Computer Randomly Shutting Off (relevant to games)

[joeschmo9991]

So far, four games have caused my laptop to suddenly shut off without warning. Three AGS games, Apprentice II, Trials of Oddyseus, and Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, and one non-ags adventure, Phantasmagoria (original game). Anyone knows what causes this? It would probably be less of a pain if I got the old blue screen of death. Compared to random shut-offs, I miss old bluey.

[Gilbert]

This thread should be moved to the General forum, it's not related to game hints.

This is most likely your computer's own problem. There're two main possible causes.
1. Software conflict - try checking if it's a driver/OS problem, you may try reinstalling the drivers and/or your OS and see if it fixes anything.
2. Hardware conflict, check if there're some cards or cables loosen, also, it's possible a CPU overheat or a RAM problem. Try setting up your RAM to run at a slower speed (in BIOS setup) and see if that helps.

[joeschmo9991]

I dunno, I kinda figured that this could go under tips, but I get what you are saying.

It IS a laptop, so overheating doesn't sound out of the question. In fact, Dell has the fan on my computer blowing out the bottom. I actually sit with it on my lap, covering the fan area. Go figure, I go an use it as a LAPtop, and it overheats. It's funny how things work sometimes. :p It's like a pickup truck breaking down when someone tries to drive with a heavy load in the bed a few times. People just don't use things for their original purpose anymore I guess.

[Mr Jake]

http://www.hmonitor.com/

I have found this software useful in determining that a CPU overheat was causing my problem (same as you - but I can't even run Paint Shop Pro without crashing)

[MaiSacNjo Mouf]

Phantasmagoria (original game).

Wow, you have Phantasmagoria!?Ã,  I havn't seen that in years!

By the way, if you like that game, you should check out "Harvester"
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/harvester/

It's the same style, I just dug it out and played it again a couple of weeks ago...

[Phemar]

I had the same problem with my PC (non-laptop). Whenever I ran anything that required high memory, the pc just shut off and rebooted. I originally thought the problem was a faulty power source, so I replaced that to no avail. It actuallt turned out to be one of my ram chips -- replacing a faulty ram chip might fix the problem though.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Same here (especially when using Photoshop 7 and when you are just about to save, which has already lead to a whole lot of aggression against my computer), I am rather sure it is a cooling problem.

When a part gets too hot, the CPU shuts the computer down for security reasons.

[joeschmo9991]

Yea, I have Roberta Williams Anthology (lost the manual and disc 1 to it, grrr....), also. Not to mention all four monkey island games (somewhere), grim fandango, return to zork, original king's quest 6 cd, dagger of amon ra on diskettes, and kq 1+2 on diskettes. Oh, and Wolfenstein on diskettes, but its not an adventure. But anyway...

At least most of your pc's just restart, not fully shut down. I'll sit there for a couple seconds, thinking it might be a glitch, and end up having to turn it back on. I guess it is the fan. And it has done it more ever since I bumped the memory up from 256 to 768. I haven't notcied any difference in speed, I'm just more aggrivated.