Did Windows Vista Screw up my CPU?

[williamleja]

Good Evening Everyone,

OK here is the deal. I went to install Windows Vista a long time ago and it worked. About a week later I received a BSOD and Vista broke. I went to reinstall Vista and I received a stop error. The error always occurs right after I tell it to boot from the DVD. Vista loads the files and shows the progress bar across the bottom of the screen. The progress bar finishes and I get the below stop errors:

Vista Home Premium x86 Edition:
STOP: 0x0000008E (0x80000003, 0x89048E1C, 0x86763B58, 0x00000000)

Vista Home Premium x64 Edition:
STOP: 0x000000C4 (0x0000000000000091, 0x0000000000000000, 0xFFFFF8000994EB80, 0x0000000000000000)

I went through a long drawn out process to try and find what component may be causing all my trouble. This is what I tried in no particular order:

-Removed one stick of RAM
-Moved my RAM stick(s) into different slots
-Ran Memtest for 20 passes (NO ERRORS)
-Underclocked the RAM to 667 Mhz
-Placed the jumper on my SATA drive to limit it to 1.5 Gb/s
-Removed my SATA drive and attempted to install on an old IDE drive
-Removed my SATA DVD drive and attempted to install on an old IDE DVD drive
-Removed the CMOS battery for 8 hours
-Cleared the CMOS countless times
-Updated the BIOS
-Downdated (?) the bios. Basically tried an earlier BIOS
-Underclocked the CPU
-Tried an ATI graphics card instead of my 8800GTS 512
-Removed EVERY USB device except for keyboard and mouse
-Erased the hard drive partition table
-Formatted the hard drive MANY times
-Tried different SATA ports on the motherboard for both the hard drive and the DVD drive
-Reseated the CPU
-Tired Patriot memory instead of my OCZ
-Installed an Antec 850 watt PSU instead of my Ultra 650 watt
-Run a Prime95 torture test on both the RAM and CPU with no errors

None of this worked. I can install Windows XP x86 and x64 fine, but not Vista. Tonight I decided to check if the processor was causing the trouble. I put an old 3.0 Ghz Pentium 4 single core with hyperthreading into my motherboard and tried to load Vista. It loaded. I did not try to install Vista, but with the older processor installed I got further than my E6600. I guess it is down to the motherboard or the processor.

Does anyone have an opinion to what is broken? I lapped my E6600 (foolish) and thus lost my warranty. My ASUS P5N32-E SLI is still under warranty and I have sent an RMA request thinking that is the problem. What does everyone think? Is the CPU broken or the motherboard?

Here are my system specs:
E6600 Lapped @ 2.8 GHz (400 MHz FSB, 7 Multi) @ 1.26v
Asus P5N32-E SLI
2 GB OCZ Platinum 1066 MHz @ 800 MHz @ 4-4-4-8-1T
EVGA 8800 GTS 512
Sound Blaster X-Fi platinum
Seagate SATA 250 GB Hard Drive
Lite-On SATA DVD Burner w/Lightscribe
Antec Truepower 850 Watt
Coolermaster Cosmos 1000
Samsung SyncMaster 906BW

Thanks everyone for your opinions,

William

Oh and if I posted this is the wrong place I am sorry, but this area of the forum is the most popular and I am confident someone knows what is wrong.

 

[geofelt]

Did you try not using the sound card? That seems to be a problem area.

 

[williamleja]

Unfortunately I have tried installing Vista with no sound card. Before the X-Fi I had the SoundMAX or whatever comes with the P5N32 and those darn stop errors occurred with it as well. The same ones too.

Thank you for the suggestion. If you've got any more ideas I would love to hear them. I find it hard to believe an otherwise stable processor just went bad.

William

 

[geofelt]

If you can run prime 95 and memtest, your cpu, ram and mobo should be ok.

Is it possible that you have a damaged Vista CD?

Is there any way that a virus has found it's way into the bios or the hard drive formatting program?

If this is a new retail copy of vista, you could call microsoft support.

Google of the stop codes might give you some clue.

---good luck, I am out of ideas---

 

[williamleja]

I appreciate the ideas. I did not consider a virus in the BIOS. That sounds like a complicated problem. Any idea how to remove one short of getting a new chip?

The Vista DVD's were obtained by lets say illegitimate means, but even if it was the disks that does not explain how it can work with the old processor.

I am going to run Prime95 again overnight as I sleep and maybe an error will pop up. Tomorrow I think I will make a trip to Microcenter and buy a cheap dual core processor to test with. I just hope it is the motherboard.

Thanks for all your help geofelt. I'm off to dig in Google to see if a clue can be had.

William

 

[russki]

I think Vista broke your CPU.

It's a protection built into it. If you pirate it, it burns your CPU. But that's just the beginning. It then starts burning the RAM by playing wiht the mobo voltages, so I suggest you stop using it as soon as possible and either get a legitimate copy or install XP, which has none of the Vista DRM. It's the DRM that burns processors and RAM, you see.

I also think next time you should get a DELL, dude.

And stop lapping your CPUs and voiding their warranty and potentially doing some damage.

Oh, and drop it to stock speed and see if it works then and then when it does, you know what to blame.

 

[ewor]

I had a similar problem like this about a week after installing vista 64bit. Random crashes every 5 minutes and getting worse, i couldn't isolate the problem for ages. I reckoned i had fried the cpu by over clocking.

Anyways I stripped my pc down and put it back together again and it worked without a problem and has been since. In hindsight i reckon i might have knocked some connections lose moving the pc around a few days after I had installed 64 bit. But the reason your pc is working properly with the old chip could be similar to why my pc worked after stripping it down and rebuilding it.

 

[williamleja]

russki; I thought Microsoft was evil before, but damn! Damn you DRM! I would rather run XP for the rest of my life than buy a dell.

I will agree that lapping the CPU was foolish. A mistake I will learn from.

I did drop the CPU to stock, but the errors continued. Thanks for the laugh about DRM and the suggestion.

ewor; Perhaps I should practice my disassembly skills. While everything is out of the case I can check for a screwed up capacitor or resistor. I suppose it is a long shot, but who knows.

William

 

[jimmysmitty]

Vista couldn't have killed your CPU. Try setting everything to its stock speeds and install it. I know at first my memory would caus Vista to randomly restart when playing games since I had it set to DDR1066. I have since fixed the problem.

Other than that call Microsoft and ask them. They might be able to tell you what the stop errors are and whats causing it.

 

[ewor]

Apologies, i didnt read your post fully, ah early morning laziness

Just wondering, why did you bother lapping it if your only at 2.8?

 

[williamleja]

I wanted to go higher, however I am unable to make it stable at 3.2 Ghz (400 FSB 8 Multi) and the gains at 3.0 Ghz (333 FSB 9 Multi) are negligible.

I have no active cooling on the northbridge and am not comfortable upping the voltage too much on it without a fan.
I am also weary about upping the Vcore too much because I want to avoid lots of heat and a shorter lifespan on my processor.

 

[arima]

a bios update might help. I've had almost similar problems with my asus 975X DH Deluxe. A lot of Pre-Vista Asus MBs will somehow not work correctly with vista at first.(even with vista drivers and sorts)

 

[blotch]

try upping or lowering the voltage on the E6600 because it may pass some tests but not be perfectly stable. I found that out with my Q6600 that passed 32 hours of the multicore Prime95 and gave errors when installing stuff.
And don't worry about too much Vcore, Intel says .85-1.5V but just keep it under 1.4V and you will be fine.

 

[Scotteq]

Vista couldn't have killed your CPU.

wrong wrong wrong!!!



nOT ONLY DID vISTA KILL HIS cpu, BUT IT AlsO SL3PT WITH HiZ GIRL, tOLD HIS BOSS ABOUT alL THe TiMES HE wAS suRFING THE iNTERwEBZ AT wERK, FORWARDED THE eNTiRE CONTENTZ Of hIZ mp3 pLAYER TO tHE RIAA, PRoviDED A coMPL3AT f1NANCiAL HISTERY TO tha IRS - eXCpeT for What It Gave tO Bill Gates, of C0URse. It also DOWnl0Aded KiDDie PR0N OT a SeKreT PaRTiSHUN and T0LD the EFF BEE EYE *YOU* DiD it.



p.s. vISTA SAYS yER W0MaN IS LousY In tha Sack, too...




TRUE Story!!! You just read it on the Internet!

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

I think Vista broke your CPU.

It's a protection built into it. If you pirate it, it burns your CPU. But that's just the beginning. It then starts burning the RAM by playing wiht the mobo voltages, so I suggest you stop using it as soon as possible and either get a legitimate copy or install XP, which has none of the Vista DRM. It's the DRM that burns processors and RAM, you see.

I also think next time you should get a DELL, dude.

And stop lapping your CPUs and voiding their warranty and potentially doing some damage.

Oh, and drop it to stock speed and see if it works then and then when it does, you know what to blame.

LINKAGE?

It is my opinion that Vista did not mess up your CPU.

 

[Scotteq]

OP - Do you have NAV installed??

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325672/en-us

 

[Scotteq]

Check this too: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935806/en-us That one's for the 0x0000008E code

 

[IndigoMoss]

You are only able to hit 3.0Ghz stable on an e6600 with a 680i board? With my Evga 680i SLI, I'm able to hit 3.4Ghz, maybe even higher, I'm just scared to try right now. Maybe you have a bad board?

I guess it could be the processor, but you said it tests in Prime 95 stable . I had a smiliar problem with a Nforce 4 Ultra SLI Asus board using my e6300, luckily it totally crapped out on me and Newegg gave me a Evga 680i SLI in place of it. I'd definitely say it's your motherboard before you r processor for the Prime 95 reason and because it'd suck for you if it wasn't.

 

[snarfies1]

LINKAGE?

It is my opinion that Vista did not mess up your CPU.

I'm reasonably sure that russki was joking, yes...? I lolled.

 

[jitpublisher]

Vista did not break your CPU. Lapping and overclocking, is what most likely is causing your problems. Did you try to install with everthing set to their rated speeds?

 

[russki]

I'm reasonably sure that russki was joking, yes...? I lolled.

Yes, of course I was joking.

In general, it is DIFFICULT for software to mess up hardware; the only piece of sofware I can think of that would have a remote possibility of actually screwing hardware would be the software overclocking suites, and my understanding is that even those are pretty safe, although I can't say I have used them much.

Even the OP saw through that....

TechnologyCoordinator, you disappoint me...

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

TechnologyCoordinator, you disappoint me...

Damn it, I've been had! I should know better too, as sarcasm is one of my favorite tools.

 

[notherdude]

Vista not only killed mu CPU but it killed my little dog Sammy too! Vista is the root of all evil, I'm convinced now.

For a time there I thought maybe there was a lot of mindless anti-Vista FUD spoiling Vista's reputation but this post and a number of others here recently has disabused me of that silly notion.

 

[lostandwandering]

Damn it, I've been had! I should know better too, as sarcasm is one of my favorite tools.

I'll chalk it up to you not having your caffeine yet.


I've basically decided with Vista that even if you're doing it right, you're doing it wrong. Don't like the OS at all.

 

[Scotteq]

2 GB OCZ Platinum 1066 MHz @ 800 MHz @ 4-4-4-8-1T

Loosen these timings back up, and if/when you reinstall - please do so on a freshly formatted (from DOS boot disc and C prompt) Hard drive.