increasing instability of 14900k (never OC)

[DannyArnold]

Since the beginning of the year my I9 14900k PC has become more and more unstable, It started to crash browser tabs once in a while but now it seems to crash multiple times a day even resulting in BSOD, I have updated the BIOS as soon as ASUS released them ( TUF Gaming B760M-D4 ) and i never experienced any problems until this year (2025).

I found that it would crash with the occasional ACCESS_VIOLATION errors in the event viewer and general dying apps, this increased when windows 24H2 installed itself, so I have been troubleshooting issues I thought were due to software corruption, as mpeng.exe would always crash multiple times a day. I found out that eset on line scanner would never run successfully and always crash so I used this as a benchmark and nuked my Windows and installed a fresh brand new install and run ESET scanner again and it still crashed. so I think it is safe to say it was not a windows problem. I have swapped the graphics card and removed all non essential HDD and peripherals and is is still unstable and now I suspect my 14900k is degraded.

Is there anything else I need to test before I submit a RMA request ?

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi DannyArnold,

Thank you for reaching out to the Intel Community Forum. To assist us in investigating the issue, please provide the following details:

• Have you run any hardware diagnostics tools to check the CPU's health? Tools like Intel's Processor Diagnostic Tool can be useful.
• Given the suspicion of CPU degradation, have you monitored the CPU temperatures and power delivery? Ensuring proper cooling and stable power can sometimes resolve such issues.
• What is the current BIOS version installed to your system? 
• Is there any physical damage?

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

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DannyArnold]

Hi, Thanks for getting back to me,

included are screenshots of Intel's Processor Diagnostic Tool, HWInfo and cpuz

Firstly all of the components are fairly new and have no disenable ware/damage 

PSU - NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1 1200W - purchased 28th Oct 2024

according to CPU-Z :-

my ASUS TUF Gaming B760-Plus D4 is on version 1805 10/30/20204 microcode 0x12B of the BIOS

the CPU is on a Thermal Take AIO water cooler

CPU - I9-14900k product code BX8071514900K BATCH X347K075 MM 99CFXV - Purchased  16 February 2024

I have noticed that the instability is when the processor is idle and if I were to use the computer there isn't any crashes.

I then set "Disable C-state" setting in the bios and the crashing went away but I want to set the bios back to defaults to run my system.

I hope you can get to the bottom of this as I don't like to run my components beyond there default state

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi DannyArnold,

Thank you for your update. I've sent an email to your active email address for the next step of the process. Please check both your Inbox and Spam folder for my email, and once received, kindly acknowledge it.

Best regards, 

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician