i9-13980HX CPU failures, app/game crashes and BSODs

[March1111]

Hi. I'm using an i9-13980HX processor in my laptop that i bought from ASUS and after 1 year and 3 months of mixed use it began causing problems 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure if the CPU is the source of the issue but i believe it is since when i disable Turbo Boost on it from G Helper program, it stabilizes to the point of almost no crashes. 

CPU intensive programs and games face much frequent crashes such as Google Chrome and some games. I've tried almost everything i could do or find online but no luck. I stress tested my hardware with many stress programs and my CPU passed the tests with great results in Prime95, IntelBurnTest and Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool. I've also tested my RAM with Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, MemTest86 and even MyASUS' test tool. 

I had to get rid of ASUS' bloatware apps such as MyASUS and Armoury Crate, my system got way more stable after doing so but crashes didn't stop there. I get many error codes or stop codes, the most frequent are: ntoskrnl.exe, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, Fltmgr.sys / 0xc0000005, 0x80000003, 0xc0000409.

I also got informed about ASUS' ridiculous overclock settings on their devices/motherboards set by default settings that literally cook 13th and 14th Gen Intel CPUs. I had heard about this 3 months ago but i thought BIOS updates fixed it. Appearently they either didn't fix it or the damage has already done. The stress tests are fine though so i can't say it's damaged. 

I've got into contact with ASUS first but i live in Turkey and they didn't help much both in e-mails and calls over phone. They want me to send my device to them but i know it's %99 going to get damaged either in delivery process or even in the hands of ASUS' associated services. I've heard MANY stories and bad experiences about these things, a few being from my friends too. I'm really in limbo, i don't know what to do. I have my 2 year warranty until September 2025 but ASUS doesn't have a service in my city, the ones they have in other cities are known for very bad reputation too. I've decided not to use my warranty and seek help from other sources. I'd appreciate it if you could help in this case.

I didn't open or did maintenance to my laptop because ASUS saying don't touch it or anything except adding or replacing SSD. Now i'm thinking of doing it myself or find someone trustable enough to do it because of the risks. I'm seeing CPU Temps at their ''usual'' range and at maximum 95 Celcius. HWInfo says i reach thermal throttling but i don't know if it's related to my issues or not. 

Can you help me with this please? Thank you.

[TheExpertGuy]

I think this is a complex situation with multiple potential causes. Even with Turbo Boost disabled, excessive heat can still cause instability. Outdated or corrupted drivers for the CPU, chipset, or other components can cause system instability. I suggest update all the drivers CPU, chipset, graphics, etc. from the manufacturer's website Intel, NVIDIA/AMD, etc. Temporarily uninstall any recently installed applications that might be causing issues. Disable unnecessary startup programs to reduce system load. But before making any significant changes or repairs, back up all your important data

[March1111]

Hello TheExpertGuy, thank you for your reply since Intel doesn't care to take a look at my problem and provide support. 

You're right, overheating can cause instability and all performance problems but there is a heavy evidence of it being not the problem, i experience all the crashes with Turbo Boost: Enabled and around 45* Celsius temperatures! I'm not sure what causes the thermal throttling readings in HWInfo but i think it doesn't have much connection with the issue itself after experiencing lots of crashes nowhere near hot temperatures.

My drivers, BIOS, everything is up to date from correct sources and always has been. I did 2 Windows 11 installs the second one being completely from scratch with a flash drive, nothing is fixed and all problems persisted even when i didn't have any programs installed yet, i was checking folders from File Explorer fresh into the install and it kept closing itself etc. nothing out of ordinary for me at that point. 3rd party startup programs are all controlled/disabled, performance is always watched on Task Manager and HWInfo, no scenario like %100 CPU/RAM usage etc. 

The only solution for me was disabling the Turbo Boost and using my CPU slower this way, i lose more than %50 of my performance but at least i don't crash in programs every minute! I'm going to send my device in for an inspection next week, there is definitely a problem with CPU.

[TheExpertGuy]

yeah... based on your description, the crashes occurring with Turbo Boost enabled at relatively low temperatures strongly suggest a potential CPU instability issue. Since disabling Turbo Boost appears to resolve the crashes, it further reinforces the suspicion of a CPU-related issue. 

...considering the evidence points towards a potential CPU issue I suggest filing a warranty claim with Intel through their website

[March1111]

Yep, thank you. That's what it is, i also got it stable by underclocking P-Cores by a few and i can finally use it without crashing but with lower performance of course. I first tried setting a max frequency on power plan settings, to 4.5 GHz and it was perfect, then i increased it until i hit 51x if i recall correctly and it immediately crashed Chrome pages (for the first time ever, i got a STATUS_BREAKPOINT error instead of STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION), apps then BSOD (note that the temps were fine during this). Now i'm using it at 49x P-Cores (default is 52x) and it's very good, i also did an undervolt upto -0,085V on Intel XTU and it's kinda close to my default benchmark points on XTU, better than running it at low clock speeds. I can still tinker with these settings but i'm really tired and don't want to mess with this issue any further lol. 

I'm going to use it for around a month then send it in for an RMA, i've gathered plenty of evidence suggesting this is indeed an Intel 13-14th gen CPU degradation and instability issue. I'm going to update my posts/profiles on other forums and platforms and leave what solved it for me there for other users to see and benefit from it  

Intel referred me to contacting ASUS in the warranty and RMA topics, my local ASUS didn't even bother replying in detail and simply asked for sending it in for service like a robot reply. Anyways, i'm sure this is going to happen as i think it will and i'll update about it everywhere too. 

Thanks for your replies and support TheExpertGuy, have a nice one

[Perun]

I have the exact same issue on my MSI laptop (Raider GE78 HX 13V) with the exact same CPU. Crashes are frequent both under Windows 11 (in Battlefield 2042, bad checksums during installation of Intel drivers and other) and Linux (Stellaris, system updates). The only way to make things work without a single crash is disabling Turbo Boost, which works on both mentioned OSes. In my case I haven't experienced a single crash or checksum verification error while Turbo Boost was disabled. UEFI updates and CPU microcode updates didn't help with this. I've read somewhere, that it could also be an SpeedShift problem, but disabling this option in UEFI didn't help either.

Looking forward for your further experience and possible solution.

[March1111 · Accepted solution]

Hello! I'm sorry to hear that you're also going through this terrible issue but worry not i have great news and a temporary solution!!! The solution is very simple, all you need to do is reduce your P-Core multiplier by a little and you're good to go! For example my i9-13980HX has a default P-Core multiplier of 52x and i can use it perfectly fine and healthy down at 48x-49x, i don't go around 50x as it's not predictable and i'd rather have completely stable system. I'm using Intel XTU for this task but you can use any other program or simply do it from BIOS. I also applied undervolt from that and it's of course better especially in temps. That's all you need to do, you'll have a perfectly stable system afterwards, just like how it was in the past

Note: It's been PERFECTLY STABLE for me and it's been a month!! I apply settings from Intel XTU every boot, that's on me but i don't want to set it to a profile because i'm lazy and that advanced interface made me so confused lol i don't bother. When i forget it or it works in default settings by a reason, i have the crashes and errors back, go and apply the settings and it's all good again. Make sure that it works underclocked, i use HWInfo to see which frequency it works at. This note is not important, just an experience that i wanted to tell

Although this is a great solution, it's temporary and costs a bit of performance too. The best and only solution is RMAing your affected CPU, i also don't know how it goes in HX processors as they're said not affected but surely is affected (%100000 affected!), i've yet to have the process of returning my device to ASUS. I hope things go well, i'm using it for some more time until i'm comfortable leaving my device for around a month. I'll update my post if i can when the whole process comes to an end. 

Thank you for reaching out, i truly appreciate it and i'm extremely happy to be able to provide you support and a solution!! Please let me know how it goes, i can't wait to hear the results, hopefully it'll work, i'm %99,9 sure it will! Good luck

[Perun]

Thank you for your reply March1111.

As I wrote in my first post I've already found a temporary solution for my both operating systems, and that is turning off Turbo Boost. One can easily do it under Linux with just one command

echo "1" | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo

Under Windows it's a little bit more complicated and requires unveiling and creating an option in your power plan as described under the given link .

I was just curious if you have some kind of inside knowledge how to permanently resolve this issue without disabling Turbo Boost or restricting CPU frequency.

[March1111]

I'm on Windows and i don't know about other operating systems as i had no experience with them but if you can simply limit your CPU max frequency it will do the work (or reduce P-Core multiplier, they are probably not the same but similar things in this case). I know you don't want to restrict CPU frequency but it's the way to get this temporary fix to work, you can still use Turbo Boost as i'm also doing right now with this fix The idea is just keeping CPU from boosting whatever it's going upto in stock settings and using it at a bit lower frequency, with the P-Core multiplier at 52x mine boosts  around 5200-5600mHz and i'm using it around 4800mHz these days and it's perfectly fine stability wise and it's definitely better than being without Turbo Boost, i feel like it's working at %80-%90 performance compared to it's healthy days but hey it's still very good regardless.

I also used to disable Turbo Boost before to fix this issue until i found avoiding high - top end frequencies being the solution. You either need to limit your max CPU frequency or reduce P-Core multipliers by a few (this will lower the max boosted frequency). I first went and put a 4600mHz limit at it as an experiment, was great and then i moved forward by this idea, using a software to manage CPU settings made things very easy and i'm living with it now, around 4800-4900mHz clocks with Turbo Boost on As you said, the CPU frequency limiter was a hidden power plan option and i did edit Registry for that, no problems though, i no longer need it thanks to programs like Intel XTU or Throttlestop (never used the second one). This sounds like a repeat of what i said in the first paragraph but i want to mean that there is no other way around except either disabling Turbo Boost and losing more performance than you'd do with the other option, underclocking a little. 

After all this story, troubleshooting for a month and losing my sanity over it; i saw that the game Marvel Rivals had a notification published around the same time i had these problems and spent countless hours, days. The notification is for users that experience crash/instability issues and are using Intel 13th - 14th generation CPUs. They say one should go and install a software such as Intel XTU and reduce their P-Core multiplier a bit and things should be solved. I was bummed to see it after i went through everything on my own but it was also a great relief, comfort to see i was able to find everything correctly and solve it the same way they did  

TL;DR (for others looking for a quick fix) : To fix this instability/crash issue, there is probably no other way except underclocking / limiting max CPU frequency and lowering it until everything is stable. I've gone through a world of posts and comments, tried many things on my own and made tons of troubleshoot and i have nothing but 2 things: disabling Turbo Boost (bad way to fix it / huge performance loss) OR reducing P-Core multiplier by a few (great way to fix it / little performance loss). I highly recommend P-Core method and for example my i9-13980HX uses 52x multiplier as default and i use it at 48x now in perfect stability, until i can return my device. We all need to get our CPUs replaced, it's the true fix. Good luck and i hope this works for you.

[Perun]

Well, as you can see I cannot use Intel XTU on my laptop sadly

[March1111]

Oh that's odd. Can you try Throttlestop and see if you're able to use it? Just trying another chance.

If you can't use any of these softwares you can go and unhide that power plan option, CPU Max. Frequency limiting option, you could easily use Turbo Boost but still remain at stable levels.

[Perun]

MSI's overclocking policy is more restricted than Asus' I guess, but as I'm more into Linux rather than Windows I can do what you are advising with another simple command

# cpupower frequency-set -u 5200000

 which restricts max CPU frequency on all cores form 5,6Ghz to 5,2Ghz. Will report back if this helps.

[March1111]

Might be, Asus is very limiting when it comes to tweaking your hardware but i nowmsee it's not the worst out there. It'd be better to have more control but at least you're not out of options I don't know if 5.2 GHz is going to be enough (it wasn't in my case / every cpu and their damage by this issue is different though) but if it still fails, reduce a bit more and see how it goes. I'm sure you'll find a good spot and have your machine perfectly stable again. Again, the only solution is replacing the hardware at this point but we still can use it for some more time with this temporary fix at least

[Perun]

So far I've some strange results.

1) On Linux limiting max CPU frequency up to 5,4Ghz (on this CPU two P-cores can go up to 5,6Ghz, which I suppose could be the culprit for instability) seems to do the job - no crashes in games, programs and during system updates as they were before. Gotta test a little bit more and longer.

2) On Windows 11 limiting CPU usage even to 50% or by other setting to 5,0Ghz in power plan still gives me crashes in Battlefield 2042 and some apps lik Tidal, which aren't occurring when I turn Trubo Boos off.

Very strange.

[March1111]

Nice to hear that Linux is doing great! Although i didn't quite get what you meant by CPU usage in Windows, to my understanding if you limit CPU usage to half of what's available it's normal to have crashes in resource heavy games like BF2042. And if 5.0 GHz dorsn't work you can ho down to 4.9 or 4.8, in my experience 52-51x is unstablr, 50x is a game of risk, 49x i'm not sure about that but it was fine, 48x and below is the most stability i've ever had since December.