Games crashing my computer every 20 mins? - Hardware & Software

For christmas i got a new computer, although the graphics card isn't too good it's still good enough. No matter what game i load, after about 20 minutes of smooth gameplay, the screen goes black and my moniter says something, if it happens again i'll post it here. Also, when i'm not on a game (YouTube, Facepunch etc..) it has no problems. My computer is a Medion Akoya E6300 D Specs: AMD Phenom X4 9650 Quad-core processor 2.30 GHz ATI Raedon HD4550 DirectX 10.1 Graphics card 4GB RAM Running on 32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium I doubt it's my graphics card, because it crashes on minecraft >.< I have a feeling it's Vista as when i got the PC, the vista that was on it was corrupt, but was resolved by the recovery disk it came with. On Friday i should be getting Windows 7 64-Bit, i'll see if that will help but until then, anyone have any ideas? Also my old PC ran MineCraft fine (although a bit laggy, as it was shit) on Windows 7.

First things first, what are your temperatures? It might be overheating.

How do i check?

CPUz GPUz etc etc.

[QUOTE=Volcom13;27064310]CPUz GPUz etc etc.[/QUOTE] What? >.< Sorry, i am a bit computarded.. EDIT- Oh wait, the program? EDIT2- Where does it tell me? >.> EDIT3- Found it, thanks alot (: Uploading pic now. [editline]30th December 2010[/editline] Not in-game [IMG]http://i53.tinypic.com/15ea3yp.gif[/IMG] About 5 minutes into MineCraft [IMG]http://i51.tinypic.com/2wmj0wj.gif[/IMG]

Okay, your GPU temps don't look terrible. But you should show your CPU temps as well. Download CPUID Hardware Monitor.

[QUOTE=Demache;27065519]Okay, your GPU temps don't look terrible. But you should show your CPU temps as well.[/QUOTE] Not in-game [IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/33x7xhd.jpg[/IMG] About 5 mins on Minecraft [IMG]http://i56.tinypic.com/f296ih.jpg[/IMG]

Can you show us the temps right after a game crashes? And I mean right after as in immediately after it crashes

[QUOTE=Starpluck;27066432]Can you show us the temps right after a game crashes? And I mean right after as in immediately after it crashes[/QUOTE] I'm afraid not, it crashes by the screen going pitch black and shutting down my comp.

[QUOTE=Cam De Waffle;27065782]Not in-game [img_thumb]http://i52.tinypic.com/33x7xhd.jpg[/img_thumb] About 5 mins on Minecraft [img_thumb]http://i56.tinypic.com/f296ih.jpg[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] I wish I got those temperatures...

So, what would it be if it's not my temperatures?

[QUOTE=Cam De Waffle;27066520]I'm afraid not, it crashes by the screen going pitch black and shutting down my comp.[/QUOTE] Then the computer detects that something may damage it. have you tried checking the connectors?

[QUOTE=NitronikALT;27074526]Then the computer detects that something may damage it. have you tried checking the connectors?[/QUOTE] How?

I'd suggest running Memtest 86+ to test your RAM memory.

[QUOTE=Cam De Waffle;27078271]How?[/QUOTE] It has sensors, and when it can see something getting hot or short circuiting it shuts down.

What PSU do you have and what do you have plugged into your PC? Maybe it isn't powerful enough?

Driver issue, maybe? Get the latest drivers for your card, uninstall your current drivers, use something like [url=http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/]Driver Sweeper[/url], and then install the newer drivers.