Just a little more serious then simply crashing to desktop

[Johnny_H]

hey guys, I have a question CIV IV actually turns my PC off after about four hours of Gameplay? I mean literally powers it off entirely.

I have to hit the master power switch on the back to get it to power back on, now CIV is the only game/program that does this?

any opinions?

 

[Zanmato]

Likely that something is overheating. If the CPU gets too hot the BIOS settings will shutdown the PC to protect the CPU. Check the temps whilst running Civ4, I suspect something is getting too hot. There has been a few Intel P4s overheating with Civ4.

 

[Johnny_H]

I have a AMD2200

Could it be my ram? i only got 512

 

[Zanmato]

AMDs can run a little more hotter than Intel chips. But any sudden shutdown is either down to overheating or a faulty power supply. By all means run a 'memtest' on your RAM but this is unlikely to be the problem in my opinion and even though 1Gb is recommended for Civ4 (on these boards at least), it will run as well on 512mb only it will page anything above that to the HD.

Check the CPU fan, see if it working first. Give a dusting, clear out the dust from the fan and heatsink as best you can. Then give it another go and see how it gets on. If you have some way of monitoring the temps, run it while playing and check it every so often and see how warm it gets. My AMD gets to around 72-75 degrees with Civ4, anything above 80 isn't good for it.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

Yeah, I get the feeling that Civ4 can be pretty intensive on your CPU... my fan goes crazy in between turns...