- Jan 9, 2016
- 2
- 0
- 4,510
My system: Dell Vostro 270, with 2 x 8GB RAM, a Corsair 500W PSU, Windows 10 64-bit, AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series graphics, Crucial 240GB SSD, stock i3-3220 CPU (1155 socket).
Everything was working perfectly.
I purchased an i5-3570K processor to upgrade from the i3. This is the same socket type, and Dell'ssupport page indicates that the motherboard supports 1155 socket processors of the i3 and i5 type.
I took out the old i3 processor and replaced it with the i5 processor, but when I tried to boot the machine I got the Dell screen at startup, and then the windows booting logo for about two seconds, before I got a blue screen saying an error had occurred and that my system would reboot. Underneath it said KERNEL SECURITY CHECK ERROR. Upon reboot, the same error occurred.
I could still get into the BIOS, where I could see that the new processor was identified correctly (good). It also showed 16GB of RAM still. I tried a few things, like booting from external media e.g. Windows installation DVD, Windows 10 boot media, but each time when I got to the point where Windows was starting to load, I got the same blue screen and the above warning, and then the machine would reboot.
One of the options in BIOS was to run Diagnostics which I did - this took me to Dell Diagnostics. All tests passed, including processor, until the final one - Memory - where it runs a "Memory Bus Stress Test"... it does this in each Block, 1 of 8, 2 of 8... so on... but when it got to 8 of 8 it seemed to hang.
This suggested RAM memory was at fault, so I tried taking out and reseating the RAM - no joy.
Then I tried removing one stick of RAM... and the machine booted! So I thought it must be a dead stick of RAM. However, to check this, I tried the known working stick in the spare slot - and I got the same error back again. I then tried the other stick in the known working slot - and the machine worked again. This suggest the RAM sticks are fine in slot one, but when something RAM is placed into slot two, there is a problem which results in the machine refusing to boot.
Can anyone assist? At this point I'm thinking:
- Is Ram Slot 2 broken? If so - weird, as it worked earlier, and I cannot see how it has been damaged.
- Is this a problem relating to the CMOS? People talk about resetting this after a CPU upgrade. Annoyingly, I cannot easily get to the CMOS jumper, but I've reset it in BIOS - no joy.
- Could it be that the CPU is somehow not seated correctly? Sounds doubtful as everything else is working fine when RAM is just in slot 1; and a pain to test out as it would involve removing the heatsink again, meaning a thermal paste clean-up and reapplication.
Has anybody got any good suggestions? I'm used to upgrading PCs although this is my first CPU upgrade.
All help gratefully appreciated!
Everything was working perfectly.
I purchased an i5-3570K processor to upgrade from the i3. This is the same socket type, and Dell'ssupport page indicates that the motherboard supports 1155 socket processors of the i3 and i5 type.
I took out the old i3 processor and replaced it with the i5 processor, but when I tried to boot the machine I got the Dell screen at startup, and then the windows booting logo for about two seconds, before I got a blue screen saying an error had occurred and that my system would reboot. Underneath it said KERNEL SECURITY CHECK ERROR. Upon reboot, the same error occurred.
I could still get into the BIOS, where I could see that the new processor was identified correctly (good). It also showed 16GB of RAM still. I tried a few things, like booting from external media e.g. Windows installation DVD, Windows 10 boot media, but each time when I got to the point where Windows was starting to load, I got the same blue screen and the above warning, and then the machine would reboot.
One of the options in BIOS was to run Diagnostics which I did - this took me to Dell Diagnostics. All tests passed, including processor, until the final one - Memory - where it runs a "Memory Bus Stress Test"... it does this in each Block, 1 of 8, 2 of 8... so on... but when it got to 8 of 8 it seemed to hang.
This suggested RAM memory was at fault, so I tried taking out and reseating the RAM - no joy.
Then I tried removing one stick of RAM... and the machine booted! So I thought it must be a dead stick of RAM. However, to check this, I tried the known working stick in the spare slot - and I got the same error back again. I then tried the other stick in the known working slot - and the machine worked again. This suggest the RAM sticks are fine in slot one, but when something RAM is placed into slot two, there is a problem which results in the machine refusing to boot.
Can anyone assist? At this point I'm thinking:
- Is Ram Slot 2 broken? If so - weird, as it worked earlier, and I cannot see how it has been damaged.
- Is this a problem relating to the CMOS? People talk about resetting this after a CPU upgrade. Annoyingly, I cannot easily get to the CMOS jumper, but I've reset it in BIOS - no joy.
- Could it be that the CPU is somehow not seated correctly? Sounds doubtful as everything else is working fine when RAM is just in slot 1; and a pain to test out as it would involve removing the heatsink again, meaning a thermal paste clean-up and reapplication.
Has anybody got any good suggestions? I'm used to upgrading PCs although this is my first CPU upgrade.
All help gratefully appreciated!
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