My computer doesnt want me to play games

[Ixtab]

So, a little while ago, I installed APB. Pretty fun game, but my computer started resetting itself while playing. I did a ton of troubleshooting, with nothing really helping. I then found out that Bad Company 2 also makes my computer reset now. I used to be able to play it fine, and havent really changed anything since I was last able to play it.
After being completely stumped, and taking a break from trying to figure it out, I started to play Titan Quest again, and even it started resetting my comp as well. The requirements for TQ are pretty low, and I have played it often in the past, so this is really starting to make me wonder.

Things I have tried:
Drivers, drivers, drivers..... Everything is up to date, and I tried many different older video drivers. Occasionally after installing fresh drivers, APB works for a few hours, but after that first crash, I can usually only play for a couple of minutes.
Temperatures.... I have been monitoring my GPU and CPU temps, and everything is always in the green.
Tests... Memtest and Prime95 primarily. All tests came out just fine.
Power supply... I did get a new HD fairly recently, so I thought that maybe that extra bit of power was too much, even though the PSU is fairly new. I disconnected some things - DVDrom, one HDD, some fans.... But that didn't help either.
Various other 'fixes'.... When it seemed to be just APB, I tried a bunch of random stuff from the forums to try and fix it for that game, but now that it is happening in other games too, I am not sure if any of those fixes matter at all.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know. This is getting pretty annoying, and I am running out of ideas.

[Masakari]

Does anything show up in the system logs for what exactly caused the crash? If it's the result of a BSOD, it should give you a driver name or other info to give you an idea where the problem lies.

[metacide]

Does anything show up in the system logs for what exactly caused the crash? If it's the result of a BSOD, it should give you a driver name or other info to give you an idea where the problem lies.

What he said.

I'd recommend taking a step back and analyzing the issue. What makes a computer reboot?
Temperatures -> Typically this causes the PC to simply turn off, not reboot.
Bad Memory -> Common villian for rebooting.
BSOD -> obviously a huge cause (try disabling auto restart for BSODs so you can actually see the error message).
Bad Video Card -> If part of your video card is malfunctioning this too can cause "random" reboots.
Drivers -> The more up to date the drivers the less chance of freezing/BSODing. Older drivers will not utilize all of the available hardware potential so may seem to offer improvement when in reality the hardware is going bad.
Bad HDD -> This would cause freezing not reboots
Bad Power Supply -> If the voltage supplied by the power supply dips below a certain level, perhaps when the graphics card is being more demanding, then the PC can reboot.
Bad Processor -> depending on the issue it could cause rebooting but freezing is more likely.
Bad Motherboard -> Any number of things could cause a reboot if something is wrong with the Mobo. A Parasitic draw could emulate pushing the reset button; fried resistor could cause BSOD to cause reboot; lots of possibilities.

Try eliminating a few of those options.

[Ixtab]

The only log that says anything about it is just this: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

I have already eliminated some of those options, I believe. It does not leave much else, however. It had better not be the mobo, as it is only a few months old. The vid cards are a bit older, but not by much. Memtest ran overnight with no errors, temperatures seem fine, Drivers are all up to date, and I have tried older ones as well. PSU is also relatively new, and there is no change after disconnecting some devices.

I am not sure what to try next other than maybe fresh windows install, with brand new drivers and/or a reformat.

EDIT: Oh, and also, I do have it set to not auto restart but there is no BSOD.

[Clay Pigeon]

http://www.memtest.org/

[Ixtab]

As I mentioned in my original post, I already ran memtest overnight without any errors.

So, update - I tried running FurMark, a GPU stress testing program. It caused the restart as well, but ONLY if I ran it windowed and attempted to move the window while it was running the test. Leaving it run without moving it and running it fullscreen worked out just fine.

I found that a interesting, and a bit odd... I dont think all the games I have encountered the issue with were running windowed, and either way, I definitely was not moving the window at all while playing. I am not really sure what this means, so if anyone has any more ideas let me know.... Me brain is starting to hurt from all this trial and so many errors.

[metacide]

If memory serves you have 2 video cards in an SLI configuration or Xfire or something right?

Try running just a single card, it seems to me that one of the 2 is going bad.

[Ixtab]

Yeah, I have two cards SLI. I tested with each individually as well.

I did run FurMark again, fullscreen, and it did do the reset thing after about 10 minutes in. It seems like it would be odd for both vid cards individually to be having the same error, unless they were both going bad. It still could maybe be PSU, but I dont have another one around to test.

[Boss Llama]

Could be that, or could be something in the video interface on your motherboard. I had an issue arise once where both the GPU and the mobo went bad (one fried and took out the other, don't know which came first).

With the GPUs, did you test them both in the same slot, or both in their normal individual slots? If you tested both in the same slot, try testing both in the other slot, to see if it continues.

[Ixtab]

Interesting turn of events.... So, I decided to reinstall drivers just on a whim. Now, I have tried about 8 different drivers, all with clean installs already. That was the first ting I tried when I started having issues.
Anyway, I just ran FurMark for a little over half an hour with no errors at all. I am not sure what is going on, as I have tried this specific driver already, but I will try some gaming and see what happens.

[MateoTheBold!]

Which power supply is in that computer Ix and when you say you have tried 8 different drivers....do you mean 8 different clean wipes with fresh drivers for everything, or a specific piece of hardware?

[Ixtab]

Oh, I meant video drivers. I have made sure all my other drivers were up to date too, and I made sure to clean installs for them.

[MateoTheBold!]

Whats the model number for your power supply? Or do you have a link to its product page?

[Ixtab]

um, it is a Coolmax... CL-700B.. odd though, because the interwebs tell me that it should be 700W, but its a 650.

[Clay Pigeon]

Could you have gotten a knock off (non-genuine product)? Poor power delivery could explain the issues.