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Bad CPU L2 Cache

idata
Employee
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Hello All,

Here's my system specs. The Chip was NOT overclocked.

Motherboard: Asus Maximus Extreme (x38)

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme qx9770

Asus Geforce 6800

 

4GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600

 

WD Velociraptor

 

2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ in RAID 1 Array

 

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

I believe I have a bad CPU as I have been getting a page_fault_in_nonpaged_area BSOD upon startup. I have eliminated all the other usual suspects. Here are the steps I have taken:

1) I have done memtest 3 times, once overnight. No Errors

2) Replaced the Power supply.

3) Pulled out and tessted how the machine with the RAM in different slots (i.e. only two RAM sticks at a time, shifting them to both slots after each successive failure.)

4) Reseated and eventually replaced CPU Fan & Heatsink.

5) Sent the motherboard in for repair.

6) Attemtped to boot up in Ubuntu Linux of a CD.

7) Booted up UBCD and ran CPU Stresstests. They always fail right away (i.e. Prime95)

8) Attempted Windows startup repair... BSOD

9) Attempted Windows Safe mode. Freeze and reboot.

10) Rolled back Motherboard BIOS to older version. I did this even though the last time I did a BIOS updatre was 8 months ago as a last ditch effort.

11) Bumped up the Voltage on the RAM to see if it needed more for stability.

12) Ensured the timins of the RAM in the BIOS matched the RAM Specifications.

I'd love to know if it could be something else, as this machine has been down for almost two weeks at this point. However, the L2 cache is the only thing I can think of that's left. As a side note, the machine began doing this out of nowhere. First it would just shut down randomly every hour or so, then within a day all I could get was a BSOD.

Thanks.

Jamey

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