MBP goes to sleep while playing games

[bpetruzzo]

I'm not a big gamer, just a couple hours a week, perhaps. This particular problem occurs while playing Left 4 Dead 2 and Half Life 2. Basically, the computer just goes to sleep while playing the game. It doesn't seem to hurt anything. Hitting they keys a few times brings the computer back and the game back into play without a hitch. Except the audio sometimes needs to catch up. But it sure is annoying.

I haven't actually timed it. But it doesn't seem entirely random. It seems to be at somewhat predictable intervals. Maybe 15-25 minutes. I looked all through my settings (especially Energy Saver), and keyboard shortcuts and it doesn't seem that any of them would cause the computer to sleep. The computer is plugged into the wall.

Does anyone know why this might be happening?

 

[abta1]

Could it be overheating?

 

[bpetruzzo]

Could it be overheating?

I thought about that. When I checked into it, first it doesn't seem like going to sleep is something the computer does when it overheats. Apparently it just shuts down around 110C. When I looked into my computers temp, it's hovering around 90C during a game. From what I understand, the computer is designed to operate between around 70C and 110C. Maybe I'm mistaken.

I'm running a Late 2008 15" MBP and snow leopard.

 

[w00t951]

Is this a Unibody design? I know for sure that it's not overheating. Overheating causes the hardware to do a hard shutdown, similar to holding the power button. Trust me, you would know if the computer shut down from a hardware overheat or problem. I would guess that you have something like Hot Corners enabled or some other software option that is causing this.

 

[GGJstudios]

Try running Caffeine to keep it awake.