please download and install CPU-Z CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting and post screenshots of the CPU, Mainboard, Memory and SPD tabs. On the SPD tabs you can select the dim slots with a dropdown box in the upper right. Just post the ones with ram in them. This will show you how (although you probably know by now) Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums
Also, what is the program you use for your lab tests, and can you provide a link to it?
CPUID hangs at startup (at "SPD") so I can't post screenshots. It also does not work on my other PCs. I usually use Maxwell Render (not since the "total reinstall" though) to, for example, bounce IES photometric lighting information off a sphere and surfaces of single and double curvature to determine light distribution visually.
ps: Eventually, CPUID opened. Please find the screenshots below...
So, anyone else got an idea?
Maybe I should just order a new mainboard to begin with. The RAM is ok. The SSD is ok. The processor rarely fails in non-OC'ed PCs. No oddball software or wonky AMD graphics card drivers were installed after the BIOS flash and re-install of Windows. A new mainboard seems the cheapest option to begin with; I can always sell it on, if it wasn't the culprit.
This is the best review site around, read the reviews, discount all of the ones about Ivy Bridge, as you have a Sandy Bridge. ASUS P9X79 PRO LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS - Newegg.com
Also, if you have an IPD test that says Fail, I would be in contact with Intel tomorrow morning.
So, you do rather think it's the processor? I'll look up if and in what way Intel will take the processor back in my country and exchange it. Every day the PC can't contribute to the calculations, I'm losing project time : (
I understand perfectly. I would say it depends on how much that project time is worth to you. The CPU is ususlly the last thing I suspect. However, if you have an IPD record that says it failed, I would contact Intel. That is the purpose of the IPD test. If you would like to try something different, try a new known working hard drive. Connect it and only it to port #1 or 2 on your motherboard. Remove your graphics card and use on board graphics. Download, before you start the Chipset drivers, Lan drivers, graphics and sata drivers from your motherboard downloads. Download your version of Windows from here Windows 7 Direct Download Links, Official Disk Images from Digital River.
Follow this guide Clean Install Windows 7. when you finish the install, install the Chipset driver first, then the sata drivers, then graphics drivers then everything else that you use. Run all important windows updates and install Microsoft security essentials Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows and nothing else. That way you will know there are no drivers or unstable programs in your install. If you do exactly what I described and have a BSOD, it will have to mean you are having hardware problems. The windows download is a perfect ISO file you will have to burn to DVD, not copy. There is nothing in it except Windows system files, which will not cause a BSOD, MSE has never caused a BSOD that I have ever heard of. So nothing there can cause a problem. Install nothing else. Use it for a few days and see what happens. Hopefully you will not get any BSODs. If that is the case, then install 1 program at a time and test it out until you are sure it will cause no problem, then install another, testing after that. Continue that way until you have your full install. By doing it that way, if you have a BSOD, you will know which program is causing you issues. With the clean install with nothing added, you will know that you have a hardware or software problem. Just be sur to install all windows updates except graphics drivers. On a perfectly clean install you will not BSOD unless you have a hardware problem. That is a given.
As soon as you get to the Desktop after the clean install, make sure you are configured to create Small memory dumps, Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD
Keep us posted every step of the way and run the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions if you have any problem.
As far as the IPD test. Personally I am doubtful. If you were having BSODs during it, you do not know if that fail was a full test or if the problems causing the bsods made the test fail. That is what we are going to find out. Keep connected only the 1 hard drive that you installed Windows on. that way we have started with only the hardware that is necessary for the computer to run with nothing extra. Do not just disconnect the graphics card. take it completely out of the system.
I hope the instructions were clear enough for you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If I were you, that is what I would do. Find out once and for all what the problem is. You can spend thousands of dollars on a system like yours, trying to replace one component at a time. lets try to find out what is wrong. Just keep us posted each step of the way. Before you start, go into bios and set your system to optimized defaults, set you ram timings exactly where they are, check the sata controller. it should be set to AHCI by default, which is what you want, just be sure it is. Disable any services you do not use, such as firewire, Intel rapid start, wifi and Bluetooth, if you do not use those. if you do use any of those services, make sure you download the drivers for them. Try that complete pure vanilla install without adding anything except MSE and see if you get a BSOD.
That would mean doing a clean install, once again. With around 13 hours work per day, including weekends, it's already becoming quite a strain on my wife and children for me to "disappear", after work, to "fiddle with them bloody computers" week after week; you know what I mean? Why don't manufacturers just implement indicators for component failure so one knows if a part is at fault? So much time going down the drain; very frustrating.
I will give it one last try as per your last suggestion and buy another PC for the meantime while this one is off duty, so to speak.
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