Computer Died!!!!!

I was in the middle of a game when the problems started.

-First the game locked up.
-could still talk on the Team speak program running seperate.
-reset the system
-brought me to the set up screen for the mother board
-put a system warning of something about a moniter and to be brought into the voltage control area
-computer shut off with in a minute of reading that
-tried to turn it back on, seemed like everything was running, except nothing was coming onto the screen, it was all black
-after a couple times of resetting, computer would attempt to turn on and shut down immediately afterwards.



is it the video card? psu? mother board?

PLEASE SUGGEST IDEAS IF YOU THINK OF ANY!!!!
THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could be your PSU dying. The only line that really confuses me is "-put a system warning of something about a monitor and to be brought into the voltage control area"

sorry about that.

it took me to the opening BIOS page with a warning of: h/w moniter status temperature, voltage, and (coundnt write this down in time) press enter to go into setup.

that is a rough estimate of what it said.

do you have anywhere else you can plug the monitor in? To see if it still works. Also try a different monitor on your computer if you can.

it is still working fine, i tested it on my laptop.

Did you recently try to overclock it further?

I'll recommend what I know, but since I'm very new to this sort of thing, take this with a grain of salt... this is mostly what I've read in the past...

• Start pulling stuff you don't need out of the system: eg, if you have onboard video, haul the video card out. All you need for a basic system is a CPU, RAM, video and a keyboard. If you have more than one stick of RAM, pull all but one of them out and cycle the different RAM sticks you have (with the power off of course)
• Try different components on another machine. If you test the CPU elsewhere, be sure the mobo you test your CPU in is compatible with the CPU - if in doubt note the CPU type and mobo type, and someone should be able to tell you if they work okay. Same for the RAM. The video card should just work whereever it is, unless it's eg PCI-e and the system you would test it on only has PCI.
• Try unplugging everything that has a plug/slot/socket and then plugging it all back in. Note what goes where if you've never done that before. Also note that with today's computers, even on the insides stuff should only go in one way. Progress from basic things like rear connectors (which you've probably already done) to HDD, RAM, extension cards, and then the CPU.

Notes:

• The CPU is designed to go in one way, but you can insert it any way and you have to be careful the little sawed off corner on the CPU matches the sawed off corner in the socket.
• Don't touch any metal contacts or components on the RAM, cards, HDD controller board and don't touch the pins on the CPU you should be fine (hold stuff by the edges).
• Note - CPUs use ZIF (zero insertion force) sockets now, where you lift up a lever next to the CPU and then the chip comes out with zero force. That is, assuming you can get past the heatsink :P If the CPU sounds too much you can easily leave the CPU off the menu and get someone else to re-seat it.

That exhausts my list of ideas...

-dav7