computer random shutdowns

[rickyp]

Hey guys

as of late, my computer has been randomly shutting down, mainly when im playing games. I figure that it is because i have too much going on at once, but what can i do to stop this random shutdowns. And I dont mean blue screens, i mean shutdowns. My computer has been formatted recently, and it only started after formatting it (possibly format again?) also, my computer can run these games easily and has before, its not that the computer is too old etc.

any ideas?

 

[sid_19840]

Hey guys

as of late, my computer has been randomly shutting down, mainly when im playing games. I figure that it is because i have too much going on at once, but what can i do to stop this random shutdowns. And I dont mean blue screens, i mean shutdowns. My computer has been formatted recently, and it only started after formatting it (possibly format again?) also, my computer can run these games easily and has before, its not that the computer is too old etc.

any ideas?

Does your CPU get enough cooling,I had a similar problem,all I did was to shift my CPU to a slightly cooler place and I dont have the problem anymore.Although it could be some other problem in your case.

 

[rickyp]

well that could be it, but its only started happening since i reformatted my computer again so i thought it might not have worked correctly, could that of happened?

 

[embi]

Right, heres several things you can do to find out more:

1) Firstly, you could be getting blue screens of death (BSODs), just that Windows XP is automatically configured to restart if it comes across one. To enable them:
--Go to control panel
--Find System (switch to classic view first)
--Go to Advanced tab
--Go down to "Startup and Recovery", click on settings
--Ignore System Startup, go down to System failure
--Look for a checkbox called "Automatically restart"
--If its ticked, untick it

Now you need to wait for your computer to crash (maybe play one of those games), you might get a BSOD, in which case write down the error information and post it here. Alternatively, if you've got error reporting enabled you can send it to Microsoft, who might provide a solution.

But if none of the above works, its a hardware problem. This does tend to get tricky, so it might be worth it getting a support professional. If you're perfectly happy with geting inside your computer, don't worry about it.
Random reboots tend to be a power supply problem, if your hardware is demanding more power than it can handle. Actually, considering you're saying you're playing games, your video card might be a bit hungry for power

Hope that helps, any problems post here or PM me...

 

[rickyp]

na its not blue screens, i know what they are, im not getting them.

 

[Cowburn199]

Hey Ricky. I've seen a few people with this problem. To fix it update your motherboard and video card drivers. It seems to work.

 

[rickyp]

how do i update my motherboard?

btw, I have a pentium M 725 processor with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700/64mb

 

[Kev]

you need to know your motherboard manufacturer and model then visit their website for a bios update. Be very careful when you do this, flash your bios incorrectly and you have a dead pc.

 

[rickyp]

so how can I find out my motherboard....

 

[embi]

Pentium M? Isn't that a laptop processor? And you have a Mobility Radeon, so I'm assuming this is a laptop...

You can either note down some of the info on the BIOS POST screen (the screen that comes up after you switch it on), look for something like "something BIOS made for <motherboard name>", post it here and we could try and work it out.
I think the Pause key works well here too, but I've never tried it.

The other harder way is to open your laptops case, and search the motherboard for a sticker or something. This is pretty difficult.

It is very important that you get exactly the right model. Depending on your manufacturer, you should be able to go on their website, find your motherboard model and download the updates for it.

As for video card drivers, I found your card here - http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/mobility-xp.html
Looks like there was an update on 15th Nov.

Be warned that these might not fix the problem, thats the trouble with random reboots they can be literally anything.

 

[Prakash]

so how can I find out my motherboard....

You could use pcwizard http://www.cpuid.org/pcwizard

 

[The_gas]

Sounds like a power problem. Have you checked the event viewer under administrative tools for errors? Try looking in system/application for details.

 

[rickyp]

when i download the file to determine whether my computer can update its ATI drivers it says it cant.... why is that? is there another way I can update them?

 

[embi]

when i download the file to determine whether my computer can update its ATI drivers it says it cant.... why is that? is there another way I can update them?

Either you've already got latest updates, or those particular drivers weren't compatible...
Try going to display options in control panel >settings> advanced>adaptor and note the BIOS version there...

 

[rickyp]

BIOS under what embi just told me to do is: BK-ATI VER008.017M.178.001