Problem when playing games

[bryan321]

Whenever I launch a game (like The Witcher: Enhanced Edition) and I load a save file my screen goes black and my mouse turns off after it finishes loading (however, the computer is still on because the case lights are still on, and the monitor is still on because its light is still blinking). Sometimes on older games (Like Diablo 2) it'll happen after 10 or 20 minutes instead of instantly. Sometimes it also happens after watching youtube videos after 30 minutes or so.

What could be causing this problem?

I running on Vista Ultimate 64bit

Specs are
GTX 9800+
2.6 AMD Quad Core Processor @ 3.0.
4 Gigs Ram
600w (or 650, not exactly sure) PSU -- I've had it for about a year or so.

I run my games at 1920 by 1200.

 

[bryan321]

Update:
Now it happens after just leaving the computer on for an hour.. then every time after that it takes less and less time before it happens again. This problem only started happening to me about 3 days ago, before then everything worked fine and I havn't installed and new software or anything.

 

[Outlander_04]

It sounds like a software problem .

You can check this by getting a live linux disc and booting from that . If you dont have the same problem then windows is having issues and you should make back ups of all your critical files

The easiest fix will probably be a clean install of windows if thats the case , but check with linux first .

 

[bryan321]

Well I'm not sure if it's Windows. I tried installing windows on an empty harddrive and the same problem happened while I was trying to install it. The title of this thread no longer fits, this just happens whenever, with my computer.

Updates: I thought it might be my graphics card turning off, but when I leave my case open, i see that my graphic card stays on when it happens. My graphic card temps are about 60-65 IDLE.
Its had to describe but when it happens I hear a click and power down sound.
I got the same problem with my onboard graphics card.
It also happens in the BIOS

 

[thefox14]

My first guess would be a faulty Power Supply. I'd try replacing that first.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

What's your power saving settings? Do you have the anything set to go on standby mode?