Bioshock is running on the same engine version as Stranglehold though.

then it's probably not the engine, but something in irrational games' code.. too bad we'll never now, and as far as i expect it, there will be no further patch. well, all windowed-gaming then... hmmmm

Yeah, it's likely something in the game itself, however it also seems to me that your system might be in need of a fresh install of Windows.

ok, in windowed mode, it starts up even without the tsc sync tool, and, as you could expect, it runs extremely smooth and soo much faster than with the tool enabled. too bad that means i'm restricted to windowed mode gaming.