Computer shut off in the middle of game.

I will start playing a computer game such as Counter Strike, COD, etc. About 20-30 (always is different) minutes in the whole computer will shut down. This doesn't happen if i'm not playing a game, I can search the web, or do ANYTHING else however long I want, it wont shut off. I don't know whats wrong and the only other thing I can say is I had this same computer when I was at my other house and it never happened and as soon as I moved here to a new place is when it started doing that. Someone please help! Thankyou.

 

What are your cpu temps? Does your computer still have the same amount of airflow it had before? Did you try pulling out and reseating your RAM and video card in case they became loose during the move?

 

This reads like overheating. Open the case and carefully check whether the heatsinks/fans on the graphics card, CPU and main PSU are all clean and working. Switch off and disconnect the PC and use a soft paint brush to gently remove any accumulation of dust from each of them.

Leaving the case side off and keep clear of the cloud of dust , reconnect and boot into Windows and start your game of choice.

Is your new place warmer than the old one? Is your PC in a more enclosed or restricted area than it was in the old place?

 

I am not too knowledgeable with computers, but I did install that "SpeedFan" and it says Temp 1 is 38C Temp 2 is -128C Temp 3 is 30C Core 0 is 36C and Core 1 is 36C. It has the same airflow as before. No I didn't try pulling out and resetting the RAM and video card. I asked else where and they said to get a new PSU (though it worked fine with the same PSU before). If you think pulling out and resetting my RAM and Video Card would work id love to try that, though I wouldnt know how. If you have a website with diretions or can give quick directions that would be much help. Thank you.

 

Satrow: I will try that right now. No difference between the locations, is on the same desk, actually even closer to a window than my last place.

 

In full agreement with Satrow, your system is over-heating. Since it only happens when gaming, check your video card. When was the last time you cleaned the heatsink on it?

 

I third that, in my experience if your visual goes black but your pc shuts off a few seconds later then it's most likely video card. If the whole thing shuts down at once then it's more often CPU, as I said.. this is in my experience.

http://majorgeeks.com/GPU-Z_d5796.html

Try this software for temps, I personally find it easier to read and more acurate than speedfan, it's also compatible with more cards.

 

Afterthought, To get an acurate reading it would be best to open GPUZ or Speedfan and have it running, run your game for several minutes and minimize (or quit if you can't min) and get a temp reading.
Reading temps after a restart or after a game has been shut down for a minute drastically drops the temps.

My old card would run idle at around 58C (too high but not bad), when I ran a game and minimized it would read 85-90C which is where my problem lie, the GFX card was toast....litterally lol

 

Ouch!!! :eek

I almost had that happen on this PC... to this day I am grateful that I was able to get the dust bunnies out of the heat sink before it was too late.

 

Well I say my old card, it was actually my sons card, he insisted on playing games like Crysis at high specs even though they ran at 5-10FPS and eventually burnt out the card, it would shut down in any PC but mine, only because I have a lot of cooling.
Even with the Antec 900 case with all those fans I hit those temps while I was using it lol
It still runs funny enough........at 90C but it runs lol
I've retired it now though