Strange Issue

[Vertiman]

Hey, was wondering if any of you have heard of an issue similar to this. My current throught is that the PS is the naughty one, but I'm curious about opinions.

I turn the PC on, works great.
I go into games, *sometimes* works great (I can play for hours and hours). Sometimes about 4 minutes into the game, the PC turns itself off. Not blue screen, not locks up.. just turns off. I've got the WinXP setting to not automatically reboot turned on, and I've got the BIOS setting to turn back on on power failure enabled. I'm somewhat at my wit's end.

Its
Asus P4C800-Deluxe with a 2.8Prescott (not o/c'd).
Samsung PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
1x 120Gig WD SE
1x CDRW and 1x DVDRW
450w Enermax Supply

I don't think its a heat issue, I've just recently re-done the system and the CPU temp never breaks 55C or so. Mobo temp is usually in the low 30C's.

Any ideas? I'm at my wit's end with this one!

 

[Coyote]

Mmmm. My guess w/b the psu also. I have had a somewhat similar problem with an office system. I replaced the psu and it still had the problem. SoI replaced the APC backup unit and now the problems gone. Not sure if the backup unit is dying or, as I suspect, the power is "dirty" (or fluctuating, whatever the term w/b). The wiring in my building is a bit of a mess, possibly too many tenents on the same circut and when something of thiers kick-in, the power drain is too much.

Barton 2500+
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
9600 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE

 

[Vertiman]

So after some more playing, I've discovered that if I keep my system running "hot" (keep it at 100% cpu via Distributed.net, and added a 3d screensaver), it will not crash until I let it cool down (shut down for the night, etc). And then it will shut down upon rebooting a couple times, and once it gets "hot" again, it'll be fine until the next time it gets turned off for a while. I guess my current solution is don't turn it off, and I'll try this UPS thing in the meantime, just need to get my hands on one I guess. I've also got a new power supply to try tonight, will probably give it a try as well. Any other ideas from anyone?