Problems games exiting, comp restarting!

[Jayson]

i have a problem with my brother computer, hes at uni atm so i cant be there to see it but heres the problem:
in game it randomly exits and sometimes just after the first loading screen. also his computer randomly restarts when hes watching video.
i thought of installing the latest gfx drivers but last time i did that there was no out put on the screen, it just said out of range! this could also be a heat problem i suspect (with the restarting) but what about the games?

[Paul Adams]

Checked the event log to see if there are any errors in there?

Could be a memory problem or CPU overheating possibly - does it just reboot with no warnings at all, i.e. Windows isn't shutting down normally?

[Jayson]

yep just restarts as though you had pulled the plug out the psu, it could be overheating but i dont think so, got a global win hsf (rated about 3 models above the cpu he's using) and two 80mm case fans.

would the error log be in the game install dir?

[Paul Adams]

No, I'm talking about the event log in the OS - what version of Windows is it?
(For Windows 2000 onwards, right-click My Computer, click Manage and go to the Event Viewer.)
If the system is doing a spontaneous restart, not even a blue screen, then it's not likely to get chance to enter anything in there though.

If the problem appears to be geared around the graphics card entering certain modes (MPEG decryption, Direct3D, whatever) then that is also a good suspect.

Has this been working fine until one day it decided to start doing this, without any software or drivers being updated just beforehand?

If so then it's sounding like a hardware issue.

I would check the CPU temperature anyway, just to be able to rule it out.

Motherboard Monitor Lite is freeware which can show you the current temps and fan speeds, so long as your motherboard has the relevant chipset.
http://mbm.livewiredev.com/download.html

[Jayson]

sorry forgot to mention his comp, it xp2400 gfx 4200, 512 ddr and abit mobo.
it seems quite poss that it is a gfx problem, restarting comp when watching things and exiting games randomly.
it has been working fine, as far as i know

[Jayson]

anyone else have any idea what could be causing this? this is a new comp only about 2 months old and brand new cpu+mem+mobo as had to rma it!

[lampPost]

hmm sounds like overheating cpu or gpu ;/

check the temps when the system restarts.

or maybe it's just the games' fault

[Jayson]

i did think it was the games at first but it did it on diffrent games! more case cooling i think!

[Trickle]

Run Seti and mem test at the same time. Or toast etc. These things will raise the cpu temp to max without really affecting gfx. It may not be cpu temp - it could be ram timings/speed - gpu temp, gfx ram speed etc.

However as its rebooting in the games opening vid, its not likely to be cpu temp / ram problems (I'm assuming windows is rock solid stable?). Run one of the above tests in any case just to check.

I'ed consider updating DirectX if an update available. I'ed update mobo and then vid card drivers if updates available.

Try running direct diag aswell (dxdiag in run box)