Computer randomly reboots during "intensive activity".
- by Reznor
My friend has been playing games on his new build for some time now. However, lately, his computer will randomly reboot out of nowhere, so far only happening in game, and presumably only to happen in game as it happens nowhere else. This can happen in game during play or even in the options. Note, it isn't a crash or blue screen. It's just a normal reboot. This started today, I believe, and has only occured in two games: Dead Space and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. He has played a handful of games before these, for about a week or so, without this problem.
We theorized on two possibilities: Maybe something is overheating? Maybe the power supply is inadequate? These two were quickly dismissed, as all his components were operating at normal temperatures when he got back to his desktop from the reboot, and we all know these parts don't exactly cool down quickly, especially if they get hot enough to trigger a reboot. Besides, I know at-least my motherboard reports processor overheating at start-up, and requests I press f1 to continue into boot. The PSU one was dismissed too. He has an 850w power supply on a rig that was estimated to take only 720 some watts, that's with some overcompensating to be safe.
He opened up his case to make sure nothing was seated wrong or in the way. All was fine, but he did notice a sticker on his video card. It had a giant barcode on it and some numbers. Now, I'm used to seeing these stickers, they're the warranty stickers, right, and removal voids the warranty? Yeah, well, we find it odd because this sticker is slapped right over the circuits of the video card, not on a block or anything. Is this normal? Should he remove it?
Right now, I am concerned with the memory. Could that be at fault? Here are his specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-Bit
Intel i7 950
EVGA GeForce 570 GTX
4 GB DDR3 PC10666 dual-channel Corsair RAM
Corsair 850w PSU
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
Western Digital 1 TB WD1001FALS
