Hardware problems - random rebooting

**Scienter** · 02-07-2010, 00:14

Last week, my computer started randomly rebooting itself during Mass Effect 2. No BSOD, even after I went into system ettings and turned off the auto restart. A month or so ago, it did this a few times while playing Borderlands.
Other people smarter than me thought it was a thermal problem, and it sort of was. SpeedFan said my computer was running too hot.

So, yesterday I installed a huge heat sink and a top panel with a 120mm fan in it. Now my cores idle at 28-31C. When I play Mass Effect 2, they get up to 55-60C. Tincow and google say that this is acceptable temperature range for playing games. I played for several hours yesterday. No problems. I played for about an hour and a half this morning. No problems. Then, I left my computer on (game off) for a while. I tried to play ME2 again and the rebooting problem started again. Now, I can't get the game to run for more than 5 or so minutes. I uninstalled my video drivers and installed the most recent ones.

Tincow thinks it might be my power supply. It's a 600W power supply. I don't remember when I bought it. It's at least a year old I've got an intel i5 750, a geforce 8800 GTS, 4 gigs of ram, and the usual dvd and cd writers, sound card, and 4 fans. My computer has not restarted randomly except when I play ME2. Other than rebooting, I don't have any other dying psu symptoms like the computer not turning on or a bad smell.

Do I need more than a 600W psu for my processor and vid card? Or, are my motherboard and/or CPU toast?

**naut** · 02-07-2010, 10:36

~~What OS are you running?~~

Some Google-fu says you aren't the only one with this issue. And the common factor is an nVidia graphics card.

**Scienter** · 02-07-2010, 15:52

Originally Posted by Psychonaut

~~What OS are you running?~~

Some Google-fu says you aren't the only one with this issue. And the common factor is an nVidia graphics card.

I should mention that I had this problem with Borderlands, too. Just on one day, it rebooted about 5 times when I tried to play on our LAN. And then it never happened again with Borderlands. This was before I got the heatsink and blowhole.

Tincow has the same video card as me: geforce 8800 GTS and this hasn't happened to him.

**naut** · 02-07-2010, 16:14

Hmm. Your CPU temp is ok.

- What about the temp of your GPU?
- Your power supply might not be providing stable power.
- Disabling automatic reboot may help. You will get a BSOD instead, but it may provide info into the cause.

**Scienter** · 02-07-2010, 17:27

Originally Posted by Psychonaut

Hmm. Your CPU temp is ok.

- What about the temp of your GPU?
- Your power supply might not be providing stable power.
- Disabling automatic reboot may help. You will get a BSOD instead, but it may provide info into the cause.

My GPU seems to hover between 45 and 55C. Since Tincow and I have the same card, I swapped them. I figure if it was my nvidia vid card, I should be able to play with his in my computer. But I had the same problem. And then my computer wouldn't boot at all, it kept trying, but then restarted even before XP could start up.

One of the first things I did was disable the auto reboot, it still won't give me a BSOD. There's nothing in the XP event logs either, from what little I understand it shows a clean restart and then reconnect to the internet.

I hope it's the power supply dying and not my CPU or motherboard, they're new!