Hi all. My motherboard is a Gigabyte, #EP35C-DS3R. I've got the Intel Q9450. Graphics card is a GeForce GX2, and I'm tweaking the fan control with EVGA Precision, so the temp on the vid card is cool (low to mid 70's C). Power supply is a BFG 800 watt. RAM is 4GB, 800MHz. When I'm playing a graphically-intense game like Crysis, Timeshift, or Colin McRae's DiRT, my system will crash. I don't mean crash back to the desktop, I mean crash as in the system shuts off, and then automatically reboots. I've read elsewhere and on these forums somewhere that if you want the "message" as to why your system is crashing out (it'll give some "code" numbers???), then you go to System Properties, Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings button, and then in the area that says System Failure, you remove the checkmark from "Automatically restart". Is this correct? If my system then crashes out again, will I now get a "message" on-screen (like in a Blue Screen of Death) with some kind of "code" that will point me in the direction of the culprit of these crashes? In the meantime, any ideas on possible causes of the system crashes while playing the games that I listed above? GPU's temps are in the low to mid 70's C while playing the games. CPU's temp is 48C, and the four cores vary with high 50's C to low 60's C. What do you think? Appreciate any info, tips, or suggestions. Pez

Unchecking automatic restart is correct. If you don't get a message on the screen, look at the event viewer. Start, run, type eventvwr.msc and press enter. There are 3 logs.

Thanks for the reply, guapo. So, good, I was correct about the unchecking of automatic restart. But, I'm still not getting a message (I was playing Timeshift and crash/ reboot again). And yes, I knew about the Event Viewer. The only possible thing showing up there in the "System" log is something tied to my Catalyst Media Center. I have an ATI PCI-E tuner card for watching television on my computer monitor. It shows up in the System log with a red "X" Error message; this is because, though, I disabled it because I don't want it starting at boot-time. I wrote to ATI tech support about an "official" way of disabling it, but they were about as helpful as a hole in the head. But I don't think the little background program(s) that I disabled in the ATI software would be responsible for these system crashes/ reboots. It only happens when I'm playing an intense 3D application/ game like I mentioned in my original post. And these games aren't showing up in the Event Viewer as the culprits of these crashes/ reboots. I did some Google searching on this matter, and I found something that said that if you are not getting "messages" when your system has a crash/ reboot (like a BSOD with some codes, etc.), then a likely culprit could be your power supply can't meet a demand. The GX2 card that I have is quite a draw, and it requires two plugs for its PCI-E connection: a 6 pin and an 8 pin plug. The PSU I have only has 6 pin plugs, so I have to use a 6 to 8 pin adapter that came with the GX2 card. I have an 800 watt PSU by the BFG company; the actual model number is BFGR800WPSU. Unfortunately, there are some negative reviews on this particular model from BFG out there on articles I found on the Internet, plus some customer reviews that aren't exactly shining either. I found all of this out AFTER the fact. I hear there are better quality PSU's out there that supply more stable power and clean amps coming from the 12V rails. What do you think? PSU? My temps are still good, no overheating, and these crashes can take place as soon as I start a game, not after an hour of playing it. Pez

I think that makes a lot of sense and I also think that the disabled tuner card wouldn't cause the problem. So, if you want to take a chance, try another PSU. Normally, RAM would come to mind but you have 4GB, so I doubt it's that.