you forgot fixboot. i'm not sure if there's a certain order they have to be in... but if those don't work, just do an overinstall... you won't lose anything except installed patches.
viruses that damage CMOSes haven't really existed since the CIH virus...
first things first, pull the hard drive, and run a memory test program like memtest86... it might report errors, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the memory... i'd be more inclined to say it's a cooling failure that causes the machine to hard crash.
no offense, but there's too many cruise servers already (CLC/LTC/TC/WSC among others)... </rant>
if you search the forums, there are some pre-built cruise insim packages around... they're probably easier to work with than getting someone to write another one from scratch.
- dirt 1 uses the neon engine
- grid 1 uses the ego 1.0 engine, which is an updated neon version
- dirt 2 uses an updated ego engine, but doesn't list a version number, i'm assuming somewhere inbetween 1.0 and 1.5
- f1 2010 uses the ego 1.5 engine
in a way, i guess they're all the same basic engine.
one thing i don't get, is if this is codemasters' engine, why didn't they just make the game instead of milestone/blackbean?
i think he just needs a PR guy to keep us impatient people at bay... that way he can get back to coding, and we don't have to sit in the dark and get him mad every time he reads the forums.
no, when it comes to stuck pixels, sometimes pressing on them can snap them back into sync... although i've heard that colours sometimes can work too, i've never actually seen it work in practice.
actually, white is also good for magnet burn on crt's as well, if you don't have access to a degausser. (even though you can make one with some 14/2 wire, a wall plug adapter, a marrette, and some electrical tape)