Failing PCH controller on X79 Sabertooth??

[frozenreads]

I have had an issue developing with my X79 Sabertooth/I7 3820 for a while and have been tearing my hair out trying to diagnose and was hoping someone might be able to help. Here is my story....

1. Ever since having this board/processor combo, I would on rare occasions get 'windows explorer has stopped responding' messages usually when I tried to access control panel on a frequency of perhaps once a week.
2. I then started noticing just before xmas, I would randomly get blue screens sometimes stating IRQ less than equal, sometimes 'missing pool header'. The blue screens would occur more frequently at Windows boot up.

3. To try and diagnose these issues I initially blamed my solid state drive and got it replaced, no luck, tried replacing memory modules, no luck.

4. Then I noticed if I used a BIOS revision later than ASUS 3009 I had trouble installing Windows 7, it would always blue screen with the missing pool header message at around the installation of Service Pack 1. If I reverted back to 3009 it would install fine.

5. By reverting back to 3009 the frequency of blue screens decreased but still would occur.

6. I noticed that by switching off PCH High Precision Timer in the BIOS I would get the same 'Windows Explorer has stopped responding' messages whilst accessing control panel but more frequently.

7. I also noticed that sometimes just before the 'pool header missing' message at boot up the boot up would be going much slower as though it was having trouble reading data off the drive.

I am tearing my hair out, I have eliminated hard drive/solid state drive and memory, I am suspecting perhaps either failing processor OR failing PCH controller on the motherboard.

Any thoughts?

The issue seems to lessen with an earlier bios revision but not completely go away and the issues do occur at stock speeds. Other things I have tried: increasing PCH voltages, checking PCH temps, switching SATA cables/ports all seem fine and do not fix the issue.

Help! Pleeeeeeeease! lol

 

[Fever]

I'd say you haven't necessarily eliminated any of them by exchanging them, as you could've (very low possibility) gotten a faulty unit in exchange.

I'm thinking RAM. Run memtest 86 and HCI memtest overnight and post results.

 

[leighspped]

i dont know if it helps but im going to rma the board. due to a overheating vcore (at stock clock speeds)

 

[leighspped]

i dont know if this helps but 2 of my temp sensors died last night during prime95, the motherboard sensor only working occasionally after a few reboots

 

[frozenreads]

Well seem to have fixed the issue. Increased CPU PLL by a reasonable amount and also increased CPU Fixed Frequency, not only have the blue screens gone away so have the random 'Windows Explorer has stopped responding' messages. Just need to discover if it was the PLL increase or fixed frequency that fixed it.

 

[Fever]

What did you increase them to?