In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

[swim]

Hi guys,
I have been running a EX58-UD4P with i7 920 stably at 3.4 Gig for 3+ years until recently. Noticed that in POST one of my Patriot Warp SSDs in RAID 0 was red-lettered "error" message upon boot up, but windows did launch. I backed up what I wanted and a couple of days later, windows would not launch at all before I had time to test drives, memory, etc.. Fortunately, my daughter's PC (AMD 955) is running well, and I was able to research the problem online, including pouring over the contents of this site. I then ordered a new Kingston HyperX 120 GB SSD as well as another Windows7 Home Premium OS to replace what I thought would be a faulty drive as well as replacing the Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Beta version I've been running since its release. First system specs:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P Revision 1.0, BIOS version was F5 at the time of failure, (now F8 after flashing)
Core i7 920 (please don't ask for voltages for the 3.4 GHz overclock, it literally has been years since I looked at the settings)
three Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2GB memory 1600MHz
EVGA GTX 285 Graphics card
two Patriot Warp SSDs (32GB in RAID 0 - small primary drive, but I bought them when when SSDs were just under 4 dollars a Gig)
Silverstone Strider 1000 Watt PSU
WD 74 GB raptor drive
Seagate 1.5 TB drive

upon installing windows, I get a STOP F7 message with the bug code of 0.08 (indicating as far as I can tell, hardware or microcode error or maybe both?)

Here is what I have done to try and figure out where the problem may be:

-disassembled PC, blew out dust, vacuumed/washed filters, removed CPU fan, cleaned and reapplied Arctic Silver thermal compound (old grease still "wet" - not dried or crusty)
- tested PSU with PSU tester, all voltages stable and within range.
- did a 24 hour clear CMOS that included battery removal, applied shorting jumper, push internal power on button for 1 minute and left overnight (clock reset, looks cleared)
- ran Memtest86 4.0a for 4 passes at 2 hours with no errors
-booted with Hiren's boot CD version 15 and ran a plethora of tests including Prime95 for 8 hours (45 minutes with stress load)
-then there was the swapping of known good memory modules back and forth while trying different settings including setting BIOS to Fail Safe, Optimized, enabling XMP memory Profile 1, etc., etc.
- have not tried to overclock or increase/decrease QPI or Vcore settings as I do remember not having to do that to get my computer to boot when I originally built it, but I'm open for suggestions on safe timings and voltages that may help.
- Flashed BIOS (appears successfully in CPUID) from F5 to F8 (I chose F8 specifically for the microcode update) and ran more tests and tried the installation again

The thing is, everything "looks" good when tested and running in Mini Windows XP, all components recognized and testing fine, but then when it comes to Windows installation, BOOM! - BSOD

At this point, I would like to know if there is a way I can tell if the CPU is bad ( I do not have access to another socket 1366 board) or if the motherboard is bad (I do not have access to another core i7 920) with whatever tools/diagnostics/software I have left to work with or download. Please help, I am at wit's end. My technical proficiency is a little above average, but I am definitely not a Guru, so I seek the Guru's advice.

Thank you.

[wazza300]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

what hdd/ssd are you installing to? have you tried just one drive to install windows on? just to see if its a faulty/failing hdd/ssd

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

what hdd/ssd are you installing to? have you tried just one drive to install windows on? just to see if its a faulty/failing hdd/ssd

Yes Wazza (and thanks for responding, I was hoping you or LSD would). I am trying to install to a single Kingston HyperX Rev. 3.0 sata III 120 GB SSD. I initialized it in with daughter's PC (Gigabyte MA-UD5P) and ran HDTune to test it, all appears good.

[wazza300]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

your using intel sata2 ports? not marvell ones? not sure if that board has them

tried with just one stick of ram installed in any of the white slots? see if windows installs then

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

yes, the board has the two gray Marvel ports along with the 6 intel ports. I did try to install with just one memory module (mine and one I borrowed from my daughter's PC - 4 GB Corsair XMS3 1600 MHz, CAS 8 XMP profiled) but I did not try to install to the Marvel ports.

BTW - systematically numbered my RAM modules and tried all possible combos in the white slots (blue would not work) except running two at a time.

[wazza300]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

you could try an overnight CMOS clear,remove MB battery overnight then try

not sure what it could be,but you need to start at the beginning with minimum hardware, one hdd/one memory stick and full cmos clear,and take it from there

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

you could try an overnight CMOS clear,remove MB battery overnight then try

not sure what it could be,but you need to start at the beginning with minimum hardware, one hdd/one memory stick and full cmos clear,and take it from there

Thanks again, wazza. I did a full overnight CMOS clear at the beginning of this process, and current system config is Mobo, CPU, GPU, single SSD and single RAM. I am able to run mini windows XP, and probably could launch programs with a USB. Components "seem" good, but apparently are not. Is there a testing software (free, hopefully) that I can deploy to check if CPU is actually good for installing OS? Prime95 checked out OK but maybe it doesn't detect stacking errors or microcode issues?

with all respect, see OP with processes I went through.

[wazza300]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

ahh sorry,i always miss a few things,could try memtest86 for memory,ibt for cpu,

what qpi/vtt voltage is auto using? and what amount of dram? set dram manually to whats printed on the ram,and set qpi/vtt to 1.3v then see if it bsod's

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

ahh sorry,i always miss a few things,could try memtest86 for memory,ibt for cpu,

what qpi/vtt voltage is auto using? and what amount of dram? set dram manually to whats printed on the ram,and set qpi/vtt to 1.3v then see if it bsod's

no worries, I see that you help a lot of people.

I've ran Memtest86, but not familiar with "ibt", is that IntelBurnTest v. 2.53?

qpi/vtt = 1.15 (auto)

dram = 1.50 (auto - though I've tried enabling the XMP Profile 1 to adjust voltages to 1.65 v (as printed on ram)

will try settings as you suggest, and thanks for not giving up on me.


*note - settings for qpi/vtt are now at 1.3 v but settings for dram voltage can only be set to 1.640 v before the option of 1.660 v (which is pink highlighted)

[wazza300]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

1.66v is fine it will be 1.648v in windows

and yes intel burn test,set to high and try 5-10 runs,keep an eye on core temps,no higher than 80c if they go higher stop the test

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

- with cpu @ 1.30v
- adjusted dram to 1.64v, no go
- adjusted dram to 1.64v with XMP Profile 1, no go
- adjusted dram to 1.66v (disabled XMP profile), no go

I dloaded ibt and will now boot into mini XP to see if I can launch the program. Will get back to you.

thanks again.

[wazza300]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

did you try unplugging front panel usb? tried loading optimized defaults in bios

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

ugh - unfortunately mini windows XP does not provide a proper environment to run intelburntest.

I am afraid that I might be limited to the softwares available here to run any tests. And I'll tell you now, I've ran alot of them.

"did you try unplugging front panel usb? tried loading optimized defaults in bios"

have not used front panel USBs, all USB interaction has been through mobo I/O port, and yes, I've restarted alot of my diagnosing processes with optimized defaults, particularly after flashing BIOS.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

Please update to the latest BIOS, I suggest F14q. F8 is VERY OLD, and there was many releases after that which corrected many bugs and added many enhancements. And F8 specifically has a VERY old Intel controller ROM 8.0.0.1039, that is KNOWN to have issues with SSD's, the oldest ROM suggested for use with SSD's is 8.5. F14q has 10.6, so it's up to date for sure, I checked both to verify this for you!

It also has an updated AHCI ROM (1.20E) which will greatly improve your bootup times!

You can get F14q here, update via DOS or Qflash with USB.
ex58ud4p.rar

Once you've flashed, please enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults, then save/apply/reboot BACK to the BIOS. Once in the BIOS again set your SATA settings, such as AHCI suggested or RAID if needed, then your memory voltage and anything else you want to enable/disable, then save/apply/reboot again to windows. If you are using RAID you may need to reboot back to the BIOS that second time to make sure your OS drive is at the top of the hard disk boot priority, and you may also need to do that with AHCI if your OS Drive is not connected to the first Intel port SATAII_0 which is suggested.

Then once you've done all that, try a clean install again and see if you have issues. If you do, try the install with only a single memory module in the first white slot closest to the CPU

No need to further troubleshoot anything on such an OLD BIOS, especially since it has several modules that pre-date SSD's that are known to cause issues, so please update before we continue with anything else.

[swim]

Re: In over my head - BSOD Stop Error 7F with 08 Double Fault bug and I could use some help.

Hi LSD, and thanks for the help. There was a glimmer of hope that it would be a BIOS update issue, and with fingers crossed, I followed your directions but it was a no-go. Should I do another clear CMOS after this latest BIOS flash?

btw - I am installing an OEM windows 7 with SP 1 on a single SSD.