Is it my pc or..?
morriganrant:
Quote from: Aoife Aella on 2010 January 19, 18:37:10
I had a problem like this before, and the solution turned out to be very simple. Apparently my cat had decided there wasn't enough room in front of my tower to lay, and gradually pushed it back until the wires were smashed up against the wall. When I tried to play any it would shut down at random intervals, but when I noticed and pulled the tower away enough the problem stopped. Do a point-by-point check of all the simple possible problems before doing anything drastic like replacing parts.
This is also why you should check things like fans for too much dust or hair and to make sure that they are actually turning and cooling like they are supposed to. As Pescado said, overheating can cause this problem as well. Does it shut down with other games? Have you even tried other games? And I don't mean dinky games, I mean something that requires your graphics card to do a little work. Have you tried uninstalling your graphics drivers and installing new ones then repeating the trouble shooting?
GelatinousSubstance:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2010 January 19, 18:21:06
Any condition that causes a computer to outright shutdown is always some kind of driver or hardware issue. No application should be capable of causing a computer to shutdown without a corresponding hardware/driver problem such as overheating.
You're right, well, partially - there are programs that can shut down the PC, be it by fault or on purpose, which is clearly not the case here though. :P
I was half asleep and not thinking clearly, my bad.
@OP:
Are you using a laptop or a tower? Sometimes the PC randomly shutting down is as simple as it overheating because it needs to be cleaned or the vents are blocked - needing to be cleaned is more common for laptops, but I wouldn't overlook the possibility for a tower. You may have something blocking your vents, like having your tower in a desk cubby. Try moving it to a cooler and more open spot if that's the case. Overheating can be caused by a number of issues. So, I still recommend trying the simplest solutions first.
The next place I'd look would be drivers if the above doesn't solve the problem, or appear to be a problem, and from there, moving onto hardware troubleshooting to replacements, or to more drastic measures like reformatting or buying a new PC if nothing else will solve the problem.
It could be such a large number of things that it's hard to troubleshoot without knowing more about your system.
ETA: because I'm so slow to post things.
Follow morriganrant's advice too.
sudaki:
You might check the power supply, too. If it's loose or being bumped or jiggled that could be causing the computer to turn off (assuming a desktop).
tiffyt:
First of all thanks for all your advice and tips.
I did move my tower away from the wall and I also determined that it was getting a little warm where I have it. My father (computer geek extraodianaire) told me it might be my power supply or my motherboard. But it's been days and nothing has happened. I gave away all my old pc parts (hoarder ) to the "computer guy" down the block. (stupid...)
I am going to try a vanilla game and see if it shuts down. As I recall the last time it shut down I had just set my smooth edges slider all the way up cause I had a "..... moment".
The other time it shut down was when I was quickly flipping through my downloads. I suspected my videocard but meh.
I clean my pc regularly but it's been about a month so I think I'll look into it. The spot it's in is not very good I figure so I am moving it.
Hopefully it will work out.
If not I will have to wait and let my pops take a look when he gets here next month. Til then I will keep things cool and slow.
*Edit*
I have determined, after trying to run bodyshop and second life. That it is not just my game that is crashing as these two crashed my pc as well, after I cleaned the dust out.
I also smelled something kinda burny.I don't know what it could be though. I am going to "borrow" my husbands video card to test if that is my problem. All of my fans are working fine. I have three, one for the power supply, one in the case for general filtering I guess and one on a heatsink.
Any ideas what the burning smell could be?
Could it be my motherboard or my vid card?
Re-edit*
Turns out it was my vid card. Got a new one and sending the other one to be repaired. The fan failed and made it overheat causing the system to shutdown as a failsafe. :)
Thanks for all of your help. :D
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