Sick System Diagnosis

[jbnimble]

My ASRock Extreme 4 Z87 / i7-4770K system recently crashed, for no apparent reason.

After fiddling with connections, I replaced the motherboard battery and installed the latest BIOS.
Now it sometimes works fine, but then the next time it gives a CPU failure code on the motherboard readout.

It has always had a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo heat sink, and I overclocked nothing
It has no graphics card.

I have replaced many parts, trying to identify the problem:
RAM, power supply, SSD, SATA cables, re-seated connectors repeatedly.

I now suspect either the CPU or the motherboard.
If it's one of these two, which is the more likely to fail?

System:
ASRock Extreme 4 Z87
Intel i7-4770k
Cooler Master 212 Evo CPU cooler
GSkill RAM 4 x 8GB (have tried single, double & all 4)
Samsung 256 SSD OR Intel 250 SSD
CD Writer (have tried system without connecting this)
Corsair 430 Power Supply OR EVGA 500B

Any suggestions?

 

[smorizio]

intel has a free cpu test software see if it can see if ithe cpu has an issue. with the newer cpu the memory controler built into the cpu. one thing to watch out for is over tighting the evo cooler and have it short the cpu chip out under the lid. also make sure none of the ram or cpu is hitting the mb tray.

 

[jbnimble]

Thanks Smorizio,
For what it's worth, I removed the EVO cooler, then cleaned and applied new Ceramique paste.
That had no effect on the problem.
Moreover, when it posts & boots correctly everything works perfectly until the next boot.
And it seems to be more likely to fail if anything is changed while it's turned off, like adding a second drive, or changing the port an SSD connects to.

I will look for the Intel CPU test softward.

 

[jbnimble]

Smorizio,

I searched for Intel CPU test software, and was flooded with many alternatives;
most or all were not from Intel. Then I went to the Intel website and still found nothing that looked correct.

A link to the software you recommend would be very helpful.