i9-13900kf crashes on windows 11 loading if turbo boost enabled

[MTH-001]

I have a system that was built for me in August last year but maker is no longer in business (otherwise I would go there first for support).

Lately it's been crashing sometimes on windows 11 loading screen, sometimes after a few minutes idle it crashes when I simply open a folder or try to write an email. This happens whether GPU is enabled or not, and nothing I've tried seems to stop it being unstable - sometimes it will take 5-10 starts just to get Windows to go beyond the welome screen.

I notice the only thing that stops it crashing is to disable Intel turbo boost in BIOS, which limits the P cores to just under 3GHz.

Is this a fault requiring the return of the processor, or is there some setting I'm missing?

CPU temperatures never go above 74C and I have not overclocked it.

Machine mainly used for audio and video editing.

BIOS is latest for that board, full system details attached.

[Mike_Intel]

Hello MTH-001,

Thank you for posting in Intel community Forum.

For me to better understand and diagnose the issue further, let me ask you to provide detailed responses to the following questions. This information will help me isolate the problem and determine the most appropriate course of action moving forward.

1. When did you start having this issue?
2. What was the last change made in the system before the issue started?
3. What is the brand and model of your motherboard?
4. You mentioned that the BIOS is updated. Did you also load the default BIOS after that?

If the processor is faulty, you may also contact your local Warranty Team for RMA request.

Intel Support Phone List

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MTH-001]

 Hi Michael!

1. When did you start having this issue? Have noticed it approx mid-May 2025 - before that it would freeze but only when doing heavy video and audio processing, and then increasingly freezing when idle or when just opening a folder.
2. What was the last change made in the system before the issue started? It looks like it started with the following Windows update: 2025-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5058411). System was 23H2 before this date.
3. What is the brand and model of your motherboard? MSI Tomahawk z790 max wifi
4. You mentioned that the BIOS is updated. Did you also load the default BIOS after that? Yes, default BIOS

[MTH-001]

Just adding 3 points:

1 - I tried using WIndows 11 Ultimate Performance power plan. This allowed me to use Turbo boost although again it failed within about 8 minutes. Second time I ran it it failed almost immediately. Just for info as I initially thought this would help but clearly it's not that.

2 - Whenever the system freezes, regardless of whether I'm using the GPU or whether I have that disabled, the symptom is that whatever is on the display is frozen. So no blue-screens or anything like that, just a frozen image, whether it's the Windows welcome screen or whatever else I'm displaying.

3 - as I'm also exploring this on the MSI forum since it's not totally clear if the CPU or something else is at issue, and on someone's suggestion there I've enabled a turbo boost ratio of -4 in the MSI bios, which limits the highest core multiplier to x54 but still dynamic (ie, it lowers the core multipliers when high performance not needed). This seems to work well - I've done a couple of video renders and am running another in different software. The GPU does most of the video work, but I will continue to test out with cpu-intensive tasks to see how that works. CPU temps max around 80c, currently 55c running the third of my intensive video tasks.

So it (currently) seems as if the CPU is unstable with more than x54 multipliers (the stock BIOS runs 2 of the p-cores at x56) hence my reducing the turbo ratio.

I'm wondering if something happened to make it unstable.

Next test will be to run intel processor diagnostic tool while turbo is enabled (I couldn't run this with turbo before as machine kept freezing)

[Mike_Intel]

Hello MTH-001,

Thank you for the update.

As for Intel, we only recommend BIOS default settings and updated BIOS to the latest.

If you are still having the same issue, you may now contact your reseller or report the unit to your local Warranty Team.

However, I believe you still want to further test the processor. Best way is to perform swap test which is to try your processor on a different system and try a different processor on your system. Make sure that each system has the latest BIOS and using the default BIOS settings.

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Mike_Intel]

Hello MTH-001,

I hope this message finds you well. 

Were you able to check the previous post?

Please let us know if you still need assistance.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Mike_Intel]

Hello MTH-001,

I hope you are having a good day.

I am sending another follow up on the last recommendations and make sure you contact the board manufacturer for more details about the latest BIOS and update with the microcode needed for this issue and also try to contact your reseller moving forward. 

Since we have not heard back from you, I need to close this inquiry. 

If you need further assistance, please post a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician