COD4 PC shuts down help pls

[Reapsy]

Hello, I'm posting this for a friend, when he plays COD4 his computer turns itself off after a random amount of time. Has anyone had this problem too? I've got his DXdiag report although I won't post it as it's really long but his rig is

intel pentium 4 D 3ghz
1.5 gigs ram
geforce 8800gts 320mb
500 watt no name psu with 30 A on 12 v rail

Any thoughts? It only happens when running COD4 other newish games run fine. I don't think its heat related as his case has 9 fans and sounds like a vacum cleaner!

[s_kinton]

I've not had any issues with it at all - great game.

Which graphics card drivers is he running?
What temps is he getting on the CPU and GPU?
Is the PSU maintaining 12v on its line, during 3D load?
Does he geet any error messagesor BSOD, or does the PC just turn off instantly?
Have you checked the event viewer in windows?

[Reapsy]

from his dx diag it says this about his driver

Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6375 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/4/2007 17:14:00, 5783424 bytes

ugh i guess its an old one then, he better update it.

He said his temps on the gpu was around 67 C i'll have to check with him for the cpu. He is overclocking his cpu from 2.4 Ghz to 3 GHz I think.

No blue screen of death or error message it just turns off.

I'll have to get him to check the event viewer

[acrobat]

I would check those CPU temps. Especially considering its OC'd.

[s_kinton]

Put all clocks back to stock and then check stability. If this doesnt change, then update to the latest drivers and try again. From the looks of the dxdiag you posted, hes running 163.75. The most recent non-beta are 169.02

[Reapsy]

A little update for you all. I've had problems getting hold of my friend but now he tells me his cheapo powersupply blew up with smoke and flames lol.

Luckily none of his components were damaged though

But my friend is hopeless he has bought another cheepo 650w psu for £20 the good news is COD4 doesn't shutdown but his graphics card emits a continuous beeping noise whenever he plays it.

I told him he needs to buy a decent psu from a recognised manufacturer but he is pleading poverty :/

[vinnyT]

A continous beeping noise sounds like the gfx card/mobo is trying to tell him something, like the thermal ceiling has been reached and it's getting too hot.

Does it only beep when playing cod4? Do other games (graphics intensive ones, not solitair) cause the same beep as cod4?

Is his case well cooled? Is it clear of dust inside (esp on the gfx card), as dust is a great insulator and can also render fans next to useless.

Try playing the game with the side of the case off, at the least, if it still beeps you will be able to pinpoint wheter the beeping is coming from the gfx card or from the mobo.

P.S. tell him to try and save up for a better psu.

[Dreaming]

A little update for you all. I've had problems getting hold of my friend but now he tells me his cheapo powersupply blew up with smoke and flames lol.

Luckily none of his components were damaged though

But my friend is hopeless he has bought another cheepo 650w psu for £20 the good news is COD4 doesn't shutdown but his graphics card emits a continuous beeping noise whenever he plays it.

I told him he needs to buy a decent psu from a recognised manufacturer but he is pleading poverty :/

This happened to me with an ez cool 700W!. All marketing really. It still technically works, but it was giving out really bad voltages and kept frying my hard drives . Scan were good though and RMAd them. As far as I could tell they weren't damaged, but it kept writing bad sectors until it had no good ones left. So WD could probably save them

All sounds very PSU related, tell him it's completely a false economy and you need good clean power to your components to prevent system instability and excessive heat (which is related to system stability). Not enough power can do damage too. You'll find the better PSUs have much tighter voltage tolerances and so your components operate within their designed parameters, whereas cheap ones have more skew and you can end up damaging the card and/or performance / stability.

[acrobat]

You could try telling him that he might end up spending more money on cheap stuff, than if he just bought something decent. Assuming his last PSU was about £20, and now his new one is about £20.. thats £40 A little more than that, and he could have had a really good PSU.

But its £40 so far on PSU's, and there is a chance this one could die, and take out other components with it.

[Gumshoe]

Hi,

I've recently bought/built a new PC, my old computer newer skipped a beat with COD4, this new one however is doing the exact same problem. Never seen a computer simply turn off without warning coupled with the fact it only does it while playing COD4. Wierd
So I'm going to download the most recent ATI drivers first and let you know how I get on...Since My new case and power supply is a coolmaster I find it hard to belive its the PSU, and it seems to be only related to COD4 which suggests a problem with that game or its relationship with the graphics driver.

Fingures crossed!

[Gumshoe]

Well, downloaded and installed latest video drivers and reinstalled the game...seemed fine for 1/2 hour then.... it did it again...I'm soooo annoyed with this, can't belive I'm gonna have to start thinking about replacing hardware....

[Gumshoe]

So from what you guys are saying it sounds like a PSU upgrade, thinking about it mine is a 460W, which should be fine, I only have the min divice in my system, 1 HHD, 1 Optical...However if the GFX is drawing more power the harder it works maybe it could be related, that would explain why it only seem to do it while playing the game.

[Ferral]

If you are going to swap out hardware start small and work your way up. Get yourself a new CPU cooler to start and see how that goes. Also make sure the fan on the VGA card is working correctly, give it a clean.

Then move onto the PSU after that and swap it out if needed.

[Noxvayl]

Key question here... you say in the title the PC shuts down. I would like to know exactly what happens when this occurs and its very important.

If the PC is shutting down then its not hardware related and his PSU blowing was just a coincidence. This is a software issue as the PC is actually closing applications and processes to properly shut down meaning it had to be triggered by an application.

If the PC just looses power and the screen suddenly goes black and the noise his fans must be making stops then its a PSU problem where it isn't able to supply enough power while playing the game. This happens because PSU's degrade over time and effectively loosing power.

Then if the PC crashes and gives and error like the blue screen of death or freezes during play then its likely to be hardware related with the most common problem being a heat issue with the CPU, motherboard or GPU.

Hopefully this will help you identify the problem better and remember with PC's exactly what happens is very important.

[Noxvayl]

So from what you guys are saying it sounds like a PSU upgrade, thinking about it mine is a 460W, which should be fine, I only have the min divice in my system, 1 HHD, 1 Optical...However if the GFX is drawing more power the harder it works maybe it could be related, that would explain why it only seem to do it while playing the game.

Not a chance your PSU is not supplying enough power... Even the new ATi HD3870 X2 with your configuration wouldn't draw more than 460W. Not to mention the fact that your PC would suddenly be off and not shut down if it was a PSU problem.

If you don't believe me: ATI Radeon HD3870 X2 1GB Review - Page 14

I have recently had this same problem and am unsure what the cause is yet. It only occurred after I re-installed the game :s. First thing I've tried to stop it is the windows update, stopped it being able to install and restart the PC by itself. I figured the game might be getting confused in Vista and for some reason trigger this to shut down the PC.

I had a lengthy game last night without worries after making the change... hopefully it worked. Problem is I've had days of gaming pleasure on COD4 without the problem and then it suddenly appears again so I got a while to go before I can deduce that was the cause.

[Thorsson]

Not a chance your PSU is not supplying enough power

Of course there's a chance. Didn't you read the original postings? Cheap, no-name PSUs (and even some with a name, like Hiper) do not supply clean, stable power to their supposed rating.

If the PC is shutting down then its not hardware related

Rubbish. It might not be hardware related, it could be driver. But it could easily be hardware related, such as over-heating. Indeed sometimes the driver problems are due to crashes that happened because of a hardware fault.

Like any problem you have to troubleshoot it:

1. Make sure that the little things are OK. Check that all your cables are firmly connected, check the CPU & particularly GPU fans are not clogged with dust (you may need to remove GPU one).

2. Update drivers; remove as many background programs as possible.

3. Make sure you don't have any malware on your system.

4. Remove any OC and see if the problem goes.

5. Start swapping out components if possible.

6. If you're satisfied it's not a hardware problem and steps 2/3 didn't solve it, then repair/recover/reinstall windows.