My pc is on the frizt and I can no longer play games even old ones. The Witcher, Sacred, Freelancer, Privateer all cause my system to power off. I can get about 1.5 minutes of play on the Witcher and about 10-15 minutes of play out of the Privateer remake. Surfs the internet, Installs programs, and plays vids on WMP all day long no troubles. That leads me to belive its a power supply issue.

Here is what I have:

• Msi K8n Neo4 Platinum socket 939 Mobo onboard sound is fried
• Athlon 64 FX60 2.6ghz stock clock
• 2 gigs ddr400 512x4 stock clock
• Evga 7600gt stock clock
• Ultra v-series "500watt" PS single +12v rail 28 amps 336watts
• Sound Blaster PCI card
• SATA HD
• IDE dvd burner

The power supply should be plenty for this setup and tests fine with the tester I have but I dont have anyway to test it under load. What I'm wondering is if the powersupply is crapping out due to capacitor ageing. I've read that power supplys loose some of their wattage capacity as the capacitors age under load. Its about 4 years old and the 7600gt worked with it fine for about 2 years. 

So what do ya think new power supply time or is it a video card issue?

Could be a myriad of things, but unexpected shut downs are usually due to the power supply.

I am far from an expert on that kind of thing but I would also say power supply.

No expert either, but could it be overheating? Maybe it's not getting enough airflow or one of the fans broke? If you were able to play these games earlier but not now just all of the sudden, then maybe it's not the power supply. I don't really know.

All the fans are working. I have not played anything on the pc for about 4 or 5 months so I'm not sure its just all the sudden. I did get the occasional power down when I first bought the Witcher but it was after hours of play.

I think I'm gonna try a new power supply first. I'd rather just build a new PC but I'm broke right now. This sucks a decent PS that will fit my planed upgrade path costs the same as Fable2 & Fallout3.

If this problem came suddenly, do you remember making any changes to anything right before it started?

hmm... everytime i've seen psu problems, it's all or nothing.  Meaning you wouldn't even boot up.  Also 500w is more than enough for your setup....  i doubt you use 1/2 of that... so I doubt it was pushed very hard.   Sounds like your fan broke on your vid card. i'd bet on it. But I always lose bets so idk.  Easy to check though just have the case open when it's on and take a look.

when was the last time you cleaned out the dust from your CPU and Power supply? as a PC repairer you would be surprised how many pc's i fixed a PC by just cleaning the dust:P

Open up your PC, vaccum it out then leave the case open. Boot up a game and see how long it takes to crash. If it doesn't crash your computer is overheating, most likely from a bad fan or heat sink problem on the videocard.

Case is clean & fan is turning on the video card. It did get a vacum recently. I have the side off of my case. The video card heat sink is not hot to the touch after it shuts down.

I really want to upgrade its just not financially feasable for me to do so right now. What sucks is I cant do it incermentally other than a new PS which I will need anyway to power a decent gaming rig. Socket 939 CPU, PCI express 1.0 slot for the video card, & DDR instead of DDR2 ram so I'm stuck buying Motherboard, CPU, Ram, & Video card all in one shot.