Help, comp shutting itself off..

When i play GW for 15min to an hour, my computer will eventually shut itself off. i'm thinking it's a overheating problem, but i'll give you my comp specs anyway, to see if anything is lacking.

intel P4 2.81Ghz AGP 8x
1024MB duel channel DDR RAM
SB Audigy Gamer 5.1
GeForce 4 ti 4200 128MB
80GB hard drive 7,200rpm
330W (i think) power supply
1 fan, still one fan slot free at the back

if you have any suggestions as to what it might be, or how i can reduce my cpu and overall computer temperature, that'd be great. thanks

EDIT:
my motherboard is a gigabyte GA-8S655FX

1. Open up your pc case and make sure its not clogged with dust. (in the heatsinks for the cpu and gpu (graphics card) If it is.. get yourself a can of air and go to town. (be sure not to hold the can too close to components)

2. Grab a copy of Motherboard Monitor, I did not see that you stated what motherboard you have... but motherboard monitor should be able to give you the temperature readings of your cpu. If it happens on a regualar basis.. you can check the temp before it normally drops you.

3. If its your GPU (graphics processor) see if the drivers offer a GPU temperature reading you can also put on your desktop.

Lets determine if it is heat first. Before we go too far )

alright i'll try, thanks, and my motherboard is listed above in the edit

According to the MBM support list, your motherboard is supported.

GA8 S655FX(-L) SIS950/ITE8705F
SIS950/ITE8705F 1
SIS950/ITE8705F 2




http://mbm.livewiredev.com/


Hope this helps.

Most likely a heating problem, and I don't see any real power hogs there, so I think 330W is fine. (Otherwise I might recommend a better PSU)
I overkilled on my cooling . I ought to put a diagram on how much air is coming through (although a slot fan for my video card would be nice)
If you are overheating, or you're not sure, run the computer with the case open. It will let a lot more air in, so you will be able to diagnose if inadequate cooling is the problem.
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My mobo came with simple monitoring software, but that's just me.

The watts do not matter for a PSU. If it's not a quality PSU, it can easily cause random reboots. I had a 500 watt POS and it was only rated at an actual 300. What it says isn't what it is unless you're buying name brand (enermax and antec, for example).

True. I got lucky and got a good one with my case, but sometimes they'll hand off PSU's as higher wattage, but if you read the small print on a cheap B.S. PSU they'll say something like "Do not place loads of higher than xxxW" which is lower than the supposed wattage.
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The old Compaq I have has a PSU that states "145W" but in the fine print it says no more than 90W.

anything else i could do to maintain a cool temperature?

i got MBM, and doing normal things, not gaming, my CPU temperature jumps around from 21 C all the way to 64 or 70 C, while my case is around 25-40 C. This is with the case closed. what can i do to get these temps down. also, i think when playing GW, my vid card transfers some of the work to the processor, and that's why my comp shuts itself off. computers only shut themselves off when it's the processor overheating, not the vidcard. so what can i do?

Maybe the heat sink is not contacting properly? Make sure it's on the socket the correct direction (I put mine on backwards once a couple years ago ). If everything seems ok with the heatsink, you may want to try getting some thermal grease to increase the contact with the heatsink. If that reading is true, that's one hell of an increase . It's possible that your thermometer is whacked, but let's assume that it's correct ATM.
You could try opening the case and running a desk fan at it if you have one.

There are two temperature scenarios that automatically shut off your computer:
Rapid heat increase for an certain amount of time
or
Temperature threshold (I think the MSI mobos are set to something like 93 degrees C. Not sure about yours, but it probably has a setting in BIOS setup)

I think it's the PSU.

Currently you are marginally powered, sure the rating is "meaningless" but only to a point. Its about total power delivery if you have multiple devices on at once. Now if one those devices is marginal, meaning, using just a slight bit more current than usual, then it will be stealing voltage from something else--usually the next weakest device. So say your graphics card is starting to use more energy via it's fan, well that might make it try to draw from another device, but if your total output is maxed, well it's gonna try to draw on the power supply and the system will just shut down. The 15 minutes to an hour is what makes me think this as it probably is different depending on the ambient temperature in the room, so it would change based on the demands on the fans.

If it were me I'd get a higher rated power supply just to raise the marginal maximum threshhold and see if that solves the problem. It is my understanding that P4 and above processors really require a 400 watt power supply, so I'd get one of those or better.

Is it restarting or shutting itself off?

-Virt

it's shutting itself off. and i'm looking at a case for a really good price, which can hold 6 80mm fan slots, all of which i'd fill, 2 front 2 back 1 top 1 side. this a good idea? and i'll look into a better power supply too.

Seems that could well provide a solution, although I really hate to tell a person to spend money on hardware they may or may not need. Still, the points raised so far are all good, and the combination of a new power supply and a better ventilated fan may well cause your problem to go away.

A little something I learned...

You know how people want the air to flow through the case? Well, if you put a front and rear fan set, amazingly it becomes a totally regulated flow, they sort of syncrhonize and it doesn't really adjust to ambient conditions as well. Anyway, to make this short. If you can, forget the front fans, put 3 in back if you have to but don't put anything blocking the input Amazingly you get a higher flow rate. I can try to explain it but just say it has to do with the difference in pushed and pulled air in combination with changes to barometric pressure.

A car will run differently in the mountains than at sea level because of the difference in the air. With fans operating at 6000 rpm this effect is amplified. Barometric pressure can change the throughput and thus the thermal dynamics.

Hopefully this was helpful.

how will a 350W p/s hold me out instead of a 420W? i'd save myself about $90 (CDN) if i went with the 350W

no, man, get a 400 or better, I mean it, you might be okay but 20 watts isn't gonna raise the marginal (minimum) threshhold that much from 330. I woud say you need 5 watts or more for a good marginal increase, so just for sake of having something to work with: 20 watts / 6 devices = 3.33 watts of average "reserve" to go to each device if all were powered up at once. You need at least 5 watts I would say. so 400 (+70 or 10+ watts more per device available) would definitely do the trick. Understand I am only guessing, not some electrical engineer, but it just seems very obvious that this is the problem to me.

As for air flow in a case: you always want more air flow into your case than out of your case. The idea is that this creates a vaccum inside the case which really forces the warm air out. I did plenty of research when installing my fans so I didn't overheat. And always make the fan on top pull air out.

That's cool, I just shared what i discovered with the way the flow works. It seems the fans draw easier than they blow air as far as pulling through a slot. We lowered the temperature by 7 degrees just removing the front fan. I didn't expect it either. It could be case specific but it made sense when you thought about a room with warm air pumping in to it the air has to evacuate at a similar rate for it not to acummulate in increasing temperature, if it evacuates at a faster rate it actually could contribute to the flow, but wait it can't as the air is pumped in, see? In a closed environment like that the flow is going to go toward the exhausting fan and so long as no restriction the air will leave as quickly as the fan will allow. The larger fan in front was restricting the flow. Every system I've done this to (4) the result has been 5 - 7 degree temperature reduction. They don't have top fans though so that could make a big difference obviously. Yea I tend to rely on hands-on experience above anything else.

And I only do this when there appears to be a temperature problem. I just mentioned it to this guy cause he was thinking he might have a temperature problem. I tend to believe the whole thing is the power supply, in fact the PSU may be working "marginally."

with the temperature monitoring program i downloaded, it says my cpu and case temperatures are changing as much as 40 degrees in 5 seconds, back anf forth. is this ea problem with my motherboard temperature sensor? if so, what can i do about it?