Fortunately I had access to another CPU (exactly the same as the one installed). I switched them around and it has been 3 days without a BSOD. Interestingly I placed the "faulty" CPU into another desktop (running Linux) and it hasn't produced any faults so I'm all at a loss, but I'm just glad my Win7 machine appears fully operational. I guess you can go ahead an mark this thread as solved :).
You should be able to mark it at your discretion. Understand that setting the bad CPU in another completely different environment wouldn't mean that it's not bad. Linux operates CPUs differently than Windows, and you also have to take into account motherboard, PSU, RAM and other factors. Perhaps there was just a compatibility issue of some sort with your CPU and your mobo (I thought we updated BIOS/chipset drivers?).
Anyways, glad to hear things are ok now. I personally recommend waiting about two weeks after the change before marking it solved.
I'd tried updating and downgrading the BIOS and chipsets to no avail. As I said, the new CPU is the same model as the old one, but there have been no BSODs since I switched. Thanks for your help :)
Ah, right. In case yeah, ditch the old CPU if it ends up causing grief on your Linux system as well. Good to hear it got fixed. Enjoy!
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