I have done loaded a game (bridge construction set) which i am enjoying however whilst playing it my computer just resets its self.

i think it is graphics related, try changing settings, but still the same,

some times the computer looks like it switches off but the keyboard num lock light is still on when it does this i have to unplug the machine.

any advice

I had a problem like that a couple of years ago. It turned out to be the power supply not being man enough for the job. When you play games, everything (cpu, HD, graphics card etc.) is pulling plenty of power.

Have you another PSU you could try ?

it does sound psu related.

I had a similar problem with a graphics card and a game. It was an ATI card - I replaced it with an NVIDIA one and all is fine again.

Assuming you're using XP you can go to control panel > administrative tools > event viewer > system

and see what error messages (if any) where thrown up prior to the reboot.

It helps to do this first (otherwise the computer resets as soon as the crash is detected)

Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Advanced
In the Startup and Recovery section, click on the "Settings" button
to open the Startup and Recovery window.
In the System Failure section, uncheck "Automatically restart",
Click "Apply", "OK"

Then play away until it crashes and recheck your event viewer log.

It could also be temp related, if the CPU overheats then most PC's will either shutdown or reboot.

David

Yup. Could be overheating. Trick there is as soon as it reboots go into BIOS and look at the temperatures.

Most CPUs have throttling when they overheat. ThrottleWatch is usefull to monitor it.

A good program in this instance is SpeedFan. You can monitor (and chart) the voltages, CPU/chassis temperatures, hard disk temperatures etc etc.... It doesn't log the readings so you'll have to play the game for a while then exit it and see what (historically) the voltages and temperatures have been doing...

cheers will check them things, as per mookaloid i am runnig a ATI card.

if anyone wants to try bridge building down load the demo.

http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?pontifex2.htm

[Edited on 2/8/08 by Aboardman]

turned off the automatic reset and played twice and twice got a blue screen saying error on win32k.sys.

It may well be a memory problem. Have you tried burning memteston CDROM and booting up on that and leaving it running for 5 or 6 hours. That'll soon find a dodgey memory stick....

[edit to say- memory looks likely
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1031315908]

[Edited on 3/8/08 by BenB]

I've seen this a lot - I work in a college - and out of 700 xp boxes we probably get 2 a month - we just flatten em and re-build the os (but them we have a standard build to re ghost onto them..