My computer decides to shut down...

[nekochanpurr]

Sorry to bother you guys.. but i'm at my wits end. My computer thinks hes an old man.. ;-; Keeps shutting down around 15 minutes of game play (no matter what i'm doing)... The whole computer, not just the game. Heres some info i've posted to other sites, but i might as well post here, too.

I've been having this problem for about a year.. So i'm hoping someone will know how to fix this, though i completely understand if its not possible... ;-; Please bare with me.. My computer knowledge is limited.
It all started before Seasons came out. My graphics card had just started to die, so i decided to upgrade. The problem with this was, i didn't know crap about Power supplies. Mine was a 230W. I got a Radeon X1300, thinking it would at least play. But that was only the beginning of my problems. Soon after installing, it would freeze, at first it was whenever i saved, but then it was after a few moments of playing.. Finally, we figured out it was the power supply, so i upgraded it to a 500W (coolmax V-500). But by then it was too late.
I guess between upgrading the video card and having the old power supply, my whole computer decided to hate me at once. I've had to buy a new fan, motherboard, processor, and the graphics card that started this mess.
But.. No, we aren't done yet. >.< My computer still decides its a good idea to shut down somewhere in between 5-40 mins of game play.. 40 minutes being when opened the side of my case and placed a fan in front of it. I do have downloads, but i have removed the folder and it still happens. I have also bought a new graphics card, thinking that it might have been damaged (along with everything else) but i ended up taking it back because it also decided to shut down after 5 minutes of game play. Ugh.
I have also reformatted my computer.. At least twice. And uninstalled and reinstalled about half a dozen times, lol. I also rerolled the graphics card drivers and downloaded new drivers.
I did take it to a guy and he ended up telling me to take out my sound card.. i guess my mother board is small, so it might be why its having so many problems (i bought it for $75 at Mirco Center ^^*).... I also have a card in my computer for the internet. Thats why we ended up removing my sound card.. it was too close to that and the Graphics Card.
But i cannot be sure anymore.. I'm always wrong
My specs that i know how to look up O.o;
Processor: Pentium 4
CPU: 3.06 GHz
1024 MB Ram
Graphics Card: VisionTek Radeon X1300 512 AGP
Bios: Phoenix Award Bios V. 6.00 PG

Thank you so much for even looking at this! I appreciate it, even if no one can find an answer!

The only thing we could figure out so far to do was to uninstall sims2 and play each one individually... However, when i figure out which one screws it up and makes my computer shut down, would that be a computer problem? Could sims 2 shut down my computer? O.o; Haha, sorry, i'm stupid.

I forgot to add.. speedfan readings.

System: 33 C
CPU: 32 C
AUX: 48C
HD0: 30C
HD1: 33C
Temp: 31C

Vcore: 1.41V
+12V: 10.51 V
AVcc: 3.25V

Ok.. Thats with two windows (including this one) and my running MP3 player.. I don't know if thats good or not, though...
My 'CPU usage' jumps from like 1. something to 6. something.. i don't know how normal that is.. O.o;;
Oh.. And the CPU fan is: 1082 RPM

My computer is not over heating. I've turned it on straight after having it shut off on me and going into bios.. Its only half way to where it needs to be before my computer is suppose to tell it to shut down..

I'd appericate your help! Thank you in advance! 

[B]

A bad graphics card will often cause shutdowns.  If it's still under warranty, you should RMA it post haste.  If this is not an option, swap in your old AGP card (unless it is too outdated to run S2) or borrow from a friend and see if that resolves the problem. 

[eevilcat]

Soundcards (or onboard soundchips) can also be the source of a lot of problems. You could try disabling sound and see if that makes a difference.

Is it only Sims 2 that gives you crashing problems? What about running other games?

[nekochanpurr]

Actually, i had to take out my sound card because my graphic card, internet card, and sound card were all too close together. I do remember having some huge problems with my sound though.. (actually, trying to find the drivers now >.<)
Also, its not the graphics card.. i bought another one actually, because thats what i thought it was, too... But it did the same thing. What we've done is reformate using a different XP disk.. When i had reformated before, it kept doing things like freezing during the install.. So i think it goofed stuff up.. Not sure how though.. >.< I will update when i reinstall sims..
And yes, before anyone asks, its not.. Erm.. a how do you say.. bought version of XP..

[B]

The fact that your version of Windows is not genuine shouldn't matter.  If the OS was causing a shutdown, you'd get a BSOD. 

Have you tried replacing the hard drive? 

[eevilcat]

You could try defragging the disk to tidy it up and check if there are any problems with it. You'll find it under Accessories->System Tools from the main menu. That will at least flag up any bad sectors but will take some time to run depending on how full the disk is and how long since the previous defrag.

[nekochanpurr]

B; Yes, i have two hard drives, so i switched my older one to secondary after i started getting problems, just in case it went on me..

I'll try the defragging.. I had to do the reformate anyway, but thats a long story.. lol

ok.. sorry to be bothersome, but could this be the problem...? i've been getting 'wlancfg5.exe' errors when i shut down my computer, even after the reformat... I looked it up, and it told me that it was probably because of my netgear wireless card.. Heres some links
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3RP6WUSTEX3JW
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/startup_applications/11226-wlancfg5exe.html

Could this be causing freezing, or am i just picking at straws now...?

[kuronue]

I've got a narcoleptic computer, too. Installed a new video card, re-installed the illigitimate OS (windows XP pro), replaced the CPU fan (thinking it was overheating) and the power supply (it had fancy case lights and a tiny power supply, thought it might be browning out). Each hardware replacement has made it less narcoleptic, to where now we can play a game if we save every 10 minutes or so to be safe, wheras before loading anything CPU-intensive would cause a reboot, but it's still utterly random. I think we have a bad copy of XP (when we reinstalled, we used the same disk), so maybe the OP got their copy from the same source we did? (well not exactly the same, since we got it from my boyfriend's dad, but the source the dad got it from).

ETA: oh, and Frankie-san (the aforementioned computer) doesn't have a wireless card, he connects directly through ethernet to my router

[nekochanpurr]

Stupid Frankenstein computers..
I THOUGHT i'd fixed it.. It played for a little bit over 2 hours, no shut down. Put in downloads, it shuts down the WHOLE FRIGGIN COMPUTER still.. >.< I'm trying to compress my downloads now and see if that helps, but i think its because i put everything on my C drive.. Do you think it could because i only have 5.07 GB left on my computer? Should i try installing sims on another drive?? Ugh.. So frustrating..

Oh, and when i reinstalled windows.. it was a different disk. It installed fine, no problems..

Could it also be the RAM? i know 1 gig is more than enough.. but maybe its reading wrong or something? Haha, i think i'm getting desperate.. >.<

Also.. My fiancee can play diablo 2 fine without it doing anything...

[eevilcat]

If it plays fine without downloads but breaks with them, then that would suggest the problem lies somewhere in your downloads folder. It's probably worth trying the halving technique to help pinpoint what is causing the break. Remove half the downloads, load the game. If it runs fine, the problem is in the half you removed, if it crashes then its in the half you loaded. Split the broken half in two, load as before... continue until you have isolated the problem. I would perhaps begin with removing hacks/mods as my guess it is more likely one of those could take your game out in such spectacular fashion as to crash your PC. Are you running with debug enabled? If not add boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true to the userStartup.cheat file. If you don't have one, create it and put it in your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config folder. That may also provide some additional information. Any error logs are saved in the My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs folder as text files.

[nekochanpurr]

Um.. I fixed it. Sorry for not replying right away (in case someone else has the same problem..) but i wanted to make sure it was actually fixed before i posted.. I, well, i just turned off the 'turn off computer for errors' thing in bios. Not the smartest, i know, but it works. And yes, i tried without the downloads and it still did it before so.. Thank you everyone for you help, i really appericate it!