PC shuts down when playing

Computer Forum General Hardware
1

PC shuts down when playing games

Hi all

Need help on this one.

Recently upgraded my graphics card to an ATI Radeon 9200 SE from a Chaintech Geforce 4 MX440. Uninstalled the nvidia drivers and fitted the new card downloaded latest WHQL drivers for the new card. All went well until I played games where they would run for a couple of minutes, then my PC would shut down as if there had been a power cut. PC would only come back on after unplugging then plugging back in. Ran this prob thru other PC related forums which provided suggestions like defective graphics card, infinite loop problem between some graphics cards & CPUs, too much dust, winxp sp2 bug the list goes on. Up to now I have done the following:

Changed the 9200 for same model to rule out defective card
Installed another hi power PSU
Changed the mobo
cleaned out the PC case thoroughly
Virus checked my HD
Installed latest bios and chipset drivers
emailed AMD for any incompatibility issues with ati cards none what so ever
and suffering from self inflicted hair loss.

Please help as my sanity will end up the same way as my hair.

PC Specs are now MSI KT6V-7021 mobo, AMD Athlon XP 2500+, 40Gb HDD, 768Mb DDR PC2700, ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128Mb, Qtec 550W PSU, WinXP with SP2 installed.

Any help will be appreciated as my bank balance will suffer at this rate.

2

Sometimes if your PC shuts down while playing a graphics intensive game then its usually to do with one of your components overheating. Make sure that you have adequate airflow in your case by tidying cables and that your CPU HSF is up to the job. If not then i suggest a new meatier HSF preferably with a copper base at least. Install a temperature monitoring program to help see what temps your cPU is running at.

3

I’d try another power supply. I’ve not heard any real warming testimonies about Qtec power supplies and would avoid 'em like the plague. Look for something like Antec, Sparkle (or Fortron—same company, different brands), Enermax or Thermaltake. With what you have, a 350W unit from any of these companies will be plenty for your setup.

The other thing I’d try is the Omega Drivers. They’re tweaked some, and seem to fix problems that people don’t get with the official drivers from ATi (or nVidia—Omega does them too).