ToMI Chapter 4 crashes!

[lawler]

Hi,

I got a problem with ToMI Chapter 4. My computer crashes completely after playing a few seconds up to a few minutes. The screen freezes, my computer doesn't react to anything but a reset and my Mainboard makes a high-pitched sound until I hit the reset button (I think it's my Mainboard, because my speakers don't make that sound).
I updated my graphic drivers and Direct X but it didn't solve the problem.
[SPOILER WARNING]I don't know if it helps but I just got all the information from the voodoo Lady about La Espogna Grande after she has been sent to prison.[SPOILER WARNING]
Up to that point I had no problems with the game. I had the same computer crashes with chapter 1-3 but only about 2-4 for all 3 chapters.

My computer:
ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe
Pentium 4 @ 3,2GHz
ASUS Radeon X850XT-PE
Windows XP 32bit

I don't know if it's important but I purchased the game on steam.
I really hope you can help me, thank you so much in advance for your help.

Greets

[DjNDB]

My computer crashes completely after playing a few seconds up to a few minutes. The screen freezes, my computer doesn't react to anything but a reset and my Mainboard makes a high-pitched sound until I hit the reset button (I think it's my Mainboard, because my speakers don't make that sound).

That sounds like a heat problem and your mainboard warns you above a certain temperature.

Make sure that your cooling system (Processor, Graphics card, whatever else) is free of dust and that all fans are running.

If that doesn't solve it, we can do some tests.

The easiest one is logging the temperatures while the game is running. I wrote a tutorial for that once:

Logging your CPU and GPU Temperatures

CPU: Download Core Temp (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/). Start it and activate logging in the menu under "Tools/Logging on".

The log file created is called similar to "CT-Log [TIME][DATE].csv".

GPU: Download GPU-Z (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1379/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.3.4.html).
Start it, select the "sensors" tab, and activate "Log to File" at the bottom of the window.

The log file created is called "gpu-temperature.xml".

Let the game run until it crashes and then upload the log files.

Then e.g. zip the file (http://www.howtozip.com/indexsubmenu.asp?submenu=windows_-_compressed_folder_1) and attach it to a message.

[lawler]

Thanks for the help.
Here are the log files:
http://www.filedropper.com/gpu-zsensorlog
http://www.filedropper.com/gpu-zsensorlog2

The readme of core temp said that Pentium 4 CPUs are not supported, so I only got GPU logfiles for 2 crashes. The first crash was after 1 sec, the second one after 1 minute approximately.
This time the crashes were a little bit different. There was no high-pitched sound. At the first crash was no sound at all and at the second crash the last sound in the game was repeating in an endless loop until I hit the reset button.

[DjNDB]

Thanks for the help.
Here are the log files:
http://www.filedropper.com/gpu-zsensorlog
http://www.filedropper.com/gpu-zsensorlog2

The links don't seem to work. Can you .zip and attach them?
Have you checked the your cooling solution as i mentioned above?

[bobdevis]

Open your case. Clean the fans of dust. Especially the fans on the CPU and the graphics card. Turn on the PC on while it is open to make sure all fans are working.
If you don't understand these instructions or find them to scary, have someone do this for you.


It would surprise me VERY much if this was not an overheating problem.

[lawler]

I don't have the log files any more but I know that the temperatures were between 72°C (idle) and 74°C (in game).
I cleaned the fans and checked if they are working. The fans were pretty dusty and one fan (at the back of my case) didn't work but this fan has not been working ever since I bought my computer.
After I cleaned all the fans I tried to play ToMI again. The game crashed after 2 seconds and my mainboard was making the high-pitched sound again.
So, unfortunately no change after cleaning the fans :(

[DjNDB]

72°C is a pretty high idle temperature for a graphics card. Is there a fan on it too and does it work?

You might be able to see the CPU temperature with Asus PC Probe (http://majorgeeks.com/ASUS_PC_Probe_II_d3301.html). If you can see it, then you can run the game in window mode (Alt-Enter) and monitor the temperature. If it can log as well, you can run the game in full screen of course.

If that doesn't give you a result, then we can provoke some CPU and GPU stress artificially to see whether it makes your system crash the same way. Be aware that overheating can cause damage to your hardware and you do the tests at your own risk.
The Processor test should be quite safe though, because the Pentium 4 has thermal throttling and shuts down if it gets to hot. That's what we assume happens here.

It should be enough to run each of these tests for less than 2 minutes until it crashes.

Testing your processor:
Download prime95 for 32-bit (http://www.eocfiles.com/bdc86eb1ed2989c30dcd1902e84939ae/motherboard/utilties/p95v258.zip) Windows and run it. If you see a "welcome to gimps" window choose "just stress testing".
In the "run a torture Test" window just press ok.
To stop it use "Test/Stop" in the Menu.

Testing your graphics card:
Download FurMark (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1446/mirrors.php) to stress test your graphics card. Start it, select "Stability Test", "Xtreme Burning Mode" and "Log GPU Temperature". Now start the test by pressing "Go!".
While running you should be able to monitor the temperature at the bottom of the screen.
You can abort the test with escape.

[lawler]

I tried ASUS PC Probe and it worked. I was able to monitor the temperature and the voltage of the CPU and the mainboard. I was able to play the game without a crash this time. So I played for 10 minutes and then quit the game.
The CPU was at 52-55°C in idle and at a maximum of 66°C in game. The mainboard was at 35°C in idle and at 37°C in game.
I was also checking the voltage monitor and discovered something that may cause the problem or another problem.
ASUS PC Probe monitors +12V, +5V, +3,3V and Vcore. Everything was stable except the +3,3V values. While I was playing the game, the voltage dropped to +2,7V for 4 times and ASUS PC Probe was making an error sound and the voltage monitor was flashing.
Should I still do the stress tests?

Thanks again for your help!

[DjNDB]

It's a bit strange that the game worked for so long this time.
Was the PC still cool before you started the game this time?

The ATX specification allows a tolerance of +/- 5% for the +3.3VDC Voltage rail, which means 3.135V-3.465V. Therefore the warning would be justified.
It is possible that your PSU doesn't work properly, but we can't be sure of that yet.

You can run the stress tests with PC Probe active and watch the voltages and the temperatures, to find out what makes your pc crash.

[lawler]

I started the game with the CPU at 55°C.

Here are the results of the stress tests:

CPU stress test:
I was running the test for 10 minutes. The temperature went up to a maximum of 68°C (most of the time 64-66°C). The voltage was stable at about 3,1V most of the time. It only went down to 2,7V once for about 2 seconds.

GPU stress test:
I did run the stress test like you said but I did not see the temperatures. I was running the test for 5 minutes.

The PC did not crash during one of the tests. Do I have to run the tests longer?
I hope the results are helpful.

[DjNDB]

The PC did not crash during one of the tests. Do I have to run the tests longer?
I hope the results are helpful.

They are helpful.
I almost said you did plenty of testing, but you could run both tests at once. Maybe that will drain enough power from your PSU and make it crash. It should be enough to do that for 1 minute.

Preparing for a different approach, please post a dxdiag log.

dxdiag
Windows XP: Go to your start menu and click on run. Type in "dxdiag" and hit enter
Windows Vista / 7: Press the windows key on your keyboard or click on the start menu. Type in "dxdiag" and hit enter.

Now click on the button that says "save all information".
It will prompt you to save a file. Save it where you can find it.


Now you have two options to make it accessible to us. Pick the one that works best for you:

If you know how, you can zip the file and attach it to a message.

You can upload it to RapidShare (http://www.rapidshare.com/) and copy the link to the file into a new message.

[lawler]

I did run both tests for 2 minutes and the PC didn't crash.

I hope you can find something in the dxdiag file.

http://rapidshare.com/files/307448363/DxDiag.txt.html

I really appreciate your help, thanks!

[DjNDB]

I did run both tests for 2 minutes and the PC didn't crash.

That sounds good. Can you still get the game to crash at all?

Description: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Date and Size: 6/2/2003 12:42:14, 578304 bytes

This sound device with really old drivers... You don't use it i assume?
You could disable it in the BIOS (or at least in the device manager).

That's the only oddity i see in your dxdiag.

[Leak]

72°C is a pretty high idle temperature for a graphics card.
Not neccessarily - the two one-slot ATI Radeon 4850's I have idle at about 82°C each, but they don't go above more then 95°C either - and the hard shut-off temperature for those GPUs as set by ATI are 125°C...

(The same of course doesn't go for older cards...)

[DjNDB]

Not neccessarily - the two one-slot ATI Radeon 4850's I have idle at about 82°C each, but they don't go above more then 95°C either - and the hard shut-off temperature for those GPUs as set by ATI are 125°C...

(The same of course doesn't go for older cards...)

For my taste it is a high temperature. Not meaning that the chip won't survive it, but that it's way more than i expect for idling, but that depends on the requirements.

My 4850 is just passively cooled and idles at 50°C due to it's rather big heatsink and by providing a decent but still quite silent airflow.

Your system however is designed to allow two cards on little space at the expense of effective cooling. It's a different goal and therefore reasonable as well.

In this case I saw the temperature as an indicator for a questionable or defective cooling solution. As the stress tests showed it's not as bad as it seemed, since it at least works without causing a crash. It would have felt better to know the temperatures during that test though.

In some test the X850XT-PE (http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2004/test_ati_radeon_x850_xt_platinum_edition/16/#abschnitt_temperatur) idles at 40°C btw.

[lawler]

This sound device with really old drivers... You don't use it i assume?
You could disable it in the BIOS (or at least in the device manager).

That's the only oddity i see in your dxdiag.


I use a Soundblaster Audigy 2 for my surround speakers and the onboard sound you mentioned only for my headset for Teamspeak because I don't have to switch the plugs with the 2 soundcards, if I want to use Teamspeak.
I did not find any new drivers on the asus homepage for the soundcard.
Do you think that might cause a crash?

I'll try later if the game is still crashing.

[DjNDB]

I did not find any new drivers on the asus homepage for the soundcard.
Do you think that might cause a crash?

I would try anything at the moment, because that one is not trivial to track down. I still think that hardware issues are very likely as well.

If you have some time you should run a memory test.

Testing your memory:
Bad memory is often the reason for random crashes. In order to test your memory download http://www.memtest.org/ and make a bootable cd or disk. Start your system from that medium to run the memory test.

It is probably enough to run it for one pass. Look at the lower table that looks like this after one pass is finished:


Test Pass Errors
---- ---- ------
Std 1 0


If there are errors they are showed in red as in this example:
http://www.bildesel.de/uploads/2/b/0/b/2b0bd_1258400911_thb.jpg (http://www.bildesel.de/show-57435-RL38A.html)

[lawler]

I did run the memory test for 1 pass without any errors.

I'll test if the game is still crashing tomorrow. If it crashes, I'll disable the onboard sound in the BIOS.

[lawler]

I just tried to play the game. It crashed after 1 minute. Then I disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS. The game crashed after 3 minutes.

The only thing that doesn't work properly in my computer and I know about is my DVD burner.
I can read/burn CDs and I can read DVDs, but I can't burn DVDs anymore.
The drive can't read the DVD-Rs anymore.
The only thing I did that could cause a problem was an update of the burning software (I am using http://www.cdburnerxp.se/).
I downgraded to the older version I was using before after it didn't work but that didn't solve the problem.
But I don't think that has anything to do with my computer crashing or at least I can't imagine.

[DjNDB]

But I don't think that has anything to do with my computer crashing or at least I can't imagine.

I think so too. DVD Drives break every now and then.

I am starting to run out of reasonable ideas.

Do you always start a save game to test if it crashes or have you tried a new game too?

One more thing you should try is a clean boot.

Booting clean in Windows XP:
To Boot Clean in Windows XP

1. Click Start --> Run --> Type MSCONFIG --> Click OK
2. On the General tab, choose Selective Startup
3. Uncheck Process SYSTEM.INI file
4. Uncheck Process WIN.INI file
5. Uncheck Load Startup Items
6. Click on the Services tab
7. At the bottom, check Hide All Microsoft Services
8. Uncheck all boxes in the window or click the button labeled Disable All
6. Click OK
7. Click Restart
8. After reboot, run the game to see if it works.

After performing the necessary steps, restore your system by doing the following:

1. Click Start --> Run --> Type MSCONFIG--> Click OK
2. On the General tab, choose Normal Startup
3. Click OK
4. Click YES, when asked to restart your computer

Based on Will's post (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=165339#post165339)

[lawler]

OK, I did try that but it didn't work either. The game crashed after 2-3 minutes but there was no error sound this time.

Yes, I am always loading a savegame, if I am testing if it is crashing. This time, I saved the game (after loading it) into a new file and loaded it to test if the savegame file is damaged.

[DjNDB]

Yes, I am always loading a savegame, if I am testing if it is crashing. This time, I saved the game (after loading it) into a new file and loaded it to test if the savegame file is damaged.

Does it also crash if you start a new game?

Have you tried redownloading the game?

[lawler]

I don't know if it is important but like I said in the first post, I had no problems with chapter 4 until the aforementioned point in the game.

Does it also crash if you start a new game?

I will test that right away.
If it doesn't work, I'll redownload it.

[lawler]

I started a new game. It crashed after 10 minutes, again without any sound from the mainboard.
Then I deleted the local content of the game and redownloaded it.
I was able to play the game for 30-40 seconds this time, but the PC didn't crash. It restarted itself, just like I would've hit the reset button. (so at least something changed... yipiee^^)

[DjNDB]

I was able to play the game for 30-40 seconds this time, but the PC didn't crash. It restarted itself, just like I would've hit the reset button. (so at least something changed... yipiee^^)

If you disable restart on system crash (http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-vista/disable-post-crash-restarts-in-xpvista/) you might be able to see a blue screen instead with an error message that could help us.

You could also look for errors in the "system" and "application" part of the windows event viewer.

Does your system crash on other 3D games too?

[lawler]

I found 2 recurring errors in the system part. They seem to happen once a day. The first error comes from the service control manager because it could not start "ASInsHelp" because the file is missing.
The other error comes from ftdisk because there's something wrong with the configuration of a swapfile. Unfortunately I'm not able to translate the complete description of the error from German into English but I googled the description and found various threads in forums about this error causing computer crashes, monitors going into standby etc. (so maybe we finally found it)

Edit: I just saw that you're German, too. I think the German error description might be helpful ;)
Die Konfiguration der Auslagerungsdatei für das Speicherabbild ist fehlgeschlagen. Stellen Sie sicher, dass eine Auslagerungsdatei auf der Startpartition vorhanden ist und dass diese groß genug ist, um den gesamten physikalischen Speicher abbilden zu können.


I don't play a lot of new games on my computer, but I played Mafia 6-8 weeks ago without any problems and I also got no problems with audiosurf via steam.

If you disable restart on system crash (http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-vista/disable-post-crash-restarts-in-xpvista/) you might be able to see a blue screen instead with an error message that could help us.


I'll try that next.

[DjNDB]

I found 2 recurring errors in the system part. They seem to happen once a day. The first error comes from the service control manager because it could not start "ASInsHelp" because the file is missing.

The other error comes from ftdisk because there's something wrong with the configuration of a swapfile.

ASInsHelp seems to be related to Asus PC Probe which we used to read out temperature data from your BIOS. That should not be anything serious.

For the second one:
There are instructions on how to increase the size of the page file (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q226448/).
That looks more like a warning then a real error though:
"This behavior occurs to give administrators the flexibility to increase the size of the page file at their discretion. "
But it doesn't hurt to try.


Errors that occurred around the time of the crash would be more interesting.

[lawler]

There are instructions on how to increase the size of the page file (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q226448/).
That looks more like a warning then a real error though:
"This behavior occurs to give administrators the flexibility to increase the size of the page file at their discretion. "
But it doesn't hurt to try.


That didn't help and unfortunately I didn't get a bluescreen (I was able to play for 5 minutes).
I have got new error messages (in the system part). They occurred a few minutes before I started the game. The IDs are 5 (once), 11 (5 times) and 51 (5 times).
I hope this helps.

Edit: Here are the German error descriptions:

ID: 11 (source: disk)
Der Treiber hat einen Controllerfehler auf \Device\Harddisk1\D gefunden.

ID: 5 (source: atapi)
Ein Paritätsfehler wurde auf \Device\Ide\IdePort3 gefunden.

ID: 51 (source: disk)
Bei einem Auslagerungsvorgang wurde ein Fehler festgestellt. Betroffen ist Gerät \Device\Harddisk1\D.

[DjNDB]

I have got new error messages (in the system part).

Let's try to follow that thought.

If your hard disk or hard disk controller are broken, that could explain that serious kind of crashes. It might even be just the cable.

You could try to connect your hard disk (\Device\Harddisk1\D) to a different port and/or use a different cable and see if it still crashes.

You could also evaluate the SMART data of your hard disk and run diagnostic tools of your Hard Disks Manufacturer.

[lawler]

Let's try to follow that thought.
You could try to connect your hard disk (\Device\Harddisk1\D) to a different port and/or use a different cable and see if it still crashes.


Is \Device\Harddisk1\D the hard disk on which I have the partition D?
I am a little bit confused right now, because I checked the hard disks in the control panel. There is a hard dsik 0 and 1 and the partition D is on hard disk 0.

[DjNDB]

Is \Device\Harddisk1\D the hard disk on which I have the partition D?
I am a little bit confused right now, because I checked the hard disks in the control panel. There is a hard dsik 0 and 1 and the partition D is on hard disk 0.

It should be the one that contains your page file.
Which makes me think - Before trying a different port, you could try moving the page file to a different drive (http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Bde%3B307886&x=11&y=16) (really a different drive, not just another partition on the same one).


There's also some MS Information about the error message:
Information about event ID 51 (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=244780)
How to Distinguish a Physical Disk Device from an Event Message (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/159865/)

[lawler]

It should be the one that contains your page file.
Which makes me think - Before trying a different port, you could try moving the page file to a different drive (http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Bde%3B307886&x=11&y=16) (really a different drive, not just another partition on the same one).

OK, I'm doing this later. I am still running some tests on my hard drives.
I already checked the hard drive that contains the system partition with the diagnostic tool from the manufacturer (Hitachi). The drive passed the test without an error. I tried to test the other hard drive with the diagnostic tool from the manufacturer (Samsung) but it didn't work. So I used a hdd diagnostic tool from the ultimate boot disc (http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/) to check this drive. There were 2 timeouts and about 20 sectors with over 500ms (I continued the test automatically after 20 seconds, the program was waiting for 240 seconds to rate it as a timeout, so I think that all the sectors with over 500ms were timeouts).
I also checked the SMART data of the 2 hard drives and there was no problem.
I don't know if it is important, but the second hard drive (Samsung) is very new. I just bought it 6 weeks ago.

[Leak]

So I used a hdd diagnostic tool from the ultimate boot disc (http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/) to check this drive. There were 2 timeouts and about 20 sectors with over 500ms (I continued the test automatically after 20 seconds, the program was waiting for 240 seconds to rate it as a timeout, so I think that all the sectors with over 500ms were timeouts).
I also checked the SMART data of the 2 hard drives and there was no problem.
I don't know if it is important, but the second hard drive (Samsung) is very new. I just bought it 6 weeks ago.
Check that the drive cable for the second drive is connected tightly, and if that doesn't help try using a different cable. If the drive test still reports problems after that, get the drive exchanged.

np: Jackie Leven - Woman In A Car (The Haunted Year: Autumn - Only The Ocean Can Forgive)

[lawler]

All the testing took quite a while but here are the results.

The cable wasn't connected tightly like you said, I fixed it. I did run a lot of tests and all of them had been passed without any errors.

I'll post my SMART data, maybe you will find something.

http://www.abload.de/img/smart1nt9c.jpg (http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=smart1nt9c.jpg)
http://www.abload.de/img/smart2lrs4.jpg (http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=smart2lrs4.jpg)

After all the testing I tried again to play ToMI but it crashed after a few seconds, again with a mainboard error sound.

I will try next to move the page file, maybe that'll help.

[lawler]

I moved the page file but that didn't help. The game crashed after 2-3 minutes.
Is it still reasonable to change cables? Because all the tests had been passed without any errors.

[Leak]

I moved the page file but that didn't help. The game crashed after 2-3 minutes.
Is it still reasonable to change cables? Because all the tests had been passed without any errors.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if your installed system was kinda hosed by now due to those problems with the cable, since it most probably wasn't just reading from the disc that failded sometimes but writing as well - reinstalling Windows and all applications should probably do the trick.

[DjNDB]

reinstalling Windows and all applications should probably do the trick.

I agree. If it doesn't we know something's wrong with the hardware.

Since you don't seem to use it yet I would suggest installing a fresh windows to your new Samsung disk.
That way you don't have to give up your existing Installation yet. Further the Samsung should be faster than the old Hitachi.
I usually unplug the disks I don't want to install to in these situations, in order to prevent trouble by my own stupidity or windows doing strange stuff ( e.g. naming the system drive D: ).

I would set up a minimal system first:
Install the latest drivers, directx and windows updates and test the game.
If it still crashes we can keep looking for other solutions. If it doesn't come here and say hooray!

[DjNDB]

Is it still reasonable to change cables? Because all the tests had been passed without any errors.

The Samsung showed a high "udma crc error count", which probably was because of the lose cable, a broken cable or broken controller. You should check if the number still rises.
You could also act pessimistically and use a different cable and port prophylactically.

[lawler]

OK, I hope that helps but I got a bad feeling because the last time I reinstalled Windows was only 5-6 weeks ago.

[lawler]

Finally, I had the time to reinstall Windows.
I unplugged the old hard drive, reinstalled and updated Windows, installed all the latest drivers, Direct X and Steam.
Unfortunately, I can't say hooray :(
The game crashed after 2 minutes in the same way it did before.

[DjNDB]

Unfortunately, I can't say hooray :(
The game crashed after 2 minutes in the same way it did before.

At least now we can be pretty sure that it is a problem with your hardware.

We should still check your installer though, just to be absolutely sure it's not corrupted.
Please download and install Hashcheck (http://code.kliu.org/hashcheck/) and post the checksums of your installer. After installation you can see them by right clicking on the file and viewing it's properties.


If you have access to some spare parts you could try a different graphics card or PSU. You might also try removing your Audigy and everything else that's not required to get the system running.

[lawler]

Should I do the Hashcheck with the new reinstalled Windows or should I go back to my old Windows?

[DjNDB]

Should I do the Hashcheck with the new reinstalled Windows or should I go back to my old Windows?

What matters is which installer file you check. That should ideally be the one you used to install the game in the new windows.

[lawler]

Do you mean the steam installer exe (I don't have this file anymore) or which file do you mean? Sorry, if I am asking stupid questions^^

[DjNDB]

Do you mean the steam installer exe (I don't have this file anymore) or which file do you mean? Sorry, if I am asking stupid questions^^

Ah, sorry. I was stupid. I forgot you are using steam.
Follow these instructions to verify your game cache files (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335) instead.

[lawler]

Steam says: "All files successfully validated."

[DjNDB]

Steam says: "All files successfully validated."

That's good. I think now it's time to try exchanging hardware components until it works.

[lawler]

I just remembered something that could cause my computer to crash. My CPU fan is connected with a fan controlling unit (Thermaltake), not directly with the mainboard. Sometimes I get an error message, when I'm booting (1-2 times a week). It says something like: fatal system error, chassis intruded, CPU fan fail. If I hit the reset button the computer boots without an error but sometimes I have to reset my computer 2 or 3 times until it works but that's very rare.
I googled this error message a few month ago and everyone was saying that it's not a real problem and I should live with this error message. The other option would be to turn off the error message reporting in the BIOS but if I would have a real problem with my CPU I wouldn't be able to see it. So I chose to live with the problem.

[DjNDB]

I just remembered something that could also cause my computer to crash. My CPU fan is connected with a fan controlling unit (Thermaltake), not directly with the mainboard.

How old is that mainboard?
Maybe your CMOS battery is failing, making your BIOS act strangely.

You could also check the manual and make sure that the Chassis Intrusion Jumper is set correctly. Looks like your mainboard believes it should receive a signal instead.

You might also want to install the latest BIOS.

[lawler]

My mainboard is 5 years old.

I will update my BIOS as soon as I can find a diskette or is it possible to update the BIOS with a cd-r?

According to the ASUS instruction (http://support.asus.de/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments_content.aspx?no=546&SLanguage=de-de) about updating your BIOS you will need a diskette.

[DjNDB]

I will update my BIOS as soon as I can find a diskette or is it possible to update the BIOS with a cd-r?

It can be done via CD, but you should be able to simply use asus live update.
For creating a suitable boot cd i use a procedure similar to this one (http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-cd2.htm).

[lawler]

It can be done via CD, but you should be able to simply use asus live update.


OK, then I will use ASUS Update. I thought that I have to do it like ASUS is showing in their tutorial. It's strange that they are not recommending the easy updating procedure via ASUS Update.

[DjNDB]

Let me know if it worked :)

[lawler]

The good news is that the update worked. I got an error message after the first reboot (cmos checksum error). So I loaded the BIOS default settings and everything was working properly after the next reboot.
The bad news is that the game is still crashing :(

[DjNDB]

Which leaves you with troubleshooting by exchanging hardware.

[lawler]

Unfortunately..
I think the exchanging will take a while because I just have much older hardware at home but I think I can get some hardware for testing from friends.

Thanks again for your great help. I really appreciate it. I have never gotten so much useful help in a forum. I am now able to check my whole computer and I think I am going to use this knowledge in the future.

[DjNDB]

You're welcome.
Keep in mind that Windows doesn't like if you exchange the Mainboard. The sysprep utility is supposed to help with that, though.
I would try every other important hardware before that though, also because they might be easier to access. A reasonable sequence would be graphics card, memory, sound card, PSU, CPU, ... , Mainboard.