Computer Shuts Down After Playing Games for a Few Minutes

It seems like it's just one problem after another with my new PC :(

I just bought my first gaming PC, and everything's running fine, but after a few minutes of playing a game (Skyrim, Napoleon: TW, etc.), it crashes. And by crashes, I don't mean it goes to the desktop - the whole stupid thing restarts.

Searching online, the only answers I could find was that my PSU isn't enough or my parts are overheating. However, I don't think that either of those are my problem. I have two fans running (that came with the case) and my card runs at around 70-ish degrees when playing games. Also, my PSU is a CoolerMaster 550W.

Don't get me wrong - I don't know much about computers at all, so those two problems may very well be what's going on with my computer, but is 550W not enough to run a single GTX 560 Ti, 8gb of RAM, and Skyrim? Or is 70+ degrees bad?

Thanks for any help you can provide me, GameSpotters.

The card itself uses 210W and it's unlikely the rest of your system is eating up the rest of the 550W available, you have a good quality PSU anyway so it's even less likely to be a power problem, to be honest you shouldn't be going over 480W under load but your machine likely doesn't go over 380-400W so i'll go ahead and say your PSU is not the problem unless it's genuinely faulty.

70c isn't too bad for a GPU but it's pretty high for a CPU but mine hit 90 all the time and i've never had an issue. It does seem to be a hardware failure but not from being too weak.

Try this toolit's a kernel dump reader and if you have any dump files from the crashes it should tell you why there was a crash, much easier than deciphering them yourself(if you have any that is).

First thing. Back up any important info.

Check all of the cables and see that they are plugged in properly.

Do a clean install of your drivers. I don't know about nvidia, but with AMD its better to use 3rd party uninstallers (atiman and driver sweeper) and then reinstalling.

Your PSU should be enough for one 560ti. That doesn't necessarily mean that its not your PSU. It could have been damaged at one point. I had one get fried from a power surge and started acting erratically.

You could troubleshoot and try to isolate the problem by disconecting all non-essential components one by one or switching out components for ones you know work.

It seems video card related because it happens during video card load. So I'm thinking its a bad driver install, PSU problem, or videocard problem.

It could be anything though. I would also upgrade motherboard bios, chipset drivers, sound drivers.

If its a new computer, I would talk to the people you bought it from for an exchange if you cant solve it yourself.

It seems like it's just one problem after another with my new PC :(

I just bought my first gaming PC, and everything's running fine, but after a few minutes of playing a game (Skyrim, Napoleon: TW, etc.), it crashes. And by crashes, I don't mean it goes to the desktop - the whole stupid thing restarts.

Searching online, the only answers I could find was that my PSU isn't enough or my parts are overheating. However, I don't think that either of those are my problem. I have two fans running (that came with the case) and my card runs at around 70-ish degrees when playing games. Also, my PSU is a CoolerMaster 550W.

Don't get me wrong - I don't know much about computers at all, so those two problems may very well be what's going on with my computer, but is 550W not enough to run a single GTX 560 Ti, 8gb of RAM, and Skyrim? Or is 70+ degrees bad?

Thanks for any help you can provide me, GameSpotters.

LionSitter

I had similar problems with my PC earlier. My PSU was a 650w Diablotek which was okay with the HD 5770 I had earlier. But, once I upgraded the GPU to a GTX 560 Ti, the Diablotek had a harder time with the newer card. Both the GTX 560 Ti and the Diablotek would overheat.

Once I replaced the Diablotek with a 700w CoolerMaster, the GTX 650 Ti ran fairly cool and the CoolerMaster never really heated up, certainly not like the Diablotek.

It could very well be a bad driver install. I forgot to buy a wireless adaptor with my PC, so I've been updating Windows and my drivers kind of ghetto-ly since I got the PC. I didn't think a bad driver could make the whole system crash though!LionSitter

Yes it can but its usually a blue screen error. Its worth trying though.

It seems like it's just one problem after another with my new PC :(

I just bought my first gaming PC, and everything's running fine, but after a few minutes of playing a game (Skyrim, Napoleon: TW, etc.), it crashes. And by crashes, I don't mean it goes to the desktop - the whole stupid thing restarts.

Searching online, the only answers I could find was that my PSU isn't enough or my parts are overheating. However, I don't think that either of those are my problem. I have two fans running (that came with the case) and my card runs at around 70-ish degrees when playing games. Also, my PSU is a CoolerMaster 550W.

Don't get me wrong - I don't know much about computers at all, so those two problems may very well be what's going on with my computer, but is 550W not enough to run a single GTX 560 Ti, 8gb of RAM, and Skyrim? Or is 70+ degrees bad?

Thanks for any help you can provide me, GameSpotters.

LionSitter

if it does with with any nvidia driver try some older drivers if you are running newest

Sorry for the late response guys, but I've been very busy this week with work, and I haven't had much of a chance to work on this problem. I formatted my hard drive, installed Windows, and updated it with all of the latest updates and drivers. After playing Skyrim for about an hour, I thought the problem was finally fixed, until I started playing Civ 5 for about 20 minutes, after which the computer shut down.

Is the only option left to buy a new power supply or to buy more fans?

Sorry for the late response guys, but I've been very busy this week with work, and I haven't had much of a chance to work on this problem. I formatted my hard drive, installed Windows, and updated it with all of the latest updates and drivers. After playing Skyrim for about an hour, I thought the problem was finally fixed, until I started playing Civ 5 for about 20 minutes, after which the computer shut down.

Is the only option left to buy a new power supply or to buy more fans?

LionSitter

take each stick of memory out and game on one stick at a time and test them.xboxownzuall545

[QUOTE="xboxownzuall545"]take each stick of memory out and game on one stick at a time and test them.LionSitter

Run memtest

Run memtest

kraken2109

According to this Hardware Secret's review of my PSU, apparently my PSU isn't capable of powering the 550W needed for my GPU, even though that's what it claims it can do. Do you guys think that is why it crashes during gaming?

If so, what kind of PSU would you guys recommend? I think I might SLI my card with another one day, so I think 750W+ would be best. Would any of you recommend buying this one?

According to this Hardware Secret's review of my PSU, apparently my PSU isn't capable of powering the 550W needed for my GPU, even though that's what it claims it can do. Do you guys think that is why it crashes during gaming?

If so, what kind of PSU would you guys recommend? I think I might SLI my card with another one day, so I think 750W+ would be best. Would any of you recommend buying this one?

LionSitter

MSI Afterburner can underclock your GPU, it should stop the crashing since you now know the problem, your games won't run as well but i'm sure you can manage on lower settings until you have a better PSU.

850W is plenty and will be great, looks like a really good quality PSU as well^ (The Corsair)