PC restarting in games, need advice.

NeptuneUK

NeptuneUK

NeptuneUK

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Joined
20 Aug 2005
Posts
458
Location
Yorkshire
The family computer will randomly restart after a minute or so but only when playing games. All other programs seem to work fine.

Its no monster:

1.8 Ghz single core AMD thing
Geforce 7600
1gb DDR1 RAM
Windows XP
430W Thermaltake PSU (should be sufficient for such a low spec machine)

I've tried RAM, CPU and GPU stress tests but the PC seems to handle it fine, which should also rule out PSU issues.
Temperatures seem ok.
Hard drive has been changed, tried both sticks of ram seperately and in different slots.

Any advice as to what should I check/try out next? I'm completely stumped, the only thing i can think of is a motherboard issue but I have to be sure before splashing out.


edit: I disabled computer restart on system failure in windows settings and instead of restarting, the PC freezes and unfreezes with lots of audio looping. What does this tell me? Could it be an audio issue?
 
Last edited:
NeptuneUK said:
The family computer will randomly restart after a minute or so but only when playing games. All other programs seem to work fine.

Its no monster:

1.8 Ghz single core AMD thing
Geforce 7600
1gb DDR1 RAM
Windows XP
430W Thermaltake PSU (should be sufficient for such a low spec machine)

I've tried RAM, CPU and GPU stress tests but the PC seems to handle it fine, which should also rule out PSU issues.
Temperatures seem ok.
Hard drive has been changed, tried both sticks of ram seperately and in different slots.

Any advice as to what should I check/try out next? I'm completely stumped, the only thing i can think of is a motherboard issue but I have to be sure before splashing out.


edit: I disabled computer restart on system failure in windows settings and instead of restarting, the PC freezes and unfreezes with lots of audio looping. What does this tell me? Could it be an audio issue?
Click to expand...


Might be a long shot but run dxdiag and make sure your hardware sound acceleration is NOT set to full. This has been known to cause problems in games, set it to standard to rule it out as a possible error.

Also check your fan on the 7600 is not clogged up with dust.

Install the lastest drivers for the card, do a defrag as well.

Last resort, do a complete wipe and reformat and re-install windows. The amount of rubbish that builds up in the registry after a while is a lot!
 
NeptuneUK said:
edit: I disabled computer restart on system failure in windows settings and instead of restarting, the PC freezes and unfreezes with lots of audio looping. What does this tell me? Could it be an audio issue?
Click to expand...

In short, no it's not likely to be an audio issue. It's more likely to be related to a more key piece of harware such as CPU, RAM, mobo or gfx. It could be something as simple as overheating - try cleaning your PC out thoroughly as PCs tend to be dust magnets (especially if they have case fans).
 
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