i5 13600k crashing and restarting randomly while doing absolutely NOTHING

[MHzTweaker]

So this was part of a machine I built back in 2nd week of Feb 2023 for a client. It went out with 16gb of DDR4 PC3000 RAM and was fine for a while in an office setting where it never gets turned off. 

Recently it has returned 18 months later with issues of crashing and restarting.  

It did not get the microcode updates for all that time. 

My attempt to flash the current BIOS for microcode updates lead to a bricked motherboard with a continuous BIOS screen flash boot loop. Motherboard and RAM were replaced with a DDR5 based Z790 board and restricted frequency set to 5600Mhz for the RAM and proper voltage. The video card was also replaced with an RTX 3050. This is only an Office PC.

It went back out and within days I'm getting phone calls again, still crashing and restarting.

I replaced the power supply with a brand new high level gold rated supply. No difference. It is still crashing and restarting after the new power and lowering the RAM frequency even further. 

Yesterday I replaced the CPU and motherboard yet again with an Ultra 7 265k CPU, new MSI motherboard, correct current BIOS with DDR5 RAM set at its 6000MHz frequency and voltage at 1.37volts.  So far the machine has been up 18 hours in my shop, no reboots, no crashes. It creates an Acronis backup image of the boot drive every single night and did so last night perfectly. The client INSISTED, NO MORE 13th or 14th gen parts from Intel!!! Cannot say I blame her. 

I need this CPU replaced. It was the only thing left that had not been replaced and now after I have replaced it, no more crashes.  I will continue to leave the machine on throughout the day today and into the next day.  System logs do not have any useful information. Just catastrophic failure and unexpected shutdown/restart log entries. 

[RandyT_Intel]

Hi @MHzTweaker,

Thank you for posting in the community.

If the processor hasn’t been overclocked, shows no signs of damage, and the BIOS is updated to version 0x12F, you may proceed with a warranty request by following the instructions in this article. You can reference this thread to help expedite the approval process.

Please note:

• Warranty is non-transferable
• Only the original owner can submit the request
• Supporting documentation will be required

Let me know if you need help with the process or have any questions.

Best regards,

Randy T.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MHzTweaker]

Nothing has been overclocked.

It is a Law office workstation and belongs to the attorney who's name is on the building. 

Everything in the machine had been replaced BUT the processor. Multiple times. 

Two replacement Z790 motherboards both had up to date BIOS code from both MSI (3rd) and Gigabyte(2nd). Both crashed daily with this 13600k CPU. So that is 3 different motherboard, 2 different sets of RAM, 2 different video cards and 2 different power supplies that were used. 

First motherboard used DDR4  PC3200 RAM and was an ASRock Z790M 

2nd and 3rd motherboard used DDR5 PC6000, run at 6000, 5600 and 4800 Gear 2 with RAM voltage set manually at 1.35 and 1.37V

Intel default power settings were enforced the entire life of this CPU. Again, NO OVERCLOCKING.  

There were no microcode updates available from Feb 10th 2023 through December 31 2023.

Microcode updates were only available towards the end of summer 2024. So that's almost a year and a half BEFORE any were even available. The damage is done. The machine was not brought to me until last month, so that is another year. 

As a last resort with NOTHING left to do, I replaced the processor AND motherboard 2 days ago. It has not crashed since. The rest of the machine was intact including the OS. Only the CPU and Motherboard were swapped. Instant stability. 

Please replace this CPU. This is the "right" thing to do. This Attorney has probably spent 5x what this CPU originally cost in parts and labor trying to chase down this issue. 

[MHzTweaker]

A support request was opened yesterday

I am new at this so I was not sure what to do first.

support ticket 06693465

[RandyT_Intel]

Hi @MHzTweaker,

I understand. Since you already have an existing ticket for this issue, please wait for our support team to reach out to you for further assistance regarding your replacement request.

I’ve also forwarded your recent response internally to help ensure a smoother processing of your claim.

I will now proceed to close this thread. Please note that it will no longer be monitored, so we kindly ask that you focus on your existing ticket for any updates or follow-ups. 

Best regards,

Randy T.

Intel Customer Support Technician