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My computer is going weird on me! It shuts down every six hours for no reason at all. It shuts down right away when I run Battlefront II. My virus and spyware scanners aren't detecting anything so then why is this doing this?

Stats:

Windows XP Home
Pentium 4 Processor 2.80 GHz
512 MB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive (only 5 GBs left though, used up most of it on Battlefront II )
2 Years Old

video card + heat, add fans to tower

Well my fan is pretty new but my video card might be a problem? Why?

EDIT: It's a Radeon 9250 BTW.

Yeah, that's a card that A. isn't very powerful and B. often overheats. Slap a new fan in you case, or move your PC to a new area (preferably not cramped under a desk) and you should be fine.

Well I wanna be sure before I buy a $200 new card. Oww!! I just felt my card (I have the side open) and it's REALLY HOT! If I was to buy a new card does anybody have any suggestions?

I used to use pricewatch , i now use newegg.com for parts & ibuypower for full pcs. As far as the name brand flavor (nvidia ,etc..) is up to you Id say whatever you can afford with Pci Express or better/512mb video making sure that your motherboard has support for them of course would be the 1st step..

Darth_Z13 wrote:Well I wanna be sure before I buy a $200 new card. Oww!! I just felt my card (I have the side open) and it's REALLY HOT! If I was to buy a new card does anybody have any suggestions?

OH. MY. GOD. Not to sound mean, but do you know how ridiculously stupid that is!? For one, having your computer running with the side open is a big no-no. If you've been doing that for a while then that may be causing your overheating issues. Having the case open kills airflow, and dust+components= trouble. Second of all, DO NOT TOUCH COMPONENTS WHILE YOUR COMPUTER IS RUNNING! Especially if you aren't grounded. You could get electrocuted, damage the components, or both.

*pant*
*pant*

OK, I'm done now. Seriously, though. Don't make me find your address and beat it into you.

Although you should never touch computer components while it is on, there are some exceptions as to when you should have the side off...this was not one of those exceptions

TheTao wrote:...computer running with the side open is a big no-no. If you've been doing that for a while then that may be causing your overheating issues. Having the case open kills airflow, and dust+components= trouble. Second of all, DO NOT TOUCH COMPONENTS WHILE YOUR COMPUTER IS RUNNING! Especially if you aren't grounded. You could get electrocuted, damage the components, or both...

Do those all the time. Running my computer with the side panel off decreases the amount of heat, as there where two dead zones in the case.

Dust can clog fans and airways, but with the case open, its easy to clean off.

I would also recommend not touching anything inside your computer, but the risk of personal danger is low, unless you start punching things...

After you pick which graphics card you want, don't just look at one online store of a single 'price watch' site. Search on a search engine to find the cheapest price.

Like [RDH]Zerted said, I opened my case BECAUSE of this problem to clean out the fan and to keep it cool. As for touching the components, I won't do it again (I promise). I'm taking it to a computer store tommorow to get them to take a look at it. Just to make sure.....

EDIT: Does anybody even have any advice for my problem or do they agree with guru?

I know some very cheap high-performance cards. PM me if you want a list; I keep a fairly long running total.

The Cheapest HIGH preformance cards are gonna be the Nvidia 7900 series. They have the power to boot and at a price of about $270. I have a Nvidia EVGA 7900 GT KO, works great runs all games on high and never seen the fps go below 40. However, ATI has some very good hards for about $120, like the X1600 and X800. Use Newegg. I personally would go with 256 RAM just too save money, and at the moment there is very little preformance difference between 256 mb and 512 mb. My 7900 GT has 256 RAM and (when running games) will get about the same frames per second as the 7900 GTX (a 512 RAM card).

Guru seems to be right, your computer is overheating, however, The Tao is wrong, leaving you PC case open it no big problem. We do that to servers and PC all the time. Touching the isn't too good for 'em but the parts will be fine. I would suggest opening you case and placing a house fan on it (atleast for now) a few 80mm fans wouldn't hurt either (you can get those at newegg).

RDST wrote:Guru seems to be right, your computer is overheating, however, The Tao is wrong, leaving you PC case open it no big problem. We do that to servers and PC all the time. Touching the isn't too good for 'em but the parts will be fine. I would suggest opening you case and placing a house fan on it (atleast for now) a few 80mm fans wouldn't hurt either (you can get those at newegg).

Unless your computer is a fanless design, having the case open causes heat problems, because there is no airflow.

OK then well could you show me a pic to make sure?

TheTao wrote:

RDST wrote:Guru seems to be right, your computer is overheating, however, The Tao is wrong, leaving you PC case open it no big problem. We do that to servers and PC all the time. Touching the isn't too good for 'em but the parts will be fine. I would suggest opening you case and placing a house fan on it (atleast for now) a few 80mm fans wouldn't hurt either (you can get those at newegg).

Unless your computer is a fanless design, having the case open causes heat problems, because there is no airflow.

Yea, in some cases that will have negative effects.

Darth, if you need a picture of a fanless system its pretty simple. IF you open your case and don't see a fan on you GPU or CPU (instead a strange looking metal device) then you have a heat sink instead of a fan. Either way, I still agree with getting a few 80 mm fans. They will increase noise in you PC but also help your condition. Just make sure to get ones with low noise levels and install them pointing at the GPU and behind the case.

However, if anyone has anything to add to help?
RDST

Hey! I got 512 more MBs of memory, another 170 GBs and a brand new Radeon X1300 Pro o now all my probelms are fixed! This a be locked.