Fatal Hardware Error!!

[powerpie5000]

My brothers PC has started playing up after upgrading it! He sent me a message with a quick description from the Windows 7 event viewer:

'A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Bus/Interconnect Error
Processor ID: 0'

Does anyone have any idea what this means? He recently upgraded his PC and it's been randomly crashing in games with a garbled display!

His current PC spec is:

*Intel Core 2 Quad Q9505s CPU (Asrock reports this as compatible)... Upgraded from a Core 2 Duo E6550.
*Asrock 4core1333-viiv motherboard (Intel P965 chipset).
*4 x 2GB Kingston DDR2 800 RAM (running at 667Mhz)... Upgraded from 4 x 1GB Crucial DDR2 667.
*Club-3D AMD Radeon 6850 overclocked edition... Upgraded from Geforce 8800GTS.
*1TB Hitachi SATA HDD... Upgraded from 250GB Seagate drive.
*Generic PCI wireless card.
*550W XFX Core Edition PSU... Upgraded from a weak old Hiper PSU.
*Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The crashes only happen when playing games... Could be after a few hours or every 10 minutes!

I noticed the boot screen and motherboard bios display the CPU as a 'Q9505' and not 'Q9505s' which is the 65W version. CPU-Z reports it correctly within Windows as a Q9505s. There has been no overclocking and the temps are relatively low with the GPU never going over 65C and the CPU cores never go over around 52C (when gaming).

This is all confusing and i will ask my brother if any other information is provided with the error. Does anyone here have any ideas?

Cheers!

 

[g-unit1111]

Motherboard could be due for a BIOS update - I'm guessing it isn't liking some of the newer hardware you've installed.

 

[powerpie5000]

Motherboard could be due for a BIOS update - I'm guessing it isn't liking some of the newer hardware you've installed.

This is what i find a bit strange.... Asrock state the Q9505S is compatible with the 4core1333-viiv motherboard in their list of supported CPU's, but the standard Q9505 is not in the list? And the latest (and last) bios is dated 03/07/2008 while the Q9505S CPU wasn't released until 31/08/2009. Maybe Asrock have fudged up their compatibility list?

The main bios page displays the CPU as an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9505 when it should say Q9505S (which is the 65W version). The boot screen also shows Q9505 without the 'S' on the end. CPU-Z shows the correct model number under windows 7.

 

[g-unit1111]

I checked Asrock's support site - I was pretty confused by this as well. It says that it requires BIOS version 1.60 in order to use the Q9505S. I'm not sure what the main difference between the Q9505 and Q9505S is, maybe you'd check over at the official Intel support forum for that.

But the thing with most BIOS updates is that a lot of manufacturers will code their BIOS for a string of CPUs and that CPU will generally be compatible with that BIOS update. If it's not on that list but in that same family it will probably be recognized. I would check with Asrock's technical support just to make absolutely sure before you proceed.

Now the other thing is, for example - my Asus P6T will recognize all the latest i7 CPUs and support 1600 MHz RAM memory even though most CPUs were released after the last BIOS update (which I believe was 1061). My motherboard will function with the i7-950 and i7-960 despite the fact that it was released after the last BIOS update (January 2010). But again - I repeat you should definitely check with Asrock's technical support before proceeding just to make absolutely sure.

 

[powerpie5000]

The motherboard has bios version 1.60 installed (which is dated around a year before the release of the Q9505S)... The Q9505S is a 65W version of the Q9505 (which is 95W). It consumes less power and runs cooler, but i think the motheboard could be pumping in too much voltage as it thinks the CPU is a plain Q9505! Anyway, my brother has now ordered a cheap MSI P43T-C51 motherboard to test it with as we suspect the Asrock board to be at fault.

I've double checked with MSI and their board works with the Q9505S and has a bios dated sometime in 2010 which is quite a bit newer than the outdated Asrock bios. Fingers crossed!