Skylake hard locks seeminly when IDLE / CStates ON

[GGlyn]

Myself and others have been struggling with a different hard lock problem with Skylake and we have ran out of options but to assume it is a CPU fault/issue. Does anyone have any comments or feedback?

The long thread is over here, but I will summarise. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2830772/skylake-build-randomly-freezing-crashing/page-7.html New Skylake Build Randomly Freezing/Crashing - Page 7 - windows 10 - Windows 10

Our systems hard lock randomly but appears on the most part to be when IDLE or next to IDLE. The hardlock can come when playing video, browsing (reading) or mostly when not interacting at all. Some (like myself) noted that they seem to occur more often if you are doing a large amount of disk IO (partition move for example or copying 40+ GB of data disk to disk).

Hard locks happen in either Windows (7,8,10) or Linux.

With CStates on, the crashes are often and usually within 10 minutes of IDLE. With CStates disabled completely most find that the system remains "mainly" stable for days. Generally, no one has reported locks when gaming or under high CPU load (so I do not think this is the Prime95 example but then, since compilers / drivers use the latest instructions (according to CPUID) I cant be sure).

The symptoms happen on many different manufacturers motherboards, RAM types and setups. We have successfully removed or replaced all components and the only change that seems to make a difference is CPU for a few. CStates off in the BIOS is absolutely a guarenteed way to stabilize significantly but not fix.

I changed CPU (after trying everything else) and find it now mostly stable with CStates ON. I must be clear that my system is 100% identical, CPU # 1 crashes all the time and must have CStates off, CPU # 2 does not crash so often even with CStates ON. One may argue this is a problem with my PC, a fault, but with so many people having the exact same issues I cant believe it is a defect. And with Cstates/SpeedStep so specifically (a known new part of Skylakes architecture), I remain convinced that this is something real.

Others were not so lucky, a replacement CPU did not make the situation better. Batches from different factories as well etc etc

My new CPU has hard locked but not when IDLE like the last one (not yet anyway). Mine can lock when under full load, video transcoding, but not more than 1 in 10 sessions. Cstates ON seems equally stable on this CPU as OFF.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

[abarb]

Ronin , we know that you work to Intel...

[CCris2]

All Intel representatives have an Intel in names or in replies, and they respond from behalf of Intel Corporation. I don't know from where you got this ideea ...

[abarb]

It is very simple, you are in almost all the problems/discussions of Intel products and I can not imagine how many computers you have ...

[CCris2]

I am on this forum with some problems also and I help, if I can, and when I can, with suggestions. That is all.

If you look on the first page of this thread, you will see allan_intel. He is one of Intel representatives.

[JBenc1]

I built a 6700K Skylake PC back in November, and have had occasional crashing on and off. I've updated my BIOS every time there has been an update, and it hasn't been resolved. I was hoping an eventual BIOS update would fix it.

Overtime, it seems like the crashes are getting more frequent... from once a week to multiple times a week. The computer completely freezes up with repeating audio... although very rarely there is a Windows 10 bluescreen, and I've seen 4-5 different error messages. Most of the time it's just a hardlock and requires a hard reset. The computer has never crashed when idle (overnight), but typically freezes while gaming (Overwatch), or even during light use such as watching Youtube or Twitch.tv. I've even had it crash while outside of a Windows environment (running Memtest86.)

I've had instances where the computer is completely stable for a week, and other times where it crashes once a day.

I found this thread earlier this month and have been trying various things that I've read here. So far, I'm still getting crashes at completely stock clocks, with CStates off, and manually inputting voltages (CPU voltage (1.2-1.35), Core Pll (.85-1.2), VCCIO (1.15-1.2), System Agent (1.2), dram (1.2-1.25), vccsa (1.2)).. and I'm still crashing regularly. I haven't found a way to make it crash... I've tried running stress tests for hours and still nothing. Some days I can play all day, and other days it's interrupted with crashes.

I'm out of ideas at this point and wondering if there's something that I haven't considered. Does it sound like RMA'ing the CPU is the way to go, here?

Here are my specs:

Mobo: Asus Maximus VIII Hero

CPU: Intel i7-6700K 4.0GHz

Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR-2400

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB

PSU: Corsair RMx 750W

Thanks.

[ssote]

MasterEvilAce wrote:

I built a 6700K Skylake PC back in November, and have had occasional crashing on and off. I've updated my BIOS every time there has been an update, and it hasn't been resolved. I was hoping an eventual BIOS update would fix it.

Overtime, it seems like the crashes are getting more frequent... from once a week to multiple times a week. The computer completely freezes up with repeating audio... although very rarely there is a Windows 10 bluescreen, and I've seen 4-5 different error messages. Most of the time it's just a hardlock and requires a hard reset. The computer has never crashed when idle (overnight), but typically freezes while gaming (Overwatch), or even during light use such as watching Youtube or Twitch.tv. I've even had it crash while outside of a Windows environment (running Memtest86.)

I've had instances where the computer is completely stable for a week, and other times where it crashes once a day.

I found this thread earlier this month and have been trying various things that I've read here. So far, I'm still getting crashes at completely stock clocks, with CStates off, and manually inputting voltages (CPU voltage (1.2-1.35), Core Pll (.85-1.2), VCCIO (1.15-1.2), System Agent (1.2), dram (1.2-1.25), vccsa (1.2)).. and I'm still crashing regularly. I haven't found a way to make it crash... I've tried running stress tests for hours and still nothing. Some days I can play all day, and other days it's interrupted with crashes.

I'm out of ideas at this point and wondering if there's something that I haven't considered. Does it sound like RMA'ing the CPU is the way to go, here?

Here are my specs:

Mobo: Asus Maximus VIII Hero

CPU: Intel i7-6700K 4.0GHz

Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR-2400

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB

PSU: Corsair RMx 750W

Thanks.

Have you tried Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool just to make sure it is not the CPU here is the link. http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000005567.html The Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool

[JBenc1]

I did try that and it reported no issues, even when looping many times.

For what it's worth, I read back a few pages and found someone talking about Asus' "Multicore Enhancement" setting and some voltages he manually set. Running with his settings my computer was completely stable for 4 days. Earlier today I decided to test some more by re-enabling XMP, setting voltages to Auto, etc.. basically reverting all my settings except forcing the ME setting to disabled.

Here's to hoping this fixes everything... I'm hopeful.

[ssote]

MasterEvilAce wrote:

I did try that and it reported no issues, even when looping many times.

For what it's worth, I read back a few pages and found someone talking about Asus' "Multicore Enhancement" setting and some voltages he manually set. Running with his settings my computer was completely stable for 4 days. Earlier today I decided to test some more by re-enabling XMP, setting voltages to Auto, etc.. basically reverting all my settings except forcing the ME setting to disabled.

Here's to hoping this fixes everything... I'm hopeful.

Did you try updating your Bios they have updates for stability?

[JBenc1]

Yeah, I've always updated to the latest BIOS.

Just as an update, my crashes seem 100% related to "Asus Multicore Enhancement"... disabling this, I am able to run at all my original overclock settings (4.5ghz, XMP profile, etc.), and have the computer be completely stable. While I doubt it actually matters at this point, I did set a bunch of the main voltages manually, just to limit the amount of variables that could be causing problems.

VCCIO 1.15, VCCSA, 1.2, Dram 1.2, and CPU on adaptive @ 1.25v and .05 offset.

With my overclock settings, I had to set the cpu offset voltage otherwise the computer would lockup or bluescreen during loading windows. It would load fine with no offset at stock clocks, though.

Also my BIOS would constantly attempt to set the CPU voltage to 1.36v-1.4v, which is obnoxious and really makes temperatures fly through the roof, even on watercooling, during Aida64 stress test... most of the time the test would fail within 5 minutes. By manually setting the voltage much lower the temperatures are very cozy. The highest voltage it reaches is 1.325v during 100% utilization via Aida64.

I hope this helps any one else in this thread still having problems. I was pretty close to swapping out hardware to try to fix the problem. Thanks to one of the posters a few pages back, I looked into the Multicore Enhancement setting.

[JBenc1]

whelp. Had another crash. It's been a couple weeks at least... but still not 100% stable. Not sure what to think at this point.

[abarb]

Dude, you have a BugsLake. Just change of cpu.

[ssote]

MasterEvilAce wrote:

whelp. Had another crash. It's been a couple weeks at least... but still not 100% stable. Not sure what to think at this point.

+1 I just RMA my skylake two weeks ago it's been running great, Intel is great to work with. Phone Number: 1-916-377-7000

[abarb]

Imagine millions of the people call Intel for change yours BugsLake!

[idata]

Some help would be appreciated. Maybe Ronin, can you look at my voltages?

i have idle hard locks as well, seeming random, can be a few hours to a couple of days

been struggling it for a month or more now

my setup:

gigabyte z170x gaming 3 mb

skylake i5-6400

using onboard graphics

hyper x 2 x 8gb ddr4-2400 (HX424C15FB2K2/16)

crucial 256gb mx100 sata3 ssd

uefi settings - all on auto

looking at uefi it says following

vcore says 1.15, auto

cpu vccio 0.960, auto

cpu graphics voltage - , auto

cpu system agent voltage 1.06, auto

cpu core ppl overvoltage - , auto

PCH core 1.0v , auto

i have left all cstates on auto, i did try and fiddle with turning it off, and it still crashed.

memtest for 8 hours all normal

prime95 for a few hours no problems

no problems with heating

runnign windows 10, and i dont think its that cause once it crashed whilst in uefi

i did try all sorts of settings including putting it in high performance mode, turning off "turn off device to save power" and turning off power saving features of pci/usb etc

i tried +0.05 voltage to vcore and it still crashed after 2 days.

here is hwinfo screencaps

https://s18.postimg.org/hip91r4xl/Capture.png

https://s18.postimg.org/qf015ovjt/Capture2.png

https://s18.postimg.org/b7k1lc3p5/Capture3.png

Any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks

[ssote]

Zed9 wrote:

Some help would be appreciated. Maybe Ronin, can you look at my voltages?

i have idle hard locks as well, seeming random, can be a few hours to a couple of days

been struggling it for a month or more now

my setup:

gigabyte z170x gaming 3 mb

skylake i5-6400

using onboard graphics

hyper x 2 x 8gb ddr4-2400 (HX424C15FB2K2/16)

crucial 256gb mx100 sata3 ssd

uefi settings - all on auto

looking at uefi it says following

vcore says 1.15, auto

cpu vccio 0.960, auto

cpu graphics voltage - , auto

cpu system agent voltage 1.06, auto

cpu core ppl overvoltage - , auto

PCH core 1.0v , auto

i have left all cstates on auto, i did try and fiddle with turning it off, and it still crashed.

memtest for 8 hours all normal

prime95 for a few hours no problems

no problems with heating

runnign windows 10, and i dont think its that cause once it crashed whilst in uefi

i did try all sorts of settings including putting it in high performance mode, turning off "turn off device to save power" and turning off power saving features of pci/usb etc

i tried +0.05 voltage to vcore and it still crashed after 2 days.

here is hwinfo screencaps

https://s18.postimg.org/hip91r4xl/Capture.png https://s18.postimg.org/hip91r4xl/Capture.png

https://s18.postimg.org/qf015ovjt/Capture2.png https://s18.postimg.org/qf015ovjt/Capture2.png

https://s18.postimg.org/b7k1lc3p5/Capture3.png https://s18.postimg.org/b7k1lc3p5/Capture3.png

Any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks

RMA the CPU that will fix the problem.

[CCris2]

Actually problem was solved in private, with a bios update it seems ...