[Tyrantasaurus]

Hi there,

We have a desktop computer that we got from Aldi a couple of years ago. It is now used as the kids computer - eg just for games etc.

My eldest is a huge minecraft fan and recently got given World of Warcraft.

For a while now when he is playing minecraft ( and now WoW) it will allow a sudden with no warning crash. That is, the screen will go blank, but the computer itself still has power and is on, it just does not respond to any commands nor can we see anything on the screen.

Our solution to this has always been to just switch the computer off and then back on again ( the solution to everything right ?!) but seriously, that can't be good for it long term right?

I hopped on there last night and removed all the excess games, and took all the photos off there (think several years worth from a DSLR) I knew there was a lot of memory being taken up and so I think I have cleared up a lot of space from that. I emptied the recycle bin this morning an dfound that from all my deleting last night - there was 30 GB's in the recycle bin !

All good and well, but the computer still crashes ! Quite a lot. My son and getting fed up with it, and I am over the whinging about it.

So collective EB computer gurus - help! What can I do?

[howdo]

When mine did that the harddrive was going. it was dead and I had to replace it basically.

[Tyrantasaurus]

***LALALALALALA*** Not listening to you Howdo! That's not the sort of thing I wanted to hear.....

[Soprano-Cat]

Definitely a malfunctioning component.

Does it do any beeping when it shuts down? you can look up beep codes if it does, that will tell you.

i would say either a dying Hard drive or the graphics card is not up to the task, overheating and shutting down.

World of Warcraft takes a fair amount of graphical power to run.

[Superman+4sister...]

My computer crashes when it overheats - no warning, and seemingly at random.

Dh resurrected it for a while by taking off the cover and vacuuming up the dust on the fan etc.

[Monket]

If it is not switching off completely it is probably not an overheating problem. DHs suggestion is to update Java from www.java.com. If you are running a 32 bit version of windows download the 32 bit version of Java and if it is the 64 bit version of windows, download both versions of Java. Both games are very intense on the graphics card which could mean that the machine may not be cut out to run it so maybe up date the video driver. His only other suggestion is that there may be some form of malware on the machine that is causing this to happen. Good luck. If you have any questions PM me and I can get nerdy DH to call you....seriously he is the super geek!

[greatwon2]

Minecraft is a resource hog , I can't play it for too long at a time as my computer overheats and crashes. Can't speak for WOW but if it's happening during minecraft id suspect that's the culprit, could be the graphics card itself overheating if it's a more general gaming occurrence

[~chiquita~]

Is it a Medion?

Check the graphics display card. I had a Medion for 7 years and went through 3 graphics display cards. They get heaps of dust in them too so get in there an give it a vacuum. Get the cover off and have a look. It won't be the hard drive.