Automatically Shut Down

newguyintown

New Member
Okay, my computer (the one in my signature) automatically powers off when I play Starcraft II. Well, at first, I thought it was a power outage, but my motherboard still had LEDs on. Therefore, there is power supplying the system. This happened four times already, and it is too much to be just a coincidence. After it shuts down, I cannot boot the computer by hitting the power button. To turn it back on, I had to hit the CMOS reset on my motherboard. When I turned it back on, I want to check the temperature of my system. My graphics card was 80 deg Celsius and everything else was about 40-55 deg Celsius. I don't know if my graphics card is too hot or not, but it was the hottest unit in the system.

So, do you guys have any ideas what causes my computer to shut down?

If it is due to my graphics card, do I need VGA cooling?
 
Have you blown the dust out of your system recently? Sometimes a lot of junk can get into the video card fan and the heatsink fan and cause shutdowns.
 
yeah i would check for dust. i doubt that your problem is heat. the newer gtx cards can run pretty hot since they are "designed to run hot."
 
Have you blown the dust out of your system recently? Sometimes a lot of junk can get into the video card fan and the heatsink fan and cause shutdowns.

yeah i would check for dust. i doubt that your problem is heat. the newer gtx cards can run pretty hot since they are "designed to run hot."

I just opened my computer components and built this computer in less than a week ago. So, I doubt the computer will collect significant amount of dusk in so short of timespan to have caused this, but I will double check if there is any...

Any other suggestions? Thank you.


EDIT: Okay guys, I think either my motherboard is dead or my PSU is dead (I think)... I cannot power it on by resetting the CMOS. (When resetting the CMOS, the fan will spin for 1 second and will stop.) Even if I get a RMA on one of them, I still need to know what caused it. Otherwise, the same thing will happen unless the unit I got happens to be crappy... Anyways, if I cannot resolve it here, I will call them after my finals (2 weeks from now).
 
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Did you use thermal paste and install the heatsink properly on the processor? It could also be a faulty power supply, RAM or motherboard giving you problems.

I would suggest running the program "Memtest86+" first for around three hours first to test your RAM.
 
Did you use thermal paste and install the heatsink properly on the processor? It could also be a faulty power supply, RAM or motherboard giving you problems.

I would suggest running the program "Memtest86+" first for around three hours first to test your RAM.

Is thermal paste necessary? I did not apply any... Now I cannot boot my computer after running a game for the fourth time... Once I get it booting, I can give Memtest86+ a try...
 
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Thermal paste is necessary. I hope you at least used the stock intel cooler with the thermal pads on it in that case. If not, don't use the computer until you get some thermal paste on there. Your CPU is shutting down the system due to reaching critical temperature.
 
Thermal paste is necessary. I hope you at least used the stock intel cooler with the thermal pads on it in that case. If not, don't use the computer until you get some thermal paste on there. Your CPU is shutting down the system due to reaching critical temperature.

yeah that is probably it. i thought he said the cpu was at 40-55 in the o.p. :P
 
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