Flash bios problems

[caaagh]

Hi
First of all here's my system details :

Motherboard P5K

BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version 0704
BIOS Date 10/30/2007

OS Windows Vista Home Premium x64 Service Pack 2

CPU Full Name Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz

Disk Space Disk C: 319 GB Available, 465 GB Total, 319 GB Free

Graphics ATI Radeon HD 3850

Physical Memory 4095 MB Total, 2490 MB Free
Memory Load 39%

Virtual Memory 8418 MB Total, 5874 MB Free

PageFile Name \??\C:\pagefile.sys
PageFile Size 4394 MB In use 142 MB
Max used 323 MB
Registry Size 145 MB (current), 2048 MB (maximum)

The system clock interval 15 ms

I have been getting unexpected PC crashes. Mostly these happen when I'm play WoW, screen freezes and then the PC restarts by itself. I have had a couple of BSOD as well. Initially Windows told me it was a graphics driver problem, so I have updated all my drivers to the latest version. Now, the PC crashes and Windows doesn't appear to recognise it's got a problem.

I have been searching forums to see what could be causing this, and think I should probably update my BIOS (although I have never done anything like this before). I downloaded the BIOS utility for my 64-bit system from Asustex, the Afudos BIOS update tool V2.36 but when I tried to execute the exe file I get a message "The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you are running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or a x64(64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher." I then get a message "Windows cannot complete the extraction".

I would appreciate any advice or help with this
Many thanks

 

[wuzy]

If all those problems started popping up suddenly one day then it can't be a BIOS problem. You'll still need to flash your BIOS to the latest of course.
Your symptoms suggests either overheating of a components (can be CPU, gfx, chipset or various MOSFETs) or RAM failure (which is usually gradual).

The inexperienced may tell you bad PSU can cause this also, but I've never once seen that to be the case for BSOD crashes.

So it crashes under 2D desktop environment and not just playing WoW anymore is that correct?

 

[caaagh]

Hi Wuzy thanks for your reply.

The problem started about a month ago, it usually happens when I'm playing WoW (happened twice today) but also has happened when I'm just generally on my PC. When it first started, I was getting info from Windows about what caused the problem with the crash, but since I updated my graphics driver the problem is that WoW freezes and then after about 30 secs the PC restarts with no explanation.

The few times I had BSOD, I know minidump files were created but I couldn't read them.

When I first had the problem, I purchased Driver Detective and have run it a couple of times now, so all my drivers are up to date.

The utility I downloaded, SIW.exe, gives me lots of info re my temperature and CPU voltages and my system in general, but most of it is double-dutch to me.

I would love to flash my BIOS, but I can't get the BIOS utility to work, although I am specifying the correct operating system (Vista 64bit).

If this is a RAM failure, what do you think I need to do?

Really grateful for your help

 

[caaagh]

Update re the BIOS, I actually read the manual!!! - anybody else trying to flash their bios with a P5K, all you need to do is download the latest bios from the ASUS website, put it on a usb flash drive then go into bios set up on restart, there's an EZ flash utility that is a piece of cake! My BIOS is now updated to BIOS Version 1201, instead of 0704.

I've also run chkdsk and am considering cleaning my PC with compressed air, might also see about new CPU but so far today no unexpected crashes.

 

[wuzy]

If it crashed again, try the follow RAM settings. (They're a bit more relaxed for stability reasons).
400Mhz (DDR2-800) 5-5-5-16 2T vDIMM=2.0v