Computer restarts when playing games

[eversoawesome]

Hello
I've had my computer for about 5 years, but this problem started happening about 3 years ago. Whenever I play games only, my computer would shut off, and reboot by itself, asking me if I would like to run safe mode, or regular mode.

Of course I've been researching a while back and came across many threads here with people with the same problem. The PC reboots at random moments, sometimes it's good for like 1-2 months without rebooting at all. When it does reboot, it continues to do it for the rest of the day. I'm forced to just not use my computer to play games for the rest of that day. I can browse the web for hours and leave my computer on for days downloading things, and it won't turn off.

About a year ago I got frustrated enough and went to Fry's Electronics to get a diagnostic that costed 90 dollars. I was pretty sure it was my power supply, or that's what many threads pointed to but i wanted to make sure before i bought a new PSU. After about 2 weeks I got called to pick it and the guy said apparently there was no problem with the rig. He said he stress tested it for about a week and it didn't shut down. I just wasted about 100 dollars... I asked if it was my PSU since it was only 400 watts but he said no. He offered me to just reinstall windows cause it might be a software problem. I doubted it, because it happened with every game, but regardless I erased all my data and reinstalled Windows. I downloaded a game and played, it rebooted with the same problem. I was so sad hahaha. Alright enough of my story, my specs are:

(it was a PC by Velocity Micro called the Edge MX230)- the only aftermarket upgrade that I did, just about a week ago was get 16gb of ram
Nvidia GTX 260
16GB or Corsair Vengeance 1600 ram
Intel Desktop Board, DP55WP
Windows 7 64 bit
400 Watt PSU, (no brand when I opened the case)
average generic 1TB HDD
well, if you guys want the full list its just here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5662664 (only i did was upgrade ram, yesterday

 

[twelve25]

GTX260 needs a 500W power supply. You could probably get away with a 400W if it was high-grade, but it sounds like yours isn't high grade.

Not having enough power could definitely cause the problem you are having.

 

[eversoawesome]

GTX260 needs a 500W power supply. You could probably get away with a 400W if it was high-grade, but it sounds like yours isn't high grade.

Not having enough power could definitely cause the problem you are having.

yeah, that's what someone told me in the games thread, I have a generic no brand power supply provided by the company. However a fry's technician told me that a 400 watt is more than enough to power my rig because it's only my gpu that really uses electricity. He also thought my gpu only used about 200 watts because it's quite an old graphic's card. But on second thought i shouldn't trust him since he wasn't able to diagnose the problem even after getting paid...

 

[eversoawesome]

Fans. More fans. More cool. PC shuts down because of heat. Any open fan slots? Try running it with the side off.

my cores i5 runs at 65 max, and gpu is at 75 max when the computer shuts off, according to HWmonitor

 

[eversoawesome]

Probably, lol. Don't trust Best Buy people (told me a PCIE x16 1.0 would work in a 2.0), Fry's people, Geek Squad (told my friend he needed DDR2 RAM for his AM3 build) or most company people.

hmm...now that just makes me mad lol, I payed 100 dollars for the diagnostic...could've gotten a new psu with that money

 

[twelve25]

yeah, that's what someone told me in the games thread, I have a generic no brand power supply provided by the company. However a fry's technician told me that a 400 watt is more than enough to power my rig because it's only my gpu that really uses electricity. He also thought my gpu only used about 200 watts because it's quite an old graphic's card. But on second thought i shouldn't trust him since he wasn't able to diagnose the problem even after getting paid...

Amps are a big factor, too.

I'd start with the power supply. Buy or borrow a good one and I bet the problem goes away.

 

[eversoawesome]

Amps are a big factor, too.

I'd start with the power supply. Buy or borrow a good one and I bet the problem goes away.

sorry i'm kinda new at this, what are amps?

 

[twelve25]

You should google that one. Amps is a basic unit of electricity, along with watts and volts.

 

[JewellC897]

Hello
I've had my computer for about 5 years, but this problem started happening about 3 years ago. Whenever I play games only, my computer would shut off, and reboot by itself, asking me if I would like to run safe mode, or regular mode.

Of course I've been researching a while back and came across many threads here with people with the same problem. The PC reboots at random moments, sometimes it's good for like 1-2 months without rebooting at all. When it does reboot, it continues to do it for the rest of the day. I'm forced to just not use my computer to play games for the rest of that day. I can browse the web for hours and leave my computer on for days downloading things, and it won't turn off.

About a year ago I got frustrated enough and went to Fry's Electronics to get a diagnostic that costed 90 dollars. I was pretty sure it was my power supply, or that's what many threads pointed to but i wanted to make sure before i bought a new PSU. After about 2 weeks I got called to pick it and the guy said apparently there was no problem with the rig. He said he stress tested it for about a week and it didn't shut down. I just wasted about 100 dollars... I asked if it was my PSU since it was only 400 watts but he said no. He offered me to just reinstall windows cause it might be a software problem. I doubted it, because it happened with every game, but regardless I erased all my data and reinstalled Windows. I downloaded a game and played, it rebooted with the same problem. I was so sad hahaha. Alright enough of my story, my specs are:

(it was a PC by Velocity Micro called the Edge MX230)- the only aftermarket upgrade that I did, just about a week ago was get 16gb of ram
Nvidia GTX 260
16GB or Corsair Vengeance 1600 ram
Intel Desktop Board, DP55WP
Windows 7 64 bit
400 Watt PSU, (no brand when I opened the case)
average generic 1TB HDD
well, if you guys want the full list its just here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5662664 (only i did was upgrade ram, yesterday

I am experiencing the same thing! About a year and a half ago I paid a guy $100 to fix it for me. He said it was just really dirty & causing it to overheat, but it's doing it again. Did you ever find a solution?

 

[eversoawesome]

I am experiencing the same thing! About a year and a half ago I paid a guy $100 to fix it for me. He said it was just really dirty & causing it to overheat, but it's doing it again. Did you ever find a solution?

i just bought a new corsair psu and so far no reboots!, I'll need a couple of more days to confirm that it's the psu though since the reboots are at random