Intel i5 CPU Malfunction in 64-bit Win 7  

Hello all,

I just recently installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on my desktop computer. I had had 32-bit installed and working fine, but I decided to reformat and throw on 64-bit for increased performance.

Unfortunately, when I finished reinstalling the OS and compatible drivers, I noticed something strange in my system logs and in my device manager.

In the device manager, I have this error message for my processor:

Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)

I right-clicked each processor entry for my Intel i5 processor and clicked on Uninstall. After doing so, I click on Action -> Scan for hardware changes... Then all the processors reappeared, with the same error message as before.

In the system logs, I noticed warning messages errors for event ID 219, source - Kernel-PnP.

The error message for the event is:

The driver \Driver\intelppm failed to load for the device ACPI\GenuineIntel_-_Intel64_Family_6_Model_30_-_Intel(R)_Core(TM)_i5_CPU_________750__@_2.67GHz\_0.

I tried downloading the latest driver chipset from Intel and installing, but nothing has helped me. I am having strange issues that I did not experience in Win 7 32-bit:
- Digital output from my Soundblaster Audigy is intermittent
- Desktop Manager (Aero) stop working and the theme changes to the basic
appearance. Then after 1 - 2 minutes, switches back to Aero. I looked in the
logs and also saw that some application had caused Aero to stop working.

Oh, I also have Microsoft Security Essentials installed. I'll uninstall that and see how she runs without anything else running in the background - other than Windows processes.


Curious if any of you have seen this issue before and what you had found as the solution.


Thanks, everyone.

jcaum, I own the same i5 and never had any problems. Try to uninstall your chipset drivers and processor "drivers" (I don't think it actually has any). Restart and install new chipset drivers downloaded from here: Software License Agreement
This is for the P55 chipset, good luck.

Their are no processor drivers per say (none that are downloadable), however I do agree that the chipset drivers could be the problem.

The other issue could be a bad or failing processor.

@sygnus21,

I do hear what you are saying. I've never seen processor drivers myself. However, my cpu was working perfectly fine in Win 7 x86. For some reason, the x64 version is giving me problems.

What's funny is the x86 version was one that a friend had given me to try out. I decided to purchase the x64 version since everything worked so well, and I knew that the 64-bit version worked fine on many computers.

I hope this isn't a failing processor as I just purchased it 2 months ago as well... That would suck...

I'm not a CPU expert, but if I had to guess, I might think it's an instruction issue with the CPU, i.e the CPU failing because of faulty instructions. I of course have no way of proving what I'm grasping at and this is strictly an uneducated guess

Given the information you provide just leads me to believe it's a processor issue, especially since Windows is "requesting" a driver.

What I would do is either call Intel or Microsoft, preferably Intel, and see what they say. Also, don't know about your retailer, but some of them will give you a certain amount of time to swap "problematic" CPU's. These are usually local vendors though.

Good luck.

PS. Double check to make sure the CPU is properlay seated.

Something else I just thought of - are you "sure" that's a genuine Intel CPU? You are aware that some unscrupulous vendors items will sell a lesser item for a higher end item, claiming it's one thing when in fact its something else (or less). I.E, the old switch-a-rool game.

You might want to use this program to see what it says about your CPU - CPUID

Again, good luck.

sygnus21, CPU-s in that case can not be faked. The string ID that is on the CPU is unique for this CPU only and therefore it shows you it is an "Intel Core i5-750". I also have a feeling though, that the CPU has production errors and it fails.

sygnus21 said:

I'm not a CPU expert, but if I had to guess, I might think it's an instruction issue with the CPU, i.e the CPU failing because of faulty instructions. I of course have no way of proving what I'm grasping at and this is strictly an uneducated guess

Given the information you provide just leads me to believe it's a processor issue, especially since Windows is "requesting" a driver.

What I would do is either call Intel or Microsoft, preferably Intel, and see what they say. Also, don't know about your retailer, but some of them will give you a certain amount of time to swap "problematic" CPU's. These are usually local vendors though.

Good luck.

PS. Double check to make sure the CPU is properlay seated.

Something else I just thought of - are you "sure" that's a genuine Intel CPU? You are aware that some unscrupulous vendors items will sell a lesser item for a higher end item, claiming it's one thing when in fact its something else (or less). I.E, the old switch-a-rool game.

You might want to use this program to see what it says about your CPU - CPUID

Again, good luck.

I hear what you are saying, but I assure you this is a true Intel Proc. I purchased from Newegg in the retail box, unopened and untouched (until I did the favor of opening). I know Newegg has a 30-day return policy on their items, but this is already outside of the return policy window.

Ollaz said:

sygnus21, CPU-s in that case can not be faked. The string ID that is on the CPU is unique for this CPU only and therefore it shows you it is an "Intel Core i5-750". I also have a feeling though, that the CPU has production errors and it fails.

I am hoping this isn't a failed CPU, as everything worked perfectly under Win 7 32-bit. I'll reinstall 64-bit and let you know what happens.

Thanks guys.

Ok, here's the update.

I found this article at Microsoft's knowledgebase: Device Manager does not show updated processor information on a Windows Vista-based computer or on a Windows Server 2008-based computer

Before following through the article (for method 2), I disabled automatic driver installation. To do this, I did the following:
1) Opened Devices and Printers.
2) Right-clicked my computer's device icon and clicked on Device Installation Settings.
3) I set the option to No Let me choose what to do -> Never install driver software from Windows Update.
4) I kept the bottom checkbox checked.

I then followed method 2 of the article above, and when I went to manually assign a driver to my processors in device manager, I chose "Processor" rather than "Intel Processor". This solved the issue for me.

Update:


Now when I open CPU-Z, I can also see that my processor is successfully running in turbo mode at up to 3.2 ghz. The faulty driver prevented turbo mode from working.