computer restarts itself

i play for like 5 minutes and then it just turns off...usually when i try and equip something...i tihnk my comp is overheating..but what can i do about it?there is one fan that i clean out often..its really annoying...is it overheating because it is working too hard? would more ram help?

Overheating is a good guess. What to do about it? It depends on whether you use a notebook or a desktop (big box). If it's a notebook, I recommend the following:

(1) Find the strongest vacuum cleaner in the house and place it at all holes of your notebook, hoping that sufficient dust buildup gets sucked out.

(2) If (1) is unsuccessful, you are looking at opening your notebook. This typically voids the warranty, so before you look that way, post your specifics (make, model etc.).

If it's a desktop, do the following:

(1) Open the cover by releasing the holding screws in the back. Find the strongest vacuum cleaner in the house and suck all the dust out of the heat sink and the attached ventilator. Find any other ventilators as well as air outlets and put the vacuum cleaner to good use.

Game on.

It's overheating because graphically complex software requires considerable processing power that far exceeds typical computer workloads. Extra RAM won't help against overheating.

thanks man

also, if it's a laptop make sure you're playing it on a hard surface - or, even better, get a stand that exposes the bottom of the laptop to open air.

A lot of times, if you're playing on your bed with the laptop on the sheets, or if the laptop is resting on a carpet you're just blocking off the ventilation for the fans - and it will heat up very fast.

They make special stands for laptops allow for proper ventilation ....

if it's not overheating, it could be a virus that was around some time ago. i had a problem like this some time ago with my desktop where my computer would just restart on me randomly. i ran a virus check, which didn't do anything, and somehow isolated the offending program, and manually deleted the virus. sounds odd, but it worked. no more random restarts for me...

Are you using on-board intel video card w/ your laptop to run GW?

make sure you chip fan works. its a tiny little fan on top of your cpu but w/o it you'll be in restart land all day.

speaking of which maybe i should be fixing mine right now

Don't ever use a vacuum cleaner to suck the dust out, it can cause irreparable damage to your computer, use a can of compressed air or you could even take it to a computer shop and they can do it for you (and find out the reason why your computer constantly re-boots).

it is probably your video card. I have a geforce 5500 and i cannot play BF2 b/c my vid card is unstable when playing the game. It also does the same thing sometimes when i play GW.. i try to open my inventory in a district and the game freezes for 10 secs or so. and on some occasions my comp will restart in mid-play. so i'd suggest getting a 6000 series Nvidia video card or one that's comparable to that in ATI.

hoxman all u need is fix your pc not to buy new stuff. try newer vid card drivers

Hoxman I would say that is one of the most unreasonable comments I have heard. The FX 5500 can run BF2 fine, and I know this because I have one on my older computer. I slapped a VF700-Cu on it and OC'ed to about 452/531 along with some AS5, it can run BF2 on medium/high settings without a hitch.