what kind of videocard you have. Most onboard cards (part of the motherboard) are horrible for overheating and should not be used for gaming of any kind.

Edited April 18, 2010 by Vagrant0

[x BattleHeart x]

My video card is a Nvidia GTX275 and I have an i7 920 with 3GB of RAM. As I said i don't think it's overheating because it shuts down at lower temps too. Also, worth noting is if I'am at the race menu,journal in Oblivion or anything that doesnt require much power from my card my computer doesn't cut off. This seems to indicate to me that when my card is taxed it just shuts off therefore shutting off my computer. How would I remedy this? By checking the temp of the video card? I will use RivaTurner to check it out...whats a good temp for a card when its being used like in Oblivion?

No, I dont see any glitches or anything either before it shuts off. It just instantly goes off.

Oh, and Turbo mode is some option Windows 7 gave me...it was Energy Saving,High Performance, or Turbo mode...lol I guess you know which I picked :P

[Marthos]

Hmm

 

Just had a google about and that turbo mode may be setting your cpu to run at a minimum 100% all the time, if your using a stock cpu cooler I doubt it will be up to the task of keeping an I7 cool at constant full belt.

 

Also, the temps your seeing in the bios aren't what your getting under load so your actual running temps maybe much higher than you think.

 

Try selecting a lower powerplan and run your games and see what happens.

[bben46]

This sounds like a power supply problem to me. A sudden reboot is caused by a drop in the +5volt supply. Your 700W supply should be more than sufficient. However that is supposing that it is not failing.

 

Any failing component can also pull the +5 volts down - Ram, GPU, Mother board, sound card, even a failing Hard drive or CD drive.

 

Try re seating all of your components and cleaning any dust out of the fans sockets and air channels.

[Illiad86]

Any failing component can also pull the +5 volts down - Ram, GPU, Mother board, sound card, even a failing Hard drive or CD drive.

 

oh yes I know that well. My system gave me some funny reboots so I purchased a new PSU. That didn't solve the problem. Turned out to be the Northbridge :sad: Such a godly little board it was...AM2 and AGP. Now it's sitting in the motherboard bone yard with my boyfriend's motherboards that have Math co-processors on them haha.

 

As for temps...graphics cards can run crazy hot before shutting down...that's why I asked if you saw any artifacts. Something like 100C I believe they can still run at...mine goes up from 38C idle up to about 70C when playing Oblivion.

 

Do you have a PSU tester or a multimeter? The multimeter method isn't fun and rather time consuming. You can get a PSU tester pretty cheap

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899706001&cm_re=power_supply_tester-_-99-706-001-_-Product

 

Used to do the multimeter method but finally decided to pick one of these up as I'm always fixing my family and friend's computers...PSU is the first thing I check.

[x BattleHeart x]

Ok, thanx everyone. I will try all of the suggestions...it's always something! This kind of stuff is what makes me mod most of the time instead of playing! haha :P