COH crashes AND computer shuts down after five minutes...

[Foofighter]

I have been reading other threads regarding game crashes so forgive me if my topic is old news.  I have been playing COH (Steam version) for a long time and about three to four weeks ago, the game not only starting crashing but the computer shuts off.  I am running 2.700.2.42 on an Alienware rig with windows 10, I7 chipset with Nvidia video card (4mb) and the video/display settings are not maxed out.  This occurs every time I am playing in skirmish mode, regardless of the map or faction I am playing.  This crash does not occur under any other scenario.  Am I losing my mind?  Any ideas on what is causing this and how I can take care of it?  I have playing been COH for years and now I cant get more than five minutes before....poof!

[Blackbishop]

Does the alienware rig has a water cooling system? Have you cleaned your PC lately? Have you played other games like the Witcher 3 or CoH 2 and see if something similar happens?

I guess you mean 4GB of memory of the video card .

[Foofighter]

I have several with water cooling but this one does not have it and I did clean it (or dust it) a month or two ago.  Do you suspect overheating of the video card?  My thermal control monitors would let me know if I had a heating problem.  It seems strange that it shuts down the entire system after five minutes every single time and always on COH.  I will try running COH2 and see if the same thing happens.  And yes, the 4mb is for the video card. 

[Blackbishop]

I suspect overheating for the processor. Are you sure the air cooling system is properly attached to the processor? Since you said you performed maintenance some time ago, I guess the thermal paste/grease is fine.

Is there a way you monitor and record the temperature of the processor while you play and crashes?

If there is no problem with the tempearture, I'd point fingers to the RAM.

[Foofighter]

Okay, I have finally had a chance to run COH2 to see what happens and sure enough, the computer shut down after 5 minutes.  I don't believe that I have the ability to check temperatures since this is an older alienware PC.  How do I know if it is the processor or the RAM?

[Dreamerbg]

Well since its old it may need new thermal paste ?

[Blackbishop]

Okay, I have finally had a chance to run COH2 to see what happens and sure enough, the computer shut down after 5 minutes.  I don't believe that I have the ability to check temperatures since this is an older alienware PC.  How do I know if it is the processor or the RAM?

Don't worry in order to check the temperature you need to download some type of software.

It would be easier if you have two monitors, then download a software like Speccy and monitor the temperature with it in the second monitor while playing in the first. If the processor temperature goes in red while playing it is likely to be releated to overheating.

If you want to check if it is the ram, there are ways to test it with I don't remember about it. Seraching in google give me this as a good reference though.

http://www.howtogeek.com/260813/how-to-test-your-computers-ram-for-problems/

[Foofighter]

First and foremost, thanks everyone for responding to my post.  I would like to think that I am not completely brain dead when it comes to the hardware side of PC gaming but...  I took apart my PC and gave it another thorough cleaning.  Sure enough, I had completely missed the caked on dust and debris that was covering the heat sink on the CPU.  It was so bad the surface appeared to be smooth metal etc.  After blasting it thoroughly with compressed air, I rebooted my rig and yep, it has not crashed since.  I guess the answer to some problems can be very unbelievably simple.  I may still replace the mother board and CPU with an upgrade but there is no hurry.

Thanks again.