Computer Crashing during certain games

[Indianapolis Jones]

So yeah, I've been having some problems. When I'm playing CS:S or Kotor my computer randomly releases its bowels (black screen/fans start up (as if its restarting) but nothing happens, so my display goes into sleep. At this point I restart manually and dropkick my pc into my grandmas face)). This was only happening with CS:S before, so I thought it could be the cause, but I recently downloaded Kotor (Steam) and its happened twice. This doesn't happen with HL2, Crysis, Fallout 3 or Stalker etc...

Here's some shit from the event viewer:

I get a Critical Error that corresponds with the crash, Kernel-Power event Id 41:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.


- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-10-07T07:02:36.630800000Z" />
<EventRecordID>10556</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>HAL-9000</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Also an Error that also corresponds with the crash, Event-Log event Id 6008:
The previous system shutdown at 1:00:53 AM on ‎07/‎10/‎2009 was unexpected.


- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="EventLog" />
<EventID Qualifiers="32768">6008</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-10-07T07:02:47.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>10552</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>HAL-9000</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>1:00:53 AM</Data>
<Data>‎07/‎10/‎2009</Data>
<Data />
<Data />
<Data>7205</Data>
<Data />
<Data />
<Binary>D9070A00030007000100000035000700D9070A00030007000700000035000700600900003C000000010000006009000000000000B00400000100000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>


Also, I've tried disabling automatic restart so it displays a BSOD, but it does nothing. I've tried downloading the debugging tool and doing all that shit with the dump file but it says it cannot find the directory or something (I'd give details but I'm too lazy to do it again right now). In fact, there isn't even a minidump folder, there's a LiveKernelReports\WATCHDOG folder though, with .DMP files in it... probably a Windows 7 thing...

I think that's everything but I probably missed something somewhere...

Specs:

Windows 7
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz
Corsair 2 GB ram
Corsair 550W Power Supply
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi
Nvidia e-GeForce Superclocked 9600 GT 512MB
Asus P5N-D 750I
Seagate Barracuda 250GB
Coolermaster CM 690 case
LG G-H20L DVDRW

I've read some other threads with similar problems and one said to update the bios, but the Asus website isnt making this easy... there's this,
http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments.aspx?root=198&SLanguage=en-us
But it looks quite complicated and I don't have a floppy disk drive which seems to be need here.

Any other ideas?

 

[IINexusII]

and what cooling do ya have, if your fan kicks up before crashing you have overheating issues

update the bios through windows if you need a floppy. on mine i can use a usb stick and start EZFlash mode and update all yer other drivers too (graphics, x-fi, windows updates)

 

[Indianapolis Jones]

I don't think I have overheating issues, I've monitored the temps after crashes and all of it seems normal. And plus, why would CSS and Kotor overheat my system and not Crysis or Stalker? Doesn't make sense to me... And the fans kick in at the precise time of the crash, not before (if that makes a difference). There is absolutely no warning. Oh and when it happens I get looping sounds for a few seconds.

Uh, so how do I update the bios through Windows? Will I need to download something from Asus?

e/ So I'm trying to update the bios with a flash drive in place of a floppy, with the AFUDOS.EXE file in there. I set the device priority so it will boot with the drive, but when I try, it says 'remove media and press any key to continue', or something along those lines, and it wont do anything until I remove the drive and press the any key. Hmmm, quite vexing.

e2/ oh, and another problem, my computer has insomnia, it refuses to go into sleep mode, always has. whenever it is supposed to go to sleep, it goes to sleep but instantly wakes back up. I don't know if the problem is related but I thought it might be worth a mention. At this point I have sleep disabled.

e3/ OK, I think I've figured it out, I'm formatting the flash drive as a DOS startup disk, hope this works.

e4/ I ended up updating the Bios with the EZflash thing, I'll startup kotor and see if it worked.

e5/ Nope, didn't help, still crashed... I reinstalled my nvidia drivers, and that didn't help.

e7/ Hmm, fascinating, it might be a coincidence, but I turned AA and anisotropy off completely, and my pc crashed just a few seconds into the game, and then I tried maxing out both settings (X8) and I've been playing for a couple hours now without a crash... hmmm...