My brand new PC restarts without warning?

Please help me. I bought a new PC with Intel Core 2 E6420 2.13 GHz
Processor and Intel 946-GZ motherboard, Ram 667MHz 2x1GB, And PCI-E
ATI Sapphire X550 128MB Graphics Card. (O/S Windows XP SP-2). I tried
to play Rise of the Nations: Thrones and Patriot, Sims 2: Nightlife,
and Resident Evil 4 in it. The games start fine, but as the play
progresses, some problems arise. Either, the game will stop, and
Windows will say that it is generating 'a list of exceptions' and then
the infamous error reporting dialogue box. Or the computer will simply
restart without any warning. After restarting, a Message box appears
that the Windows has recovered from a serious error. This happens only
in complex situations, I.E, at rise of the nations, this happens at
the peak of a battle, etc.

Can any one please help me?
My casing has a special duct that fits to the processor and has
another fan installed at the end of the duct that constantly forces
air circulation. I tried to open the Graphics card and use the
motherboards built in agp to run the games but the same problems
persist.)

On Jun 2, 8:02 am, n...@spam.invalid (RollingEEE) wrote:
> Please help me. I bought a new PC with Intel Core 2 E6420 2.13 GHz
> Processor and Intel 946-GZ motherboard, Ram 667MHz 2x1GB, And PCI-E
> ATI Sapphire X550 128MB Graphics Card. (O/S Windows XP SP-2). I tried
> to play Rise of the Nations: Thrones and Patriot, Sims 2: Nightlife,
> and Resident Evil 4 in it. The games start fine, but as the play
> progresses, some problems arise. Either, the game will stop, and
> Windows will say that it is generating 'a list of exceptions' and then
> the infamous error reporting dialogue box. Or the computer will simply
> restart without any warning. After restarting, a Message box appears
> that the Windows has recovered from a serious error. This happens only
> in complex situations, I.E, at rise of the nations, this happens at
> the peak of a battle, etc.
>
> Can any one please help me?
> My casing has a special duct that fits to the processor and has
> another fan installed at the end of the duct that constantly forces
> air circulation. I tried to open the Graphics card and use the
> motherboards built in agp to run the games but the same problems
> persist.)

Sounds like Heat.

Another thing to check is the RAM, more complex situations use more
RAM. And increase the likelihood of a bad spot in ram will be used.
Use memtest.

www.memtest.org

One thing, the onboard video uses substantial RAM, and memtest won't
be able to test it. So put your video card back for the test.

But the best thing you can do is exchange it under warranty.

On Jun 2, 11:50 am, "pau...@efn.org" <pau...@efn.org> wrote:
> On Jun 2, 8:02 am, n...@spam.invalid (RollingEEE) wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Please help me. I bought a new PC with Intel Core 2 E6420 2.13 GHz
> > Processor and Intel 946-GZ motherboard, Ram 667MHz 2x1GB, And PCI-E
> > ATI Sapphire X550 128MB Graphics Card. (O/S Windows XP SP-2). I tried
> > to play Rise of the Nations: Thrones and Patriot, Sims 2: Nightlife,
> > and Resident Evil 4 in it. The games start fine, but as the play
> > progresses, some problems arise. Either, the game will stop, and
> > Windows will say that it is generating 'a list of exceptions' and then
> > the infamous error reporting dialogue box. Or the computer will simply
> > restart without any warning. After restarting, a Message box appears
> > that the Windows has recovered from a serious error. This happens only
> > in complex situations, I.E, at rise of the nations, this happens at
> > the peak of a battle, etc.
>
> > Can any one please help me?
> > My casing has a special duct that fits to the processor and has
> > another fan installed at the end of the duct that constantly forces
> > air circulation. I tried to open the Graphics card and use the
> > motherboards built in agp to run the games but the same problems
> > persist.)
>
> Sounds like Heat.
>
> Another thing to check is the RAM, more complex situations use more
> RAM. And increase the likelihood of a bad spot in ram will be used.
> Use memtest.
>
> www.memtest.org
>
> One thing, the onboard video uses substantial RAM, and memtest won't
> be able to test it. So put your video card back for the test.
>
> But the best thing you can do is exchange it under warranty.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I ran into a similar situation when I tried to play Battlefield 1942
a few years back. It turns out that even though my pc was brand new,
there was already a bios update from Abit. After downloading the
update and flashing my bios the problem was solved. Maybe your having
the same thing happen?. Check your mobo's website or better yet take
the pc back to the seller and have them check it.
-J