PC powers off and then powers back on

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

Hey everyone,

Need your help with this one.

When playing some games the PC completely turns off and after a few seconds powers back on.

Only happens with certain games and at random stages, not at set points where the system could be under heavier load. It happens on DoW2 and Napoleon: Total War. On Napoleon it happened on the opening video so far in. DoW2 i can get it to do it on the Peformance Test but again it can get through it fine sometimes and shutdown others.

I've attached the DXDIAG and below are the PC's specs.

I've ran stress tests on the CPU and Memory but it does nothing to the PC apart from heat the CPU a bit, no where near auto-shutdown levels.

In the Event Viewer it shows a Critical Error, Source: Kernel Power
Event 41:
Quote
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

BIOS is at it's latest revision and has been tested with previous versions.

Unticked the restart at major failure but as the machine does't restart, it powers off, this makes no difference in finding an error screen.
Low Settings, High Settings, Low Resolution, High Resolution, nothing makes a difference.

PC Spec:
Processor:   
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), OC3.1GHz
Memory:   
6144MB RAM
Hard Drive:   
1.5 TB
Video Card:   
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
Monitor:   
50" Samsung Plasma TV
Sound Card:   
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Operating System:   
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Motherboard:   
Asus P6T
Computer Case:   
Antek 1200

[ale52]

Go here...

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Download & run.

Alan <>< 

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

Ran this before but running it again now.

4passes and no errors up to now.

Any other ideas?

[dwegiel]

It would appear as if you didn't have enough power to the CPU or GPU, causing the games to crash... try downclocking the CPU and setting your voltage 0.01-0.05V higher in BIOS. Otherwise get yourself a nice 400-500W PSU.

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

I have a 950watt PSU and I can run other high spec games ok like Empire: Total War. Tis very random.I'll try underclocking tonight and let u know

[dwegiel]

950W? Nice. Never knew those exist (serious). Best I had was a 450W. ;P

Try finding game patches. It might be that the gtx 295 is not supported for them.

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

Mate has a GTX295 and his runs the games fine.

Just underlocked the CPU but still no joy, on Black and White 2 i used to be able to get into the game and play it for a few minutes, now i can't even get past the first loading screen before getting to the Game Menus.

So now i can replicate the issue but i would rather it wasn't there :p.

[dwegiel]

Hmmm.... that is one weird build. Maybe try settings the resolution down?

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

Tried changing resolution and quality, no difference

[bil_drk]

if you are not gaming, and just surfing the web, etc. does it do this?

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

Only happens when playing games, doing anything else it doesn't happen

[Rebo00 aka Spank]

For anyone that is interested in this or comes across the same thing, i was able to fix it with the help of Black & White 2.

I remembered a few days ago reading about a game burning out the new GTX460s because it had no max FPS set and on a still screen would the card would try drawing into the 1000s of FPSs.

I was experiencing the same type of shutdown when playing Black & White 2, luckily when you open the game and it starts its loading screen it shows the FPS in the top left corner. On the Lionhead loading screen this was in the region of 70FPS.

The next screen would be the EA Games screen which is a still screen, the FPS would jump up to 500 and when it hit 520 the game would shut down.
Although unable to set MAX FPS for B&W2 that i could see, i change the Nvidia Settings to use Vertical Sync for Black & White 2 (previously on "Let the program choose").
Vertical Sync limits the FPS to the refesh rate of the screen, so 60hz refresh rate = 60fps max.

Once set, the EA GAmes screen would go no higher than 60fps and the game has been working fine since.

It was the GFX Card halting which caused the system to reboot, basically to stop overheating and burning out the card.

Most games have a MAX FPS set so you only need to do it on a per program basis really.

Hope this helps some people!