Ok, I'm gonna lay it down for y'all to play it down.


I recently acquired the Call of Duty expansion (United Offensive), and after playing it for a while I encountered the same issue twice: my pc shuts down all at once, and won't restart. I have to pull the plug and put it back in before I can fire it back up again.

I've never encountered these problems before, they only started when playing UO. Personally i can see two culprits: either something overheating (most likely graphics card) or the power supply lacking.

My power supply was making funny noises some time ago, so I suspect that to be it, and possibly the gfx card overheating because of a malfunctioning fan.

I'm probably going to be checking the fan out tomorrow or monday, so I'd like to know what you guys think my problem sounds like.

Any ideas would appreciated



P.S. after the first crash I had my Asus tool monitor both my CPU and Mobo temperature, and they went to a max of 60 and 35 celcius max, so they don't seem to be the problem.

Your problem is not uncommon. I remember browsing through computing.net forums and reading about peoples computers shutting down while playing games. I didnt see any linked to CoD or UO. Personally with the knowledge i have now about PC's (not much) i'd have it checked out by a local PC servicer.

I don't think I can help with the problemo, but I have to say this. GET YOUR OWN DAMN ABBREIVIATION! Lol, UO is ours!

First I need some specs?

Memory?
OS?
CPU?
Hard Drive?
Power Supply Wattage?
Video Card?

Your computer shutting down can be anything at this point. Are you sure its shutting down and its not the video just going out? Sometimes my video just goes out and I have to press reset but the PC is still running.

Athlon XP 2600+
512mb ram
radeon 9600pro
win XP professional
300 watt power supply

I don't know what it does...it just stops running, all at once. The lights near the on/off switch are still on, but it (button) doesn't react, so i have to pull the plug and put it back in to get running again. I never had this problem before. As I said, it happened twice in UO, so I stopped playing that. Then I played Sims 2 for a while to see if i'd have the same problem with that, and an hour ago it happened there too, for the first time. But not once during regular surfing and typing. (i.e., low-performance stuff)


and lol mole...Cod:UO, happy now?

mmm, i took a look on computing.net, to which derf referred, and I came upon this:

http://computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard ... 28791.html

I fiddled a bit with the graphics settings in Cod:UO, and the sims 2 only crashed a while after I changed the resolution, too, come to think of it. But I haven't had any problems before. So, sound familiar to anyone, this guy's theory?

K, I just found out first-hand that the above post wasn't what's happening to me. I decided to play an old game instead, fifa 98(!). But, it crashed after a while, just like the others. So, heating or gfcx card thing. bleh.

have you got an old graphics card you can put in? then you could rule that out if it doesn't happen again.

take the side off and check that the fans on everything are going.

Nope, I don't. I got an old power supply but that's a 145 watt, and I don't wanna fry everything completely.

So, I finally bothered to screw everything open, and checked everything, after it actually shut down during a simple browsing session. Gfx card wasn't warm, so it wasn't overheating. CPU fan worked fine. Got some dust out of there, of course. The, screwed open the power supply again, and bingo, the fan was kinda working half-ass. Plus, there was a slight burned smell coming from the box.

So, I ordered a new 300w power supply, we'll see. I can get on here for short amounts of time, bleh. If I disappear for a few weeks, you know what happened. Either that or I was kidnapped by the Front For Sexy Liberation (FSL) to be their new leader.

Ironically, after screwing that stuff open and all, the fan is making drudging noises, BUT working on good speed again. (good airflow at the back, box isn't too warm) Needless to say I can't just keep on hoping it'll stay this so new power supply it is.

dude...it's probably too late, but a 300W power supply is a bit on the light side nowadays. I'd say minimum of 350, preferably 400 or 450 if you can afford it. Also, make sure to get a reputable manufacturer (I go with Antec every time) as not all players are equal.

Is that vid card one of the ones with the extra power connector? If so, the above goes doubly.

you must have alot of patience ox. usually for this kind of stuff get pissed and get some "professional" to sort it out.

he might be alright, the 9600pro doesn't need any additional power.

Hehe, that's right, no Nvidia extra-power leecher for me.

But you meant it to be better in the long run Satis, with the newer hardware? (latest nvidia card comes to mind) Or necessary right now? I do have 2 HD's and 2 drives, so mm. In any case, order is set, so i'm going with it anyway it seems. It's an ATX one btw.

And Derf, I'm not patient, just cheap. Besides, I've gotta catch up with reading, being forced to read books at a freaking high pace kinda killed the joy for a while.

hehe. I meant 350watt now. I put 350s even in the little 'internet machines' I build people...the ones with 1 hard drive, one cd-rom and a crappy vid card. You may be fine, honestly, but if you have to do this again, aim bigger. A 350watt antec PS is like $60 here. Not a big deal, especially compared to other pieces of hardware.

Next you need to buy a watercooler.

K, i'll keep it in mind. This power supply is 29€, so a slighty stronger one shouldn't kill me no. This one ran fine for a year (missed warranty by 20 days, typical), so the other one should hold out for a while yeah. lol@watercooler. If i win the lottery maybe.

Now it's just waiting for the new one to come in, and hoping that it is indeed the power supply, after all. And that nothing else got fried tnx to it by now. Also took a whole frigging lot of dust outta the CPU fan, never hurts.