computer randomly shuts off

[jake]

my problem is this...when im on my laptop computer and i
start to play i game im in the middle of the game and
then my computer just shuts off. no warning no shut down
procedure no nothing, its almost like the battery got
yanked out which i know it didn't. also it doesnt matter
what game i play its any game! and sometimes it shuts off
other times it doesnt. Also i noticed that it sounds like
the cd drive starts to run and then bam the whole
computer shuts off. this has never happened before. whats
the deal!?

 

[WestCan]

Run a anti-spyware program like Ad Aware , you may have mal-ware installed
from those game sites, and/or run a anti-virus program ...you may be
catching a cold.

 

[Grant]

my problem is this...when im on my laptop computer and i
start to play i game im in the middle of the game and
then my computer just shuts off. no warning no shut down
procedure no nothing, its almost like the battery got
yanked out which i know it didn't. also it doesnt matter
what game i play its any game! and sometimes it shuts off
other times it doesnt. Also i noticed that it sounds like
the cd drive starts to run and then bam the whole
computer shuts off. this has never happened before. whats
the deal!?

Does it do the same thing whether running from battery or an AC outlet? I can
think of several possibilities.

The first, one that still happens on my sister's laptop, is that the power
supply she uses isn't powerful enough for the cdrom drive to work. She doesn't
have a working battery, so she can't use the cd drive at all.

The second possibility, since it only happens during games, is that your laptop
is overheating, and shutting itself off to protect its components. You can
check in your bios setup if your laptop has health monitoring, what the cpu
temperature is, and what the shutoff limit is.

 

[flakrat]

The Heat issue is a good point.
Another possibility is that you have an old version of DirectX. 9.0b is the
latest (I think, it's 9 something)
You can get the updated version at WindowsUpdate.microsoft.com or
www.microsoft.com/directx
You can tell by clicking START=>Run and type dxdiag and click OK
While you are in the DXDiag program, go through each tab and see if a) there
are any problems with the dx files, b) if your hardware passes the DirectX
tests
- DirectX Files: make sure in the Notes section it says "No problems
found."
- Display: again make sure "No problems found." also, click the Test
DirectDraw and Test Direct3D buttons and verify that the tests run properly.
- Sound: same also run the Test DirectSound
- Music: same
- Input and Network, just make sure there isn't anything that looks funky.

Also, I posted this regarding a reboot problem with games in a different
post:
First thing to make sure is that all of your components have the most
updated drivers.
Especially, video card, sound card, mother board BIOS, ethernet card.

I had a problem recently where my computer would reboot occasionaly when
playing a specific game (Rise of Nations), i.e. all of a sudden the screen
would go black, then the boot up messages would appear.

My video card manufacturer (actually the chip manufacturer) nVidia released
new drivers about a week ago. Since installing those, no reboots.
Previouse to installing the buggy drivers, no reboots. So, I had a good
idea which drivers were the culperate.

If you aren't used to downloading drivers, going to
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com does not count. That's important for
Windows OS updates, but not for driver updates. You'll want to go to your
computer manufacturers web site (i.e. Dell or HP or whatever). Or if you
have a home built machine or if you have purchased new hardware, go to the
hardwares sites (i.e. nvidia.com, creativelabs.com, 3com.com ...)

Hope this helps,
Mike