The Players in this Opera:
Memory: G-Skill F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM Quantity: 2
Processor: Intel Core i7-860
Motherboard: Intel DP55KG
Processor and Motherboard purchased direct from Intel, RAM purchased from New Egg around end of November 2009. The DP55KG has the lastest BIOS update (3878) prior to building the system on December 5, 2009.
The Saga:
Built the system on Dec 5th, installed Windows 7 64bit, everything initially appeared to be fine. Began experiencing random BSOD's and random Internet Explorer lockups during the burn in period. Since I had intially had an issue of not being able to use the ATI Radeon 5750 video card to install Windows 7 64bit, I suspected it being a cause of the random reboots, the age old driver issue. Swapped out the ATI for my nVidia 9800GT that was in the system I was going to replace with this shiny new one. So now with a known working video card that never had any issues and would have built in support in Windows 7, did a fresh install again on the system. All during this time there are 4 2gb memory modules installed on the motherboard and the BIOS is still at stock settings across the board. After install, the random BSOD's continue, so move on to suspect RAM. I began testing with Memtest86+, initially ran the test with all 4 modules installed. Received errors on first pass, did a reboot, no errors on the pass, did a power off - power on and test, errors on first pass. Begin testing of only one module at a time. NO ERRORS on multiple passes and reboot scenarios on all 4 modules. (it was great timing that I had 2 weeks of vacation I had taken eh?) So as a test, only put two modules in and ran the system under Windows 7. No BSOD's or errors for many days. Swapped out the two modules for the other two modules and let them have a shot, still no errors or random reboots. So, knowing that the sum of the parts were all healthy, I once again populated all 4 dimm slots and forged ahead with various changes in the BIOS. I set the memory to 8-8-8-24, but the BSOD's continued. I underclocked the memory to 1067mhz with no change in stability of the system. Frustrated, I set the BIOS back to default with F9 and was going to start from scratch on what to do to stabilize the system. Began running Memtest86+ again and for some unknown reason, the test passed. rebooted, test, it passed again, power down, boot up and test, it passed again. This is with all four modules installed and the BIOS set to default - JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN I STARTED THE INITIAL BUILD!! can you sense how frustrating that would be? I then set the test to run continuously and left it overnight. On Dec 28th I shut it down after running Memtest for 9 hours with zero errors. I started the system and let it boot into Windows 7 and let it run non-stop for days. I used it to surf, work in Quicken, work with my photo collection, play games, etc with ZERO stoppages. My Reliability History was finally graphing on the rise back to a 10. So on January 6th I shut it down before heading to bed. January 7th arrives and after work I power it up. What do you think starts happening? AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! the dreaded BSOD was back. I rebooted and went for the BIOS reset to default to try to simulate the miracle conditions that had allowed it to run fine for a little over a week and I left it running to check on it the next day. It had rebooted (BSOD) at 1am. I will keep this thread updated with the system status. I left the system running before I came to work today and will check the error log when i get home.
My Background: My career is a System Administrator at Sage maintaining the servers running various functions from email to domain controllers to file and print servers. My passion/hobby is a system builder. I have been building systems since the days of the 386SX processor. I have built anything from XEON servers running our companies email to workstations for my family and friends. I do not classify myself as an Overclocker, so my experience in manipulating the processor and memory speeds is very limited (think more stock car racer than alcohol funny car). Be gentle with me when telling me what to change in the BIOS. If there are particular programs i need to install to get a report on what settings are in my BIOS, let me know. Writing them down by hand sounds like a lot of fun!
But whatever it takes to get this system stable with the 8gb of DDR3 ram i paid for is what I am set to do.
And from my searches and reading on these forums, it appears I have not been alone in my struggle.
Thanks
TrekkerXP
Memory: G-Skill F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM Quantity: 2
Processor: Intel Core i7-860
Motherboard: Intel DP55KG
Processor and Motherboard purchased direct from Intel, RAM purchased from New Egg around end of November 2009. The DP55KG has the lastest BIOS update (3878) prior to building the system on December 5, 2009.
The Saga:
Built the system on Dec 5th, installed Windows 7 64bit, everything initially appeared to be fine. Began experiencing random BSOD's and random Internet Explorer lockups during the burn in period. Since I had intially had an issue of not being able to use the ATI Radeon 5750 video card to install Windows 7 64bit, I suspected it being a cause of the random reboots, the age old driver issue. Swapped out the ATI for my nVidia 9800GT that was in the system I was going to replace with this shiny new one. So now with a known working video card that never had any issues and would have built in support in Windows 7, did a fresh install again on the system. All during this time there are 4 2gb memory modules installed on the motherboard and the BIOS is still at stock settings across the board. After install, the random BSOD's continue, so move on to suspect RAM. I began testing with Memtest86+, initially ran the test with all 4 modules installed. Received errors on first pass, did a reboot, no errors on the pass, did a power off - power on and test, errors on first pass. Begin testing of only one module at a time. NO ERRORS on multiple passes and reboot scenarios on all 4 modules. (it was great timing that I had 2 weeks of vacation I had taken eh?) So as a test, only put two modules in and ran the system under Windows 7. No BSOD's or errors for many days. Swapped out the two modules for the other two modules and let them have a shot, still no errors or random reboots. So, knowing that the sum of the parts were all healthy, I once again populated all 4 dimm slots and forged ahead with various changes in the BIOS. I set the memory to 8-8-8-24, but the BSOD's continued. I underclocked the memory to 1067mhz with no change in stability of the system. Frustrated, I set the BIOS back to default with F9 and was going to start from scratch on what to do to stabilize the system. Began running Memtest86+ again and for some unknown reason, the test passed. rebooted, test, it passed again, power down, boot up and test, it passed again. This is with all four modules installed and the BIOS set to default - JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN I STARTED THE INITIAL BUILD!! can you sense how frustrating that would be? I then set the test to run continuously and left it overnight. On Dec 28th I shut it down after running Memtest for 9 hours with zero errors. I started the system and let it boot into Windows 7 and let it run non-stop for days. I used it to surf, work in Quicken, work with my photo collection, play games, etc with ZERO stoppages. My Reliability History was finally graphing on the rise back to a 10. So on January 6th I shut it down before heading to bed. January 7th arrives and after work I power it up. What do you think starts happening? AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! the dreaded BSOD was back. I rebooted and went for the BIOS reset to default to try to simulate the miracle conditions that had allowed it to run fine for a little over a week and I left it running to check on it the next day. It had rebooted (BSOD) at 1am. I will keep this thread updated with the system status. I left the system running before I came to work today and will check the error log when i get home.
My Background: My career is a System Administrator at Sage maintaining the servers running various functions from email to domain controllers to file and print servers. My passion/hobby is a system builder. I have been building systems since the days of the 386SX processor. I have built anything from XEON servers running our companies email to workstations for my family and friends. I do not classify myself as an Overclocker, so my experience in manipulating the processor and memory speeds is very limited (think more stock car racer than alcohol funny car). Be gentle with me when telling me what to change in the BIOS. If there are particular programs i need to install to get a report on what settings are in my BIOS, let me know. Writing them down by hand sounds like a lot of fun!
But whatever it takes to get this system stable with the 8gb of DDR3 ram i paid for is what I am set to do.
And from my searches and reading on these forums, it appears I have not been alone in my struggle.
Thanks
TrekkerXP
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