BleepingComputer.com: Computer Keeps Rebooting With Games It Could Previously Play

Hi Guys,
I've got a windows xp professional computer, built and installed everything myself.

Recently my pc has been rebooting itself when I'm doing something. It used to be just when I was playing eve-online but only when I actually went into a mission with loads of other bad guys around.

I thought windows was corrupted anyway so I bought xp professional.

Unfortunately now it's rebooting itself whenever I try to install world of warcraft. I should note that I've installed it previously without any problems. It lets me get to disk 2 sometimes and then just turns off, it doesn't shut down, it's just like someone flicks the power switch off and then it turns itself on.

So we know it's not a problem with windows.

Could it be a harddrive problem? I'll try installing other games and giving them a whirl and see if it gives them problems as well. It's allowed me to install other programs though, I image it's because of wow's size. The harddrive is about 3 years old ish.

Or is it likely to be a faulty power supply? It's not even a year old.
It's a Corsair 520W HX Series Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC $140 roughly

How can I test what the problem is? And what further information can I provide to get the best possible answer?

I've flashed my bios to the latest version on my motherboard, I've updated all drivers, I've cleaned any and all dust from my case and I've checked temps and they're at about 35c (Graphics card at about 45c), I've even run memtest and harddriver checking tests to make sure everything is fine and it all passes.
After each crash event log shows nothing interesting, no errors.

I've also installed supreme commander (Another game that I could previously play) and can get to the menu for a few seconds and that I get the reboot.

I'm guessing that it's the psu, as it's the only thing that I can't really test and prove that it's not. Could be the graphics card, but I doubt it, it doesn't get too hot and I've installed a fan on it to keep it extra cool.

I've done nothing recently that would initiate these reboots.

If anyone thinks they have any ideas, please let me know, I really want to sort this out.

Thanks

regards
steve

Hi stevex33, and welcome to BleepingComputer.

What graphics card are you using?

How much RAM do you have?

How large is your hdd, and how much free space do you have on it?

Hi,
thanks for the welcome.

radeon x1800 gto
4 x 512mb ram (2gb total, all the same brand)
the hdd that windows is on is 250gb with about 75% free space
the other harddrive that I install my games to is 500gb with about 50% free space

Look in the Event Viewer and see what errors are showing up at the time that this is happening. Each error will have its own date and time shown.

Start> right click on My Computer> Manage> Event Viewer.

On the right side of the page you will see the options Applications, Security, and Systems, double click on Systems. There are eight columns on this page, the three that you will want are Type, Date, Time, and Event.

The errors will appear in the Type column, they are red dots with a white X inside of them.

Warnings will appear as a yellow trinangle with an exclamation mark inside.

When you see an error, double click on it and see what the description is.

Please post the error code/s found in the Event column and the descriptions back in this topic.