Bad board, cpu, or both?

[Vuitton]

My new system that I built about a week and a half ago is already experiencing major issues. I can't figure out what is causing them. At first the issues just appeared when installing programs. The installations would fail at random %s for random reasons, but if I kept retrying eventually it would be successfull. Now, things have escalated within the past three days where files are being corrupted on every restart or reboot, such as boot files and system files. It would loop endlessly the windows startup repair trying to fix corrupted files that would corrupt at any time at random it seems, but especially rebooting.

At first I thought it was software and that I damaged the registry some how, so I formatted the drive and reinstalled windows 7. The installation failed twice at different points and for different reasons. The third time it was successfull. Then after my first reboot (after installing the ATI drivers for the video card) I began experiencing boot issues again, and now can't even boot all the way into windows. I ran a scandisk of the system files and it said a ton of stuff was corrupted and not recoverable.

I ran a diagnostic test on my ram (memtest86) that took about 30min. and it passed everything without a hitch. I also ran disk check of the drive to see if there was any bad sectors or something, and there was nothing as well.

All I can think now is that some how the motherboard or the CPU is the problem? I am really at a loss. I have never experienced anything like this before.

When I get home tonight I am going to move the drive to my old system and reinstall windows on it to see if the same issues show up, just to verify if its the problem or not.

System:

Board: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
CPU: Intel i7 920 (w/ megahalems & 2 mounted fans)
Memory: OCZ Gold DDR3 1600
PSU: Corsair 1000w
GPU: Gigabyte ATI HD 5870
Boot Drive: Intel SSD X-25M 80gb SSD (OS is Windows 7 Prof. x64)
Storage Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 7200rpm 1tb

[Icari]

have you tried installing windows on the storage drive just to see if it will install? did you check in BIOS to verify that everything looks ok with your processor? If you can get windows to install, try to see if you can find a CPU stress test and run it and see what the results are.

[Vuitton]

have you tried installing windows on the storage drive just to see if it will install? did you check in BIOS to verify that everything looks ok with your processor? If you can get windows to install, try to see if you can find a CPU stress test and run it and see what the results are.

I'll try installing the OS on the storage drive as well. I'll need to back it up first. I'll put the SSD and install the OS on it in my old system, and I'll use the HD in the new system to see if the same problem occurs.

I know the BIOS has the CPU set to its optimized-default settings, which is mostly auto for everything, a x20 multiplier, ect.

[Artemicon]

Problems with installing programs, and OS. Sounds like a bad HDD. The drive in question you're having trouble installing programs on is this also your SDD? I don't know about SSDs but sometimes drives can be bad and still not display problems. Happens all the time where I work.

That aside, it doesnt sound like a MB problem but it very well could be and the CPU id check to make sure you don't have any bent pins or thermal paste under the CPU although I really doubt it.

[antihero]

what's your DIMM configuration on your RAM? x58 boards are really particular about how you install the sticks, my latest build had us thinking that some shit was doa or fucked up and it turned out to be the ram in wrong slots >B| probably wouldn't even post if the RAM was in wrong slots, just sayin'

[Evanos]

I have the same exact mobo as you, do you have the RAM in the white slots or the blue ones? If you have the RAM in the blue slots it can cause some issues.

[Vuitton]

I'll have to check which slots they're in. I know I put them in the correct slots per the motherboard's manual for triple channel. Which was slot 2, 4, and 6 (not 1, 3, and 5). They're at 7-7-7-7-something from what I recall in the BIOS. This is their stock setting I think. I never changed them, unless they changed when I told the BIOS to run on optimized-default settings.

I emailed my dad (lawl. he is an engineer at Intel, but on servers) and he think its the drive too. I didn't mention it being an SSD to him though. (If he knows I am blowing money on SSDs he won't give me money for when I really need it.)

I am going to try to install the OS on another drive (not the SSD) in the same system to see if the problem is the SSD. I asked my dad if the problem continues even on another drive in the same system what might be the problem and he said that the southbridge of the mobo controlling the SATA/PCI might be damaged, but I don't think thats it because the storage drive, the blu-ray, and the GPU are all working perfectly.

So its either the drive, which I am hoping, because that is the easiest to replace, or the CPU. If switching the drive doesn't work I'll have to remove the heatsink and take a look at the pins of the CPU.

[sruon]

Money on HDD or RAM, if it's an issue you can easily reproduce just try with different RAM configurations (1 stick, 2, different slots etc)

[Vuitton]

It turns out that the SSD was the problem. Which I think is weird because its brand new. I have no idea how a SSD could get corrupted let alone a new one. Still, after I pulled it out of the system and installed Windows 7 on the 1tb drive, there has been no errors. I ran the system file check after installation and after updating the system and installing my drivers, games, and security, and it came back with zero errors and full file integrity.

I am just worried now that something in my system is going to do the same thing to this drive as it did to the SSD. Or if the SSD just came defective out of the box?

Thanks for everyone's help!

[Mafai]

It was dead out of the box, friend had same thing happen to him and had to RMA it. Files would be fine one day, then suddenly corrupt the next day.. I want to say his was an A-DATA SSD drive, they had no problem RMA'ing him a new one.

Can't your dad get you discounts on hardware working for Intel?

What brand SSD was the defective SSD?

[Vuitton]

It was dead out of the box, friend had same thing happen to him and had to RMA it. Files would be fine one day, then suddenly corrupt the next day.. I want to say his was an A-DATA SSD drive, they had no problem RMA'ing him a new one.

Can't your dad get you discounts on hardware working for Intel?

What brand SSD was the defective SSD?

It was the Intel X-25M 80gb SSD (2nd generation). SATA

I believe he does have a discount, but we live in different states right now (he works at the WA campus). I am not sure how his discount works. I know sometimes he'll give me free hardware. He tossed me a core 2 quad cpu a few years ago from a test system he no longer needed.