Malfunctioning i7 CPU?

[JWest5]

Hi, first poster here! =)

Since half a year back I've been having some issues with my i7-3770k. In general the PC is running very smoothly, as expected by my build, even though I work on very large projects of music production. However occasionally I blue screen for no apparent reason. This can happen at any moment when I'm using the PC, from working in my DAW, browsing the internet, and most surprisingly for me, when I'm turning the PC off. To monitor my CPU performance I've installed a gadget that, similar to the task manager, shows the processor working over time. With it I see several spikes in one of the cores when my PC is just idle. With this post I've added a screenshot of the monitors that display my issue.

What could be causing these spikes? Is this due to a malfunctioning CPU, or is this a sign of an issue with another component in my system?

Here's an image of the processes that were running during the above screenshot

My apologies if I'm leaving relevant information out. I'm not entirely familiar with this community so I'm not sure what the regular procedures are when you are having an issue like mine.

[Amy_C_Intel]

Hello wellfunk,

I would recommend downloading the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool which the purpose is to verify the functionality of an Intel processor. The diagnostic checks for brand identification, verifies the processor operating frequency, tests specific processor features and performs a stress test on the processor, so that way we will know if there could be any issue with the processor itself.

Also, if you can sent your system configuration that will be helpful, including the motherboard model and the memory modules that you're using.

Here is the link where you can find the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool-64-bit- Intel® Download Center, third option to install it.

Regards,

Amy.

[JWest5]

Hi Amy!

My system configurations are as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k 3,5Ghz

OS: Windows7 Professional N Service Pack 1

Motherboard: MK ASRock B75M-DGSmATX, DVI, D-Sub

RAM: Corsair 16GB (2x8192MB) CL10 1600MHz Vengeance LP

GPU: ASUS nVidia GTX650 1GB DirectCU

SSD (OS): 120GB Samsung SATA 2.5", 840-Series

I'm having more and more BSOD since my first post. I ran a test function on my RAM using a program called "MemTest86" to see if the crashes were caused by some issues in my memory, but the test passed without showing me signs of any errors.

I also ran the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool that you adviced me to do. There were no errors during the test as far as I could see. In the link below you can find the output .txt file I got from the test called "TestResults". I have also included the dump files from one of my latest BSOD in hopes that it will help clear out my issues.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bwe1IjXZF7FcfjVjdHpveGxDb1JIaktVR0c0SDlkM3dhZEVkNXd6RFFHMXUwU0p3RUJTUkU&usp=sharing Public folder

Is there any more information I could hand you to help me solve my problem?

Best regards,

Jacob

[Amy_C_Intel]

Jacob, checking the test results I notice that one of reasons that you have these BSOD could be related that the processor is overclocked, meaning that is running beyond its specifications:

This is the reading that you sent

--- Reading CPU Frequency ---

Expected CPU Frequency is --> 3.50

Detected CPU Frequency is --> 3.80574

and here you can check the Processor Base Frequency for your processor http://ark.intel.com/products/65523/Intel-Core-i7-3770K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz ARK | Intel® Core™ i7-3770K Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz). What you can do at this point is accessing the BIOS and change the Core multiplier, I would recommend loading the default in BIOS settings.

Regards,

Amy.

[JWest5]

Amy,

I followed your recommendation and limited my CPUs clock through the BIOS to stay below 3.5Ghz. If we trust my CPU-monitor gadget, the action is now in effect:

However I still note these regular occuring spikes when my PC is idle, and since I changed the BIOS settings I've still had a number of BSOD. These happened while I was shutting down my PC. I have uploaded two sets of dump files from the crashes. For the sake of clarity I have labeled the new files with (2) and (3) to seperate them from the olders ones.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bwe1IjXZF7FcfjVjdHpveGxDb1JIaktVR0c0SDlkM3dhZEVkNXd6RFFHMXUwU0p3RUJTUkU&usp=sharing Public folder

Best regards,

Jacob

[Amy_C_Intel]

As a workaround verify on the BIOS is the processor is running at the right speed if the problem continues please contact us at http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Contact Support.

Regards,

Amy.