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Bad CPU or bad MB

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Pirates vs Ninjas

Junior Member
Is there any way to tell whether a problem is occuring in the motherboard or the CPU, without swapping known good components? My Dad's PC starting crashing last week, and I have been working on the last few days. There were no major changes in terms of hardware/software. As of now, I cannot get to the logon screen in Vista, startup repair and boot CDs will not run correctly, often dying with a BSOD (BAD_POOL_HEADER is a common error). Memtest86 lights up like a Christmas tree in the first few minutes. At first I thought it was a bad RAM stick, but i have tried several known good sticks all with the same result. I don't want to waste money on something that might not be the problem (already did this with a new RAM stick). Is there anything further I can do to isolate the problem to either the CPU or the MB?
 
First things first. Check to make sure the CPU cooler is securely fastened in place. We need to rule out the system overheating.
 
I do not think it is a BIOS or overheating issue. No BIOS settings were changed when this behavior starting occuring and the CPU temp is reading a steady under 30 degrees.
 
If you have a DVOM it wouldn't hurt to check the PSU voltages, but if you are confident that the memory you have tried is ok in other systems mobo seems likely.
 
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