Restarting computer when in-game randomly!

[neon]

hi there! i have a problem, my computer is 2 years old this christmas just gone, and recently i bought Portal through the progrma Steam run by Valve, so its a legit copy, and it opens and runs fine, but after a while my computer dies and restarts on me for no apparant reason, so il try to pen the game and it runs, but for less time than before, the time decreases with each play of the game to a few seconds!

 

computer spec basics:

i told you the age

Windows XP

AVG antivirus free

some kind of norton that wont go away for some reason

HP Pavillion (thats all i can say i dunno anything else...)

i have Azureus and BearShare, but theyve caused me no problems

 

the problem ONLY occurs when playing this game, my own speculation is my graphics card or processor cant handle the relativly new game, i think it may be my graphics card because i can play games of less "intense" graphics, and portal has relativly new-age graphics, and my proccessor undegoes alot of stress anyways and has never doen that before

 

so..any help would be mighty appreciated so i can run the full orange box on my pc! (i got it for christ mas and hav already completed all the games, HL2, ep1 ep2 and portal, TF2 is just fun :D)

 

PS.

appologies for any spelling mistakes, this is how bad i am at typing :D

[DSTM]

Hi Neon,and Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

Our Techies will be only too happy,to help you with this issue,shortly.

[RandyL]

Hi neon; In order for someone to help you it really would help if we had some more information. Graphics card and model number of the Pavillion for instance.

 

Look in Device Manager under Disply Adapters for info about your card.

Right click My Computer. Click properties. Click Device Manager. Click the + by Display Adapters. Also while you are there do you see a yellow ? or ! by i?

 

You may also want to see if there are any driver updates for it on the HP site.

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

 

As for the model number of your Pavillion try holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys then press S on your keyboard. Otherwise look for a nameplate on the front or a sticker on the side or a label on the back.

 

As for the system requirements for Portal for anyone who wants to know these are what's listed at the site;

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 8 level Graphics Card, Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

 

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX 9 level Graphics Card, Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

 

neon if you could find out what Norton product you have please do. Two antivirus programs can cause trouble;

 

RandyL

[neon]

of course, how could i forget to post those 2 pieces of info haha, sorry, it was like 2.30 in the morning

 

ive tried getting updated trhough ATI and my card doesnt exist according to them, but heres the info on what you want

 

"Also while you are there do you see a yellow ? or ! by i?"

not sure what you mean by that but i dont see anything of the sort

 

Graphics card - ATI RADEONXPRESS 200 series

Also LogMeIn Mirror Driver is present there

 

the model number is - a1108.uk

 

the norton thing is the security center, basically its just telling me whats turned on or off with firewall, antivirus and auti-updates, it doesnt actually do anything else

 

ive had a RAM upgrade, i got 512 put in along side the standard so i have 712, enough for portal to run, but thats the only modification ive made to the internals

 

hope this is enough! if you need anymore ill be happy to get you the info if i can!

[RandyL]

Hi neon;

The recommended memory for your software is 1 GB and that's probably not enough. They tend to low ball the figures. Your system will support much higher.

 

You can also update your graphics driver. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=502396&lang=en

Although it should improve the performance it will also use more of your memory.

 

Your processor is 1.8 GHz which barely meets the minimum and is nowhere near the recommended.

 

And if your system has too many programs running at startup this would also use resources.

 

In my opinion your system isn't up to it. Even with more memory and the driver update your processor is on the weak side for this.

RandyL