A quick flash?
I may have made a mistake yesterday.
For as long as I can vividly recall, playing Call of Duty 4 multiplayer for more than fifteen minutes has caused my computer to freeze and a blue screen of death to appear. I’ve occasionally had the same problem with Medieval II: Total War as well.
In troubleshooting this issue, I’ve searched the Internet and found numerous forum posts, guides and Microsoft Knowledge Base articles related to this particular BSOD, succinctly labelled ‘KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR’, but no single solution presented itself. Some people reported that it was a hard drive issue solved by successive check disk runs, some that it was a memory problem, and some that it was a more overarching incompatibility with the motherboard/BIOS.
I’ve since checked all my volumes with check disk (more than once), and run two instances of the memory testing application, MemTest, twice, but the BSOD still lurks in the shadows, ready to pounce just as I’m about to land that perfect sniper shot.
What I did yesterday was attempt to explore the motherboard/BIOS route by flashing my BIOS and installing the latest motherboard drivers for my ASUS P5B Deluxe. The flashing went surprisingly smoothly, with just one slightly worrying ‘overclocking failed’ message on startup, and the motherboard drivers installed fine too, so I was anticipating a swift resolution.
I booted up COD 4, joined a random server and discovered that I was, as I had suspected, cursed. My frame rate had dropped to the point where the game was essentially unplayable. My newly acquired optimism was dashed against the rocks and disintegrated, leaving behind a residue of consternation. Adding insult to injury, the BSOD problem seems to be untouched: though I haven’t actually had a BSOD during my recent testing, I have experienced the sound glitching that typically occurs before one.
I’ve consulted my tech-savvy friend - the same friend who constructed my PC and recommended the BIOS meddling as it happens - who advised me to attempt a reinstall of Windows. I tried reinstalling, but I’m apparently unable to boot from my Windows CD, and when I try to reinstall from the CD menu from within Windows I receive a message that the install can’t proceed because I’m running Service Pack 2 (the CD version of Windows being SP1).
My attempts to uninstall SP2 have only further harmed my system. This morning I was still hearing interference through my speakers, and all of my iTunes purchases have had their rights management associations reset again. I don’t know if I even have any authorizations left after the many reformats I’ve had to do in the past.
After reinstalling SP2 today the frame rate problems and the sound stuttering seem to have vanished, but after all that I’ve done I’ve accomplished nothing more than to piss myself off, waste the majority of my Saturday and break my music.
I’m thankful to the makers of the 2D carnage fest Soldat, who have created a game that ran entirely unscathed through my time of troubles, and that I was able to turn to (much like a cuddly bear) for succor.
My review of the Knights of the Old Republic games will hopefully be complete soon. Until then, if you’re a Star Trek fan, check out Star Trek: New Voyages, a community project that seems to be showing a lot of promise.
- Chris
