Oblivion restarts my PC

[Salim Shady]

I have an issue where my PC just reboots whenever I enter areas of the game - at the moment I am exploring the area around Anvil when this happens (I have turned off the "automatically restart system when crashed" feature of Windows 7 but the problem continues).

I think this may be something to do with graphics as I had everything set to full quality, and when I changed it to low quality (680X480 resolution etc) it worked, but of course looked terrible.

I changed the resolution back to 1980X1080 and it seems to be working ok now, but the texture qualities and other graphics options are still low and I would like them higher.

Has anyone else had this problem? I would appreciate it if you could help me.

P.S. Maybe related, the same problem happens when I play Planetside 2 - although the time of restarting is random - but I haven't altered the graphics or anything to try and fix the issue.

Thanks

[Daft Gamer]

^^Agree with above. The reason that it is stable when running at lower resolutions is that your computer doesn't need to work as hard. First thing that I would recommend would be to purchase a can of compressed air, shut your computer down, open up the chassis, and blow it out(don't hold the can at any extreme angle). Be sure to pay special attention to the fan on your video card and processor. Also, check your heatsink and ensure that it is relatively clean as well(don't remove unless you can replace the thermal paste that should lie between cpu and heatsink).

If you are overclocking, try temporarily turning it down to stock as well as this can cause a computer to crash as well.

[Salim Shady]

I don't understand why it would overheat though on an old game like Oblivion when it perfectly runs games such as Assassin's Creed Black Flag on high graphic options

[a4nic8er]

Another possibility is that your power supply can't cope with the demands required by your video card when games are pushing it hard.

[Sade]

Originally posted by GBNightHawk:

I don't understand why it would overheat though on an old game like Oblivion when it perfectly runs games such as Assassin's Creed Black Flag on high graphic options

If frames per second aren't limited (which Oblivion doesn't do unless you've got fullscreen and v-sync on), your CPU and GPU will still work their butts off to render the game world. I've got a high end PC and my computer still uses near 100% of GPU and a considerable chunk of CPU processing power when running Oblivion, it just runs at 200+ fps instead of the 60 fps I'd be happy with - yep, that will overheat the computer unless cooling is adequate.

Edit: It could be either your CPU or GPU that is overheating. If it doesn't crash with AC: Black Flag, the performance of either CPU or GPU might be bottlenecked by the other, so it never reaches that high usage and thus temperature. Either way, you can easily test this by running GPU-Z or CPU-Z (or HWMonitor) and monitoring the temperatures while you play. CPU should stay under 62ish, over 80 is a problem. GPU can handle more, but over 90 is definitely a problem and cause powerdowns.

[Salim Shady]

Ok, thank you all

[JrB908]

Originally posted by a4nic8er:

Another possibility is that your power supply can't cope with the demands required by your video card when games are pushing it hard.

I think that this sounds more likely, as Assassins Creed Black Flag is considerably better optimized and potetcially won't stress the system in the same way that Oblivion can do.

Oblivion stresses peak in certain game areas and situations, which could explain why, the system consistantly struggles when entering the same places in the game world.

It only takes a momentory and minor fluctuation in the power supply when a system is stressed, to cause all sorts of odd behaviour.

[Salim Shady]

It looks like I have fixed it by simply turning vsync on, and there aren't any noticable problems or graphical problems - it looks and works well :)

[a4nic8er]

Good to hear, hope it stays stable for you.