i you referring to the ones with nano suits?

Do you have any suggestions? Remember, I said that the demo ran mine with everything maxed.

Also, is and ATI Radeon 4850 enough to run Crysis with High/Very High settings?

this will work for a little while, but dont rely on it indefinitly

my dad's work computer would shut down every once in a while and we couldnt figure out what was wrong

then, it started shutting down more often, and would always start up with an overheating error warning message.

so we took the side casing off and it fixed the problem for a while, then the shutdowns came again and the same error message, i checked the BIOS it said the computer was running at 96 degrees Celcuis, after being turned off all night...

so, i took it apart and looked at the fan, the intake was clogged with dust. i mean, seriously, it looked like someone had harvested a museums worth of dustbunnies and stuck it right in the fan

so i cleaned it out, put it all back together, and ran the computer, and its been a few months now without any problems

another thing you may want to try is find a registry fixer/cleaner and run it every once in a while (CCleaner is a good one). what happens is everytime you create a file/program, save a file/program, delete a file/program etc etc, basically do anything on your computer, it creates or changes a registry entry, and most of the time the computer doesnt clean up after the changes. this clogs up the computer and makes it run slower/hotter, so cleaning the cache and cleaning the registry every once in a while will also help

My can of air has this tube that you can stick into spaces to clean. Would that work? I don't want to take a chance with breaking my PC.

Would adding a new powerful case fan or replacing the old one do any good. I was looking on Newegg the other day.

I'm using a Gateway FX 6800 PC, so it's got a better case than most PCs (has a side vent as well as back vents, but this also sucks dust)

Opening the case may be a temporary, but like you said, not the best. If something happened. Water cooling would be a last resort, but if the pipes are faulty and it spilled, you are absolutely fucked.

Thank you all for the help. Hopefully I can get this all sorted out soon.

well, what are the specs exactly? the box tells you the minimum requirements to play so work it out. but a insufficiently powerful graphics card or processor wouldnt cause the computer to shut down. it might cause the game to crash, or at least slow down and stall/stop responding, but it wouldnt shut your computer down.

the only thing it can be is overheating or a bug/virus/error etc telling/causing the comp to shut down

if you dont want to take it apart yourself you can always send it to a certified repairer and get them to do it

The issue is overheating over extended play sessions, not viruses.
I played through the entire game of Crysis in a single sitting, we're talking 9 straight hours, and the last part of the game crashed time and again. I left it for 30 minutes, letting my PC cool down, and returned to a crash-free game. The amount of work your Video Card and CPU are required to do for Crysis is quite significant; don't underestimate the processing power requiring for the visuals.
My suggestion would be to play the game in short bursts, on lower settings, or open the side of your tower and sit a personal fan to blow cool air directly onto the components.

Best of luck.

So Crysis just crashes the moment you start it up, or does it take a few minutes first? Have you used the tool for your video card to check the Temp of the card?

I assume you've patched the game and aren't using a cracked EXE?

I tried to clean out the CPU heatsink using compressed air, but I lost the access tube. I would guess that there might be some dust in between each metal sheet, but it was impossible to reach in there. The case feels hot where the CPU, so I think my CPU is to blame. You'd think an i7 could do better...

I found the ATI overdrive that has fan speeds, but everything is greyed out. I also may have made a mistake when I redownloaded CCC, because it thinks I have two graphics cards when I have only one, and it says that I have a 4870 when I have a 4850. It also said that my card usual runs at 86 degrees (not sure if its F or C)

It crashes after about a half hour of play.

I ran AVG, didn't find anything bad.

All in all, it seems that I might need some professional help with this issue.

I explained it before. The screen goes black, and the computer shuts itself off.

Given that your rig is running over 80 degrees (most likely C, I've never seen a program with a default setting of F), you need some serious cooling power, and NOW.

The first step is obviously to check that all your fans are running. This may involve opening the case, but you won't have to touch anything. Also, provided you are VERY careful, you do not need a grounding wire to handle your components for short amounts of time. I wouldn't particularly recommend it, but you can ground yourself on any grounded metal surface; I typically use my kitchen sink.

The second would be compressed air. Trust me, this is a must. I tried to use a vaccuum, didn't get the job done (even though it looked fine) and went over the same areas with compressed air. Dust everywhere. Be sure to take it outside when you spray it.

The next step would be to check that your CPU has the correct layer of thermal grease. Note that while it's very difficult to have too little of this stuff, it's quite easy to go overboard! Make sure you've got some, but don't use a whole tube or you'll kill it.

The last resort is the installation of more fans. Preferably, you would have 2 outtake (blowing out) vents in the back, and two intake vents, in the front and side. However, some cases are not built for this, like mine.

As I have a badly cooled computer with a reasonable (GeForce 9600) graphics card, I'll try and find a copy of crysis and run it, and see if I run into the same problem. Cheers, and best of luck.

I'll have to try that if I take out my graphics card to clean it. But if you take out the graphics card and put it back in again, would you have to go through the hardware installation process again, or does the computer not know anything?

I tried this. Got a lot of dust out of the computer, but I still think there may be some in the heat sink. And there always seems to be a thin layer of dust on my video card whenever I open my case to clean it, and all the circuit joints make it tough to clean. I also really cant get the dust out, because it just resettles. However, I feel a lot of heat where the CPU is when it crashes. I think that the CPU is getting stressed because there isn't enough RAM. Even though I have 3 gigs of DDR3, I don't think its enough.