BSOD.. Need help

[BryceBooth]

Do the crashes still occur when you boot into safe mode?
Have you tried removing the GPU?
Try a repair installation ( Startup repair) and update the BIOS?

[miggs78]

BIOS is up to date..
You know I haven't quite had all the time, but using gpu is my next step.
I actually did a clean install on my SSD (I'm using it as AHCI mode in BIOS, which I believe is right?).. I'm going to do a pretty clean install, update drivers and not install any other apps and updates and perform a stress test to see if anything kills it..

Man I should know these things, been doing it for long lol...!

[JOHNYBROKE]

try swapping every part. At least you would know what its not. maybe something on your bench is making contact with something else.

[JOHNYBROKE]

my money is on the gpu. I got a good feeling.

[miggs78]

Originally Posted by JOHNYBROKE

my money is on the gpu. I got a good feeling.

Ok my friend, tried a different gpu, still having BSODs. I'm going to try one more thing, install windows on hdd instead. If that still doesn't work, I'll take the mem and CPU and have the store dress test it for me. If that's fine, it's either mobo or psu.

[miggs78]

Ok so far.. I think it's either the mobo or the psu or the processor itself..

-Both memory sticks pass memtest86 overnight, 8 passes I think it was. Tested the memory in all 4 slots on the mobo, so all slots are working fine. I even tested with one stick at a time
-Swapped out gpu, that made no change
-Performed a clean install on a new hdd with just latest drivers and no windows updates. Win 7 64bit
-Re-seated processor twice, applied a new layer of thermal paste.
-BIOS is also latest version

Next steps:
-Will try the psu in my current build, run a stress test, if it is the psu, system will crash. Vice versa, use the psu in my current build in the new build, if it doesn't crash.. you know it!
-Will try and see if the store can exchange the cpu for me. Lots of cases on the web with folks on laptops, but the fact that they swap out cpu and it fixes issue, something to keep in mind

I'm out of thoughts now, anyone can think of anything else..

[BryceBooth]

Aside from a faulty PSU, while reseating the CPU did you closely inspect the pins in the socket? I've personally never had an issue with them, however there have been many Asus boards with bent pins being reported (whether out of user-error or not?)
One other strange issue that I have stumbled upon, is a slightly scratched install disc that somehow managed to wreak havoc on a build. Sometimes things are just plain frustrating, I hope you figure it out soon and that it's not overly costly.

[miggs78]

I should mention that I actually installed Windows of a bootable USB drive. And yes I inspected both times I reseated the cpu.. no bent pins visible..

[miggs78]

Hmm.. I played around with the BIOS settings and now with the same hardware, I passed 3 passes of Intel Burn Test low mem 10x with no issues..
Settings I changed was: manually set cpu volt to 1.0 (very minimal increase) and disabled speedstep.. Not sure how that would change system stability. All along I was thinking it was some BIOS settings..

I'll update if anything changes or system stays stable..