DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum computer help...

I know there are some very savvy computer people on this board. And I am looking for a lil help...

Ok, my computer was built from scratch from a lil retired fellow in Cocoa Beach. Really don't think it matters....

The problem I am having is this...I can be o/l all day and no problems. My girlfriend got a Nancy Drew game and it will play for about ten minutes and then the computer shuts off. I d/led an MSN game around the same lines and it will do the same. Is this a memory problem ?? You can reboot the computer and it will shut down almost immediately. You wait 5 minutes and it's ok. I can run just about any other application with no problem, but you try to run these games and it's just a big ole headache

I haven't tried my other HD because I'm scared it might be a virus. I've run AVG and Ad-Aware and they both say no problems.

Can someone please help ??

Well we will give it a shot.
First off we might need a list of what kind of hardware you have in the PC.
If you know off hand. What CPU, motherboard, Onboard graphics or card, memory amount, hard drive, POWER supply wattage?
Windows version? MAC?

The power supply would be my first guess.
A dirty dusty power supply that is overheating or not enough wattage to run everything on the system will sometimes do this especially if the memory is drawing more power from the video card or main memory to run a heavier application such as a game.
Drivers all up to date? This is a biggie. sometimes something as simple as keeping all the hardware drivers up to date can avoid these issues.
Alot of people do not want to take the time to keep everything running smooth.
If there is no obvious problem ,nothing must be wrong.
Sometimes the memory being seated wrong or a bad stick can cause lockups and random restarts.
I am no tech wizard but these are the first things I look at in older PC's
Get as much info as you can to us and I am sure someone here will be able to pinpoint your problem.

Good luck.

OK, is late for me with a 4 AM wake-up. But will run Belarc and tell you exactly what I have. I really hate to admit that it could just be cat hair (if is the case...sorry for wasting your time)....

Thanx for resonding...

Brownsrule08

i would be willing to bet that your cpu cooler is covered with dust....

and since you said you have a cat, thats the first thing i would check...

the heatsink is the metal fin looking thing, and should be free of dust and dander from your cat.....

if its dirty, get a can of canned air, and carefully clean the whole thing out.....spray it into the power supply too, like the other poster said.....

sometimes computers will run ok, just surfing the web, because the cpu isn't being taxed to hard......load a game, and it over heats, and shuts down....


make sure you unplug the power suppy, and touch the metal case before sticking your hands inside....use little short blasts....don't ge the fan spinning a million miles an hour....

I had the same problem on 2 laptops. Once I blasted the fans good with canned air, problem solved.

Thanx for the input guys. It is on my list for today !