Why does my computer shut off?

Question

it shuts off on its own when i try to do things like play games! it shouldnt shut off from trying to run roller coaster tycoon 1!!!!

There were no error messages or anything im just using fruity loops/ playing roller coaster tycoon or runescape and POOF. everything i was doing has to be re done due to my computer shutting off for no reason.

Answer 1

it may be overheating by the processor
try to see the fans it may be out of work
if it works well put Ur PC in a cooler place

Answer 2

This is a hard question to answer without knowing exactly what happened, what error messages you saw, etc. The most likely cause is heat. Open the case and make sure all of your fans are working, and get the dust cleaned out, especially around the CPU, hard drive and air intakes. If a fan isn't working, remove it and clean it vigorously in rubbing alcohol ( a tuperware container works great). When it is dry and spins freely, put it back. Check the fan on your video card too. Only clean it with compressed air. Any liquid will probably short it out. You could also have an issue with your swap file being to small or not enough disk space left for it to expand when a game is in use. Check how much free space is left on your hard drive. If it is less than 10%, a cleanup and defrag is in order.

Answer 3

The most likely reason is overheating. If the system temp or CPU temp gets too high, the computer will automatically shut down as a safety measure. You can check this by restarting the computer right after it shuts down, going into the BIOS setup and checking the system temperature. If your temperature is very high (like over 90c) then that's almost certainly what's occuring, and you'd need to replace your CPU cooler, and possibly add an extra fan inside the case.

It could also be that your graphics card is generating a ton of heat- Which video card do you have?

Answer 4

Turn off auto-restart. If you get a blue screen error message next time it shuts down, post the error code or go to microsofts web site to find the code explanation. If no bluescreen, download speedfan to check the motherboard temps.

Answer 5

Could be overheating and shutting down is the computer's way of protecting itself. Also you may have resource issues such as a lack of RAM.

You can see if your computer can handle more RAM by going to Crucial.com and running a scan.
http://www.crucial.com/index.asp

Also remember that everything takes RAM. Not only security products (such as active anti-spyware, anti-virus and firewall) eat up memory but your operating system, active browser windows, running applications (such as Word, Gaming, Messenger, Photoshop, etc) all compete for system resources.