Please help.
I am stumped by what is happening to my computer. It boots up and runs very cleanly until I starts up a game.
Once in a game, ie Left 4 Dead, Guild Wars, and EVE, it takes about 5-15 minutes and then the computer just turns off. No restart, no error message, and occasionally when I get back into the windows log-on screen (Windows XP btw) once i click on the username, it will shut down once again.
If anyone can tell me what the problem is, or how to isolate and find out, it would really help. A friend has told me it could be RAM, but i do not know how to check that. If it is overheating, how can i be sure, and what measures should I take to ensure this doe not happen again?

Specs, if it helps
Windows XP SP3
Nvidia 9600 GT
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 - 2.3GHz
4 GB of RAM

Welcome to PCHF - the community will help....

Okay - let's get the overheating issue sorted.

Your PC temperatures can be tested by downloading from here:

Download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

Any flames? - however now play a game whatever until it "crashes", restart, start Speedfan again any flames now?

Umm... not exactly sure what to do with this program. Where should these "flames" be? I dont see any.

The "flames" are an icon that appears against high temperatures.

Please note the temperatures you see when first loaded, typically 40-45 C

then make the PC "work hard" - play the game etc and then see what temperatures you have,

Hi,

I have the same problem here but not the login problem when i restart
I need some help because i cant figure out what it is.
I already changed my cooler and add 1 extra, i cleaned up my power supply so it must be my videocard (i think).

I did some research on forums including game forums and find out that the 9600 GT users have the same problems as i do.
No blue screen or some thing else just shut down.
It started with Age of empires, when i played a couple of games then the pc shut down...i could live with that after i tried everything to solve it...but now i play WoW and it happens every time after 20-40 mins.
But i can play CoD4 all day and nothing happens.

I downloaded speedfan to look at the temparture everything looks ok except i saw 1 time a warning about my videocard after the shut down .
Becuase when its shut down the coolers are still working and with higher speed untill i manually turn off the computer and that takes 6-7 sec.
So i cant read the temp correctly when i restart.

Win9x:NO 64Bit:NO GiveIO:YES SpeedFan:YES
I/O properly initialized
Linked ISA BUS at $0290
Linked Intel 82801GB ICH7 SMBUS at $0400
Found nVidia GeForce 9600 GT
Linked nVidiaI2C0 SMBUS at $3D403E3F
Linked nVidiaI2C1 SMBUS at $3D403637
Linked nVidiaI2C2 SMBUS at $3D405051
Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
F71882F check found $FF $FF $FF $FF $FF
Winbond W83627DHG (ID=$C1) found on ISA at $290
SuperIO Chip=Winbond W83627DHG
Scanning Intel SMBus at $0400...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403E3F...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403637...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D405051...
SMART Enabled for drive 0
Found SAMSUNG HD321KJ (320.1GB)
Found Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz
450W power suplly

Hello,just posting to see if you need further assistance.

Or do you consider your thread as Answerd/Resolved/Fixed?

Please post back if you need any further help.

Jelly Bean.