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View Full Version : PC restarts itself when playing games


lilli123
May 30, 2008, 01:18 AM
Hello
If anyone can tell me why my computer restarts itself when I'm playing games (particully FlyFF) I would really appreciate it
Im getting so frustrated?! :mad:

Clough
May 30, 2008, 03:11 AM
Are these online games or those that you presently have to use in your computer without being online?

lilli123
May 30, 2008, 06:12 PM
Well they're MMORPG

jkessel
Jun 1, 2008, 09:02 PM
Your graphics card may be overheating, OR you have memory problems when used under load and crashing your system. It reboots because your system is programmed to restart on failure. If you turn this feature off your system will throw the old BSOD (blue screen of death) with an error code. Post the STOP codes back in this thread.


Turn auto reboot feature off by:

1.Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3.Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.

4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.

5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

lilli123
Jun 1, 2008, 11:45 PM
Its already unchecked
The BSOD used to come up like years ago but not anymore

jkessel
Jun 2, 2008, 03:05 PM
Check if there are any specific or relevant events in the Event Viewer and also see if a folder "c:\windows\minidump" exists and if so are there any files in it marked with dates specific to the reboot? Those files are memory dumps saved and can be diagnosed using Windbg.exe which is available from MS as a part of Debugging Tools for Windows. It's tricky to use but an essential tool

WinDbg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinDbg)


Thoughts:


If your system itself was shutting off versus rebooting then I would suspect it is overheating due to the load. Sometimes it is actually shutting off but your BIOS is set to start it up again, so it appears to be rebooting.

blairwtsn
Jun 2, 2008, 07:29 PM
You might have to go directly into your boot up Bios and remove the automatic
Reboot.

Blair

lilli123
Jun 3, 2008, 12:11 AM
What is the event viewer?
There is no files in the minidump folder

Clough
Jun 3, 2008, 12:16 AM
What kind of connection to the Internet do you have? I think that it might be helpful to know that. Thanks!

jkessel
Jun 3, 2008, 08:36 AM
The fact that there are no files in the minidump folder means your system is going "lights out" before Windows is able to write an error log. Most often intermittent problems like this are not possible to fix without replacing parts but we can try.


The event viewer is the place that all the logs for windows can be viewer.

START-->Run

Type "eventvwr" without the quotes and press OK

Look in "Applications" and in "system" and note any errors (RED X) that occurred during any of the reboots. Use the time to determine this.

Then let's run a CHKDSK to fix errors in the hard drive file system

START-->Run

type "chkdsk /r" without quote

type "Y" without quote

Reboot.. it will scan on reboot

lilli123
Jun 5, 2008, 01:16 AM
In the event viewer, there were no errors during or near the reboot in appliccation or system
I am just about to reboot for that scan

lilli123
Jun 6, 2008, 12:55 AM
The scan during the reboot was taking ages
So I had to quit it

jkessel
Jun 11, 2008, 10:43 AM
The scan is supposed to take ages so if you want it fixed you should run it and let it complete.

lilli123
Jun 20, 2008, 07:31 PM
Are there any other suggestions?

lilli123
Jun 20, 2008, 07:32 PM
How long should the scan take?

morgaine300
Jun 20, 2008, 08:17 PM
If you can't handle waiting on it, then do it before you go to bed or before you leave and are going to be gone for quite a while.

I haven't done a checkdisk for a billion years, and I imagine on the size of hard drives these days, it could take A LONG TIME. But sometimes getting problems fixed takes some times and patience.

twilcox
Jun 21, 2008, 04:30 PM
While it never hurts to run the system scan, I don't think this is your actual problem. Take the side off your computer case and turn on your system. Check for any fans that aren't spinning up. If you see one that doesn't start to spin, chances are you are having overheat issues due to improper cooling. If your computer keeps running no problems while the computer case is off, even during the game, then you know for a fact your problem is heat related. You need to add more cooling capacity to your box.

lilli123
Jun 30, 2008, 03:29 AM
If I take your suggestion to a computer expert, will he be able to do it for me?

twilcox
Jun 30, 2008, 09:09 AM
You could, but for something this simple, you'd be wasting your money. Your computer most likely has a side panel that can unscrew and slide off. You aren't going to do anything to the components inside, just observe what happens. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, then any computer expert should be able to do it for you.

jkessel
Jul 1, 2008, 02:51 PM
While I can't be sure that this is NOT an overheating issue, the fact that the system REBOOTS and not just SHUTs OFF tells me that it's most likely not overheating. The chkdsk scan is just the first step. Memory could be bad as well which would be my next step.

lilli123
Aug 7, 2008, 03:30 AM
Sorry I haven't replied for a while
I tried another MMORPG and it is working fine
So it must have been something to do with the game
Thanks so much