Random shutoffs

I have a fairly powerful gaming machine but whenever I try to play a game with relatively good graphics (Global Offensive and Skyrim specifically), after a few minutes, the whole system shuts off, no warning, nothing. Here's my system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit AMD Phenom II Quad Core 64 NVIDIA GeForce GTX560ti ASUS M5A87 motherboard 8GB RAM (Not sure what model- will find this out though).

Since gaming is one of the most demanding tasks we can ask of our computers, heat is the first suspect here. What are your temps? When was the last time you opened the case for inspection (I recommend monthly) and cleaning of heat trapping dust? If clean and still shutting down (or freezing or rebooting) you might try blasting a desk fan into the open side to see what happens. Also, an over-stressed or failing power supply can do this, as well as failing RAM, or a failing motherboard. You could also try running with just 4Gb of RAM at a time.

like digerati said power supply or temps are most likely cause. the power supply would be my first guess, sounds like when the graphics card is pushed and draws max power, whatever power supply your using can't cope so the system just switches off.

OK, I'll try some of these things over the next few days and post here.

I saw that the fan covers on the case were really dusty, so I cleaned them out with an air can thing. However, the problem seems to have started again. I'll try to get a look at what PSU I have and post it here.

OK. I've got a 600W PSU and the RAM looks fine. I've also cleaned out the PSU and CPU fans and put a couple of books underneath the PC so there's enough space for the PSU fan.

Both Global Offensive and Skyrim games will run fine on a decent laptop with a 300w PSU let alone on what you have. ALL new games now do not require gaming machines such as yours, or mine for that matter (not as good as yours) as they are no longer made for PCs but are made for consoles and ported to for PCs.

Minimum PC Requirements for those games:

Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit).
Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor.
2GB System RAM.
6GB free HDD Space.
Direct X 9 compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM.
DirectX compatible sound card.

Pathetic ain't it?

Is the PC a custom build or a purchased gaming machine?

If purchased your ventilation should be fine, if not, has the case got decent cooling fans and ventilation?

Try this great open source temp. program that does not even have to be installed: Open Hardware Monitor and check your temps.

Cheers,
Lee

It's a purchased machine. I think I've got a good setup the way it is now, and I'll regularly clean the fans. I'll post here if the problem continues.

Ok, now it happened when I was playing Freelancer, a game from ten years ago. I think something's very wrong here.

I've been running Open Hardware Monitor, but there's no data for the CPU- it just keeps saying 0.0 degrees.

Then try another HW monitor. Here's my canned text on HW monitors (so skip the Open HW Monitor bit).

Your motherboard utilities disk should have a monitoring program (or check for a more recent version on your motherboard or PC maker's website). If none, I use and recommend CoreTemp for newer Intel and AMD64 CPUs, or RealTemp for Intels. SpeedFan is a great and popular alternative, or you can try Motherboard Monitor. Open Hardware Monitor is also becoming very popular. Unfortunately, I have found that these programs often have problems properly identifying and labeling the sensor they are reading. The temperatures shown are as accurate as the inexpensive, low-tech sensors will allow, but it may say System Fan instead of CPU Fan. Fortunately, the programs do allow you to edit the labels, so I use Everest to verify the temperatures (as it is able to match sensor with label correctly), then edit the label in the monitoring program. In Everest, look under Computer > Sensor, then wait a couple seconds for the readings to appear. Unfortunately, Everest does not minimize to the system tray to show real-time temperatures, otherwise, you could use Everest instead of the others. Check but do not rely on the temps shown in the BIOS Setup Menu. While they are likely correct, running the BIOS Setup Menu is probably the least demanding task you can ask of your computer so it does not show the temps when the system is being taxed. But if the BIOS Setup Menu temps are high, you have a problem that needs to be corrected. HWMonitor, from the makers of CPUID is also very informative, but does not minimize to the system tray.

I get nervous when CPU temperatures hit 60°C. While most CPUs are capable operating at higher temps, system stability issues arise and long term exposure to very warm temperatures increases component aging (including the CPU socket and surrounding devices). GPU (graphics processing unit) temperatures typically run considerably warmer with 80°C not uncommon.

Ok, I'll try one of those out and report here later.

New thing: the machine is still under warranty, so I'll contact the website I got it from (pcspecialist.co.uk) and see what they can do, because I don't think I can get the help I need here.