i3-550 memory controller failing?

[Douglas Mawson]

Hey guys! I am having trouble with my gaming rig at the moment. I got my memory back from RMA recently, and the motherboard would not post.

The memory in question is the exact same model that I originally purchased (Corsair DDR3 1600, CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9R), and have had on this board (EVGA P55 micro, 121-LF-E652-RX)  for a year.

When attempting to post with a single stick the bios would start to check the ram (what is this process is called?) and fail in one of three ways:
-Almost never: Pass the check and attempt to boot windows, which will then blue screen so fast I can't read it. 
-Sometimes: Freeze at around 3600mb. This consistantly occurs when I hold DEL to try to access the BIOS.
-Most often: Freeze around 1020mb. This occurs without any keys held. 

What is strange about this is that with a stick from a similar Corsair Vengance kit (cmz8gx32ma1866c9b) the computer would pause around 3600 in, then continue on to windows without issue. Also, my fresh from RMA sticks work fine on the Gigabyte based build that I stole an 1866 stick off of for testing. 

I tried both flashing my bios to the latest release, and back to version A72 with no change in either scenario. (The board shipped with A74 installed.) 

 

Following that debugging I conversed with EVGA and they had me RMA the board. I got it back yesterday, and the problems are no different, leading me to think that the cpu's memory controller may be failing. There's and i3-530 on craigslist that I may pick up to test with.

 

Thoughts?

 

TL;DR:

System spec summary:

i3-550

Corsair 2x4gb DDR3 1600, CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9R / corsair 2x4gb DDR3 1866, cmz8gx32ma1866c9b

EVGA P55 micro, 121-LF-E652-RX 

 

Issue: Issues initializing memory during post

 

Current Suspect: CPU

 

Request: Halp?

[Ryan Leech]

If you have any other 1156 cpu's, try swapping one in.

[Douglas Mawson]

That is a good plan. There's a 530 on the local craigslist. Ill see about picking that up to test with.

Nice location on your profile by the way =)