CoH Shutting down my PC

Everytime I run CoH now after an hour or so my computer shuts down.

I have 2 gigs of RAM and a GeForce 9800gt video card

Never has this happened before. I heard something about a BIOS update but how do I go about doing that? I've played this game for 7 years. Just weird now it happens. When I can play for free lol

Sounds like it could be an overheating issue; what resolution/detail settings are you running at and does dropping them affect the issue?

Does the PC shutdown gracefully or does it just power off?

Well everything is set to max. Which I have not has an issue with before.
Yes, I do believe it is a over heating thing as it randomly it just shuts off. Now warning, just plow, turned off.

I usually run 1024x768 I would like it to be smaller but I cant seem to get it to go any smaller as thats as high as it goes.

Should I turn down ultra quality then? Kinda sad that I would have to do something like that :/

Well everything is set to max. Which I have not has an issue with before.
Yes, I do believe it is a over heating thing as it randomly it just shuts off. Now warning, just plow, turned off.

I usually run 1024x768 I would like it to be smaller but I cant seem to get it to go any smaller as thats as high as it goes.

Should I turn down ultra quality then? Kinda sad that I would have to do something like that

and come to think of it, my video card is really hot right now. my computer has s just been sitting on with no major programs running but firefox. definitely not good. its a good video card as well. My case s open and my computer is laying on its side. Should I turn it right side uo? I just think that would make it over heat more.

Having the case open probably doesn't help; most cases are designed for airflow in through the bottom of the front and out the top of the back so having the side open can actually make things worse. The orientation of the case shouldn't make a noticeable difference, but again the case is probably designed to be upright.

How hot is hot? There are plenty of tools like http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php that will tell you if your card/drivers don't offer a thermometer.

My GPU is overheating at 72C

0.0

Temp3 is at 71C

So here's the list using SpeedFan:

GPU: 72C
Temp1: 35 C
Temp2: 24C
Temp3: 71C
HD0: 21 C
Core: 11C

NVidia's site says the maximum temp for that card is 105C.
So 72 shouldn't be an issue.

Max temp could have been originally 105C but if a card keeps overheating it gets damaged then its maximum temperature before shut down will keep dropping.

On the other hand I refuse to believe that a 9800gt can handle everything on maximum settings at a frame rate higher than 5. Even my GTX 460 slows down when everything is maxed.

However a suggestion Wolf. Since you have SpeedFan use it to set the GPU fan to maximum and see if that keeps you from crashing. If it does then your card is definitely failing and should be replaced. But manually controlling the fan should get you a couple more months of life out of it. It did for my 7900 GT a few years back.