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i9 14900k randomly crashing

Trooper1
New Contributor I
21,416 Views

I recently built this Computer, and it was crashing fairly often until I updated the bios and utilized the enforce intel power option, it's crashing less often now, but still randomly crashing once every 1-2 days. I was hoping someone might be able to help me track down the issue or offer bios setting suggestions to gain system stability.

When a crash occurs, there's no blue screen or anything, PC just randomly shuts itself off, and then a few seconds later comes right back on, and lasts for another day or two before doing the same. I could be gaming or just sitting on the desktop.
Since it's doing it less often with latest motherboard bios installed and intel limits enforced, It seems to me like it may be CPU or Bios setting related.

I'm concerned that during the time the motherboard CPU power limits were set quite high in the bios by default, it may have inadvertently caused minor damage to the CPU?

I have run an Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool CPU test and it passed.
I ran a Windows Memory Diagnostic test, which came back good.
I also double-checked that PL1 and PL2 were set correctly after enforcing Intel power limits.
Most recently, I have tried setting the SVID to "Worst Case Scenario" in bios.

My PC Setup:
CPU: intel i9 14900k cpu with XMP disabled and intel power limits enforced
CPU Cooling: Corsair AIO Liquid Cooling
Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI
Corsair CMH64GX5M2B6400C32 32gb x2 memory sticks
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics card
PSU: Corsair HX1200i 1000+Watt Platinum Cert
OS storage: Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB M.2 NVMe (+Various other secondary storage drives)
Case and cooling: Lian-Li 4x 120mm case fans, 3 front 1 back, (2 top attached to AIO liquid cpu cooler)

I have attached Intel SSU, Event Viewer Logs, and below is a link to my memory.dmp file (although that seems to be corrupted when I tried to look at it myself). Event logs only seemed to tell me kernel power lost, with no reason given.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x5ss517x8ewjbwz5jd8yu/MEMORY.DMP?rlkey=io118qvsskxwycta17d3i2lvw&dl=0

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks

1 Solution
Trooper1
New Contributor I
15,373 Views

Thanks for the idea @CoolBook ,
In addition to the previously mentioned changes, I've disabled thermal velocity boost, as well as adaptive boost, and I've lowered the V/F point for 7-11 by -0.001.
I also capped all of the performance core ratios down to 55 max from their default 60 max ratio.
So far this seems to have Greatly improved system stability and application stability, prior to these changes I couldn't even open steam or discord without them crashing immediately, I will still need another RMA to attain standard CPU speeds and stability on standard settings again, but at least with these settings I can use my PC again normally in the mean time! (So far). I'm awaiting reply from Intel support regarding another RMA. I hope they're not too short staffed after the recent layoffs.


For others: I found the information I gathered below helpful in figuring out how best to slightly undervolt and underclock the i9 14900k for stability.

Trooper1_0-1723068107425.png

Source: https://skatterbencher.com/2023/12/16/skatterbencher-67-intel-core-i9-14900k-overclocked-to-6200-mhz/#VF_Curves
(Make sure not to accidentally overclock anything with positive offsets if you're having stability issues, as this could void your warranty).



Screen capped my recent bios setting changes below:

Trooper1_2-1723068432726.pngTrooper1_3-1723068453670.png


I will continue to test and tweak settings for stability as needed.
Please do let me know if you find other/better ways to increase stability in the bios!

 

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25 Replies
Trooper1
New Contributor I
18,975 Views

It crashed once more this morning, this time sitting on the desktop with not much open. (Current SVID setting was Worst case scenario, I have now bumped that down to Intel's fail-safe SVID option).

I happened to be looking at the temperatures as the crash happened with HWInfo, all seemed fine with CPU core Temp at 43 C, and CPU Package temp at 45 C, and Core Max temp at 47 C.

I had been gaming prior and noticed that throttling must have engaged briefly, as I did not see a spike in temperatures in the graph; but the Maximum Core and package temperatures had recorded fairly high values. Not sure if that is an error with HWInfo temp sensor recording. Below is a screen grab of that taken just before crash. Graph values from left to right are Current > Minimum > Maximum > Average.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
18,957 Views

To follow up, I don't think temps are related to my issue, although (of some concern) I am noticing temperature spikes on the CPU Package now during high application usage like helldivers throwing up an error and closing itself. The PC itself did not repeat the issue of crashing during this time and remained stable. Screenshots attached.

Nate6
Novice
14,813 Views

Im also having this issue, but it is blue screening. 14900kf, 4090, alienware motherboard.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
18,885 Views

Update:
I was just browsing the web today and at around noon after maybe 2-4 hours of PC use the OS grew unresponsive and then fully froze, necessitating a restart. While less dramatic than a full on crash, still just as troublesome.

The pattern I've noticed so far is that after a nightly shutdown, coming back to turn on the PC in the morning it works fine for 2-4 hours and then has an issue forcing a restart; and then works fine for however long until I shut it back down again for the night 8+ hours later.

If someone has to resort to Intel's Failsafe SVID option, and is still not 100% fully stable, would you guys recommend a CPU RMA?

Trooper1
New Contributor I
18,829 Views

Further Update:
PC has fully crashed and restarted again today, does it once every day sometime 2-4 hours after booting up.
Even after setting SVID option to Intel Fail-safe.
Issue is not resolved, Assistance Requested.

ACarmona_Intel
Moderator
18,775 Views

Hello Trooper1,


Thank you for posting in our communities.


Please check your email inbox, as we have sent you a message regarding our concern.


Thank you, and have a great day ahead!


Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician


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kairul
Beginner
15,240 Views

Hi intel Expert,

Don't know, just bought a new processor i9-14900ks less than month since day one always crash, even you don't run anything on window, it always crash n blue screen,

Need your advise, those unit need to RMA or ???

 

Thanks.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
18,170 Views

Chip has been RMA'd, but the problem persists. PC continues to crash at least once a day. 3 times over 3 days so far with new chip.
Just a random complete cut off like someone threw the power switch, and a couple seconds later it restarts. Fairly hard crash.
It's gotten to the point now that the problem is slowly killing my Hard Disk (Platter) Drives, due to the sudden random system shut offs, I've already had to replace one large very expensive drive.
Any assistance would be appreciated.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
18,020 Views

Applications that crashed often before the RMA seem to crash less / not at all after the RMA,
But my PC just did a random power off and restart once again so the issue persists.. 4th pc crash in 4 days since RMA.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
17,961 Views

Alright after sending in for RMA the processor, application and system stability seem greatly improved.

I still have the issue of the PC randomly restarting itself 4-6 hours after a user initiated full shutdown or restart; but as long as I don't shut down or restart it again after that, it remains completely stable (so far - up time is around 2 days right now and no crashes during testing any high utilization 3d applications such as Helldivers or other games.)

My "workaround" is to make extensive use of the system sleep / hibernation function, so as to manually restart / shutdown my PC as little as possible. xD

Some research leads me to believe this issue may be related to the corsair rgb software called "iCue". I have closed that app and disabled it from running on start up, with rgb profile saved to hardware mode. I will continue to gather further information and test to see if my issue listed above is resolved when next I have to do a system shutdown or restart.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
17,841 Views

Still having occasional crashes..
I have implemented intel's recommended bios settings for the 14900k, crashes have lessoned, but still exist in certain games after a while such as counter strike 2. Hard crash and restart.
Loading into Star Wars Battlefront II used to cause a crash, but no longer after the bios changes.
I was getting access violation errors in dump files from CS2, but no longer after the bios changes.
Still hitting 100 C CPU Core and Package temps occasionally, screenshot attached.

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
17,836 Views

While running X4: Foundation, CPU Utilization is at around 30%, and Core Thermal Throttling and Package/Ring Thermal Throttling is occurring. With CPU Package Temp spikes up to 98-100 C.

Albeit, this was with a game download and install going in the background.
Even after that finished, throttling is still occurring randomly.

Notably, in my most recent round of bios changes, I changed the SVID from Best case scenario to Typical Scenario. (Could this account for the increase in temperatures?)

Edit:
I've set the SVID back to Best Case Scenario, and my throttling is gone and temps are below 70 in the same game now.
Although oddly, the fps is a bit lower.. with cpu and gpu utilization both around 20-30%. Still playable though, 60 when paused and 40 when unpaused. It's known to be a very processor intensive game.

Now to test if I still get occasional crashes while playing Counter Strike 2.

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altoca
Beginner
14,827 Views

Hello, good afternoon, did you manage to solve the problem? I can say that I have everything you mentioned in each post, I even have iCue installed. I don't know whether to send it to RMA or continue looking for solutions.

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jarchuleta03
Beginner
14,792 Views

I have the same cpu with the same issues I ended up going through the RMA process just got my new processor in yesterday and installed it, hoping it stays stable. 

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
14,566 Views

Time for an update as to my issues regarding this post.
At the end of May I had RMA'd my last processor. After installing the RMA'd chip, the system was stable for a few months. (After heavily modifying the BIOS settings utilizing an intel recommendations graph).
After installing the latest BIOS update that's supposed to be a preventative fix for this issue (with some microcode adjustments), it's now randomly blue screening with the same errors, and on top of that applications are randomly closing themselves out more often and in an even worse way than before. Tabs are crashing on Firefox repeatedly, NTFS.sys just popped up with a blue screen as I'm writing this, and with multiple browser crashes. Recently tonight there were also a couple of page fault in nonpaged area bsods. All of which were related to my CPU issues last time around and resolved themselves temporarily after the RMA.
It looks like I'll need to RMA my chip again.
I read online that Intel is providing another round of RMA replacements for affected users, and that sometime around mid-August there should be another BIOS update released that should help alleviate these problems for any CPU that has not sustained permanent damage from this fault.
(I may look into checking to see if some of the bios settings I had in place were reset after the last bios update, for those looking for these recommendations, Check out the Image posted in the Intel forum user posting linked here, and in the image shared below:
https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/intel-default-settings-for-13700K-14700K/td-p/1598727

Good luck to you all, and hopefully I can get this issue resolved again in a more permanent fashion.

IntelsRecommendedSettings.jpg

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
14,545 Views

Alright, so it looks like my settings did get wiped after the Bios update, I have reimplemented them, and stability and usability have greatly improved once again. For those having issues with their i9 14900k or similar processors, I will post the changes I have made in my BIOS that have made an improvement. I imagine these may also help with other 13th or 14th gen intel processors experiencing similar issues. I mostly followed a guide Falcon Northwest had put out, with my own flair and tweaks for my build, since I'm prioritizing stability over performance. I will share those images as well. If these settings don't help you, you may need to RMA, as I had to once.

May the silicon be ever in your favor.

FalcNW_Image1.png

FalcNW_Image2.png

FalcNW_Image3.png

Personal_Bios_Setting_Changes_8-1-24__Stable.jpg

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
14,412 Views

Trooper1_0-1722568654915.png

Using Battlefield 2042 to test, temps are high, but it's not crashing!

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CoolBook
New Contributor I
14,318 Views

Looks good!

What is your maximum core voltage after those settings?

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Trooper1
New Contributor I
14,291 Views

Trooper1_0-1722586686111.png

From left to right, Current | Minimum | Maximum | Average.

So according to HWinfo, 1.627 V Requested by a core. (Not the voltage really supplied by the voltage regulator, the tooltip says)

To all: I'm still getting an occasional firefox tab crash and having to reload them a couple of times, not nearly as bad as before. Hopefully it's just some mild leftover page data corruption that will be cleared if I clear the Firefox Cache, and not the start of further significant issues.

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CoolBook
New Contributor I
14,224 Views

@Trooper1 

Regardless if that is the actual voltage or not, that VID looks extremely scary.

I would bring the top frequency down a notch or two. Possibly try some undervolting.

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