Our seventh Q & A of the week comes from Rinkesh via the PCstats reader feedback page . If you have a question you need answered right away, try our friendly forums for help too.

Q: Hello PCstats, I have a problem with my computer. I have a Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb DDR, ATI radeon 9700 PRo ALL in Wonder, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum. Recently, everytime I go to play games, My computer would shut down by itself and just turn off in the middle of the game, without warning. It didn't do this before, but than I got my power supply changed. Since then, any games that I would play, the computer would shut off. Could you please direct me to solving this problem? I think it could be possibly be a heat issue.

A: It might be heat, but the obvious answer (using Occam's Razor ) is that your new power supply is the culprit. Spontaneous shutdowns and reboots often indicate power supply issues, especially when a computer is in the middle of a strenous activity like playing 3D games. I'd consider exchanging your power supply for a new one (or the old one if you have it handy) and seeing if the problem fixes itself.

To rule out heat, check the PC health monitoring section in your motherboard's BIOS immediately after a reboot. If the temperature is under 60C, chances are that heat is not the issue. You can also use a program like Motherboard Monitor to check your CPU temperatures from Windows.