P67 Constant BSOD @ Stock

[spymoose]

Friend built a Sandy Bridge PC back in Jan or Feb, using 2500k, 4GB G.Skill RAM, P8P67 Pro, GTX 460. Was running fine until about a week ago when it began BSOD constantly (even at idle on desktop 5 minutes after a reboot). Was mostly getting error 0x9c, which is odd because the system is running at stock settings and nothing has been changed on that front.

Any recommendations? He wants to do a reformat, but I'm not sure that is going to help. Told him to do a CMOS clear to begin with, and we've ensured his RAM sticks are fine (in an attempt to begin eliminating the problem).

Advice?

 

[spymoose]

After a CMOS clear, it's BSODing during reformat. BIOS should be default, so which hardware could be causing this?

 

[denis280]

Defective Ram. i dont know if you have only one stick or more.if you have more then one try one at the time. let us know about it

 

[splat_ed]

Others will be able to give better advice than me soon, but to start with some basic steps:

You said that you've confirmed that the RAM is good. I'm assuming this was a memtest for a while?

Next, double-check the BIOS settings. Sometimes it doesn't pick up the correct timings for RAM or the default is not appropiate for the system.

If you want to rule out hardware, then the best method is to swap with known good hardware.

I was going to suggest updating drivers, but you said is was BSODing in format (how are you doing the format?)

Michael

 

[BoomerD]

Do a search here for "build and boot."

Not only is it the best way to assemble a new computer, it's also the easiest (but not necessarily the fastest) way to troubleshoot one that's acting up.

I've posted the procedure numerous times...I'm sure you'll find it. (if not here, in General Hardware)