Computer shutting down. Maybe power supply?

I have been playing LA Noire for a while. I started it up tonight and it played for a few minutes and then the computer shut down with no notice. It wouldn't start up again until we pulled the power plug and plugged it in again. It seems to me that if it was the power supply, it would have started up without unplugging the power cord. The computer works until I try to play LA Noire. Any ideas on what the problem is?

Have you checked to be sure all the fans are running? It could be overheating...

You might also check to make sure the heat sink on the processor isn't clogged with dust. That could cause overheating and the processor could be shutting down to prevent damage.

I just replaced a processor because the heat sink fan was clogged with dust and it fried the processor. A little canned compressed air could save you a lot of money.

Some good tips. We will be checking everything out today. I am lucky that my husband is great with computers. We are thinking about bad capacitors on the video card, although I am wondering if I wouldn't see artifacts or video deterioration if that was the case. The card is four years old and it is about time for an upgrade.

Its more likely its the fan on that card,not the capacitors. Capacitors have a much longer life than 4 years.

I've had bad capacitors on a motherboard, but not on a video card. But your problem could be caused by bad capacitors on the motherboard. If you suspect bad capacitors anywhere, you can check them to see if they are swollen or leaky.

***Google pictures of bad capacitors***

We blew out the dust on the computer. There wasn't much and the fans were turning fine. We checked all the capacitors and they looked good, though they were solid ones and I'm not sure how to tell if they might be bad. Then we opened up the video card and saw that the heat sink paste had completely dried out and so we put on some new paste. The game ran for awhile and then shut the computer down again. Next we exchanged the power supply for another and when we tried the game, it ran for a long time, so I hope the problem is solved.

Sound like you covered all the bases - I hope the problem is solved too!

It sounds like you had two problems to solve.
Good job, Pokey.

It looks like the bad power supply took out my husband's backup SSD hard drive when he switched with me. I has a bad capacitor but I didn't think it would cause that. It was working fine on my computer except for the game.

I'm sorry to hear that, Pokey.
The SSD drive was probably worth a lot more than the old power supply.

Bad caps cause a lot of problems in older Samsung lcd TV's that are about 5 years old or older.