> Seeing that the CPU works in Windows and Linux, I think this is an ESXi issue (...)
One could also argue that ESXi is more thorough in comparing and testing on boot, given that this started to show in 7.0 U1 when we tightened up the checks. I'm not saying there isn't a chance that this is indeed ESXi misbehaving but I guess my default assumption is innocent until proven guilty 
Given our shared employer, I'll ping you internally for logs that could help.