A friend of mine is having problems with his rig (YES! A FRIEND!! Not my computer at all... wry smiley-faced emoticon goes here) where it runs normally for work but crashes out playing games. Typically, the game will run well for a few minutes, and then the computer will suddenly shut right off. This makes multiplayer difficult for him.I suggest that his power source is too weak for his rig. I don't have his specs on me right this moment, but I will keep you posted. Ideas, please?Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

I would have to agree. Either under-powered or over-heating.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm going to paste more info from my friend:

The trial version of Everest, if I'm reading it right, tells me that I have a Dell 0R849J motherboard, version A00. It also calls it simply "Dell Studio XPS 435 MT." I have an ATI RADEON HD 4850 (512 MB) video card. Hmmm. Says the temperature of the GPU is 86 degrees C, as opposed to only 43 degrees for the motherboard and 50 degrees for the CPU. Does that sound hot? Hmmm...GPU cooling fan is running at 6099 RPM (39%). Power supply cooling fan running at 9926 RPM, no percentage figure given.

I don't know what his power source is. I also don't know much about his mobo or vidcard. Tha ATI site suggests a 450W power supply, but beyond that I don't know if the card needs a single or dual connects. From what I gather, that's situational...?Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

It requires only one 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express connector.It could also be an indication that the power supply is failing.