Weird problem with i7-4790k

[Emmigosa]

Okay, Hello! I bought this i7-4790k off Ebay a while ago. (Yes I know, used components are scary.) However, it works alright -- except, if it goes into turbo, or anything over 4Ghz exactly, my entire computer will lock up after a bit and I have no choice but to hard-power it down. And this even happens sometimes (rarely) when it isn't going past 4Ghz. I was trying to play RE3 Remake and it freezes up my PC after about 15-20 minutes, the temperatures aren't anything absurd so I know it's not overheating. They're around ~50c - ~60c while playing a game and idle around ~32c-38c. I have no idea what this problem is, but I bought the processor with the intention of OCing it, and I can't do that at all. So I'm stuck with this stock i7-4790k that hates working sometimes. Anyone have any suggestions what could be wrong? I haven't messed around with voltage or anything like that yet. It's all stock and default. My mobo is the MSI Z87-GD65. Hopefully someone can help, if not I'm just gonna have to move over to a new AMD CPU when I get some money, since this processor has been giving me a headache. Also, I have the Hyper 212 EVO for my cooler, and I have a 700w PSU so I doubt it's that either. I never had any of these problems until I upgraded from my i5-4690 to the i7-4790k. I did fully reinstall windows after installing the new CPU as well, and yes, BIOS are up-to-date. Hopefully someone can help, thanks guys. Maybe it's just a faulty CPU. -- Oh also, it's paired with a XFX Radeon 5700 XT, in case that's relevant.

 

[Fasauceome]

4 minutes ago, Emmigosa said:

except, if it goes into turbo, or anything over 4Ghz exactly, my entire computer will lock up

So even with a manual overclock and voltage control, the CPU system freezes? What about stock clocks and tweaked voltage?

[Emmigosa]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

So even with a manual overclock and voltage control, the CPU system freezes? What about stock clocks and tweaked voltage?

I haven't tweaked the voltages, they're on auto. You think I should try raising or lowering it a little? Stock clock is just 4Ghz, but when I boot my computer up it always goes into turbo instantly so I have to manually use MSI Command Center to lock it at 4Ghz.

[Mick Naughty]

I’d lower the voltage a tad. 
So does it do this random or while the system is being taxed by the cpu and Gpu? 

[Mister Woof]

Probably has been overclocked and has suffered some degradation.

 

Increase voltage (I forget safe haswell, probably under 1.35 is safe).

 

Degraded chips can require more voltage to maintain even stock speeds.

[GreyestGoat]

1 minute ago, Mister Woof said:

Probably has been overclocked and has suffered some degradation.

 

Increase voltage (I forget safe haswell, probably under 1.35 is safe) 

Good up to 1.4v if you have the cooling.

[Emmigosa]

Just now, Mick Naughty said:

I’d lower the voltage a tad. 
So does it do this random or while the system is being taxed by the cpu and Gpu? 

It happens only when I'm playing something or rendering a video -- so yeah, when the CPU is being taxed. For example I could play Monster Hunter: World for 4 hours and it won't freeze and it's fine, but the next time I play it, it could freeze 15 minutes into it. It's so random.

[Mister Woof]

6 minutes ago, Emmigosa said:

It happens only when I'm playing something or rendering a video -- so yeah, when the CPU is being taxed. For example I could play Monster Hunter: World for 4 hours and it won't freeze and it's fine, but the next time I play it, it could freeze 15 minutes into it. It's so random.

Under load, voltage drops. If the chip degraded, it may need more voltage to maintain stability than it did when new.

 

Add a few mv to vcore and see if it helps. Do this a few times until it becomes stable or your vcore gets too close to 1.4v, or your thermals get too hot.

[Fasauceome]

23 minutes ago, Emmigosa said:

I haven't tweaked the voltages, they're on auto. You think I should try raising or lowering it a little? Stock clock is just 4Ghz, but when I boot my computer up it always goes into turbo instantly so I have to manually use MSI Command Center to lock it at 4Ghz.

I would try a range of voltages, also I don't recall but if you can set per core speeds on that motherboard you should definitely try a 4.1 single core and 4.0 all core. A range of voltages will help identify what works best.

[Emmigosa]

7 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Under load, voltage drops. If the chip degraded, it may need more voltage to maintain stability than it did when new.

 

Add a few mv to vcore and see if it helps. Do this a few times until it becomes stable or your vcore gets too close to 1.4v, or your thermals get too hot.

Alright I raised the voltage to 1.35 and this time it booted up at 4.4ghz turbo instead of 4.2ghz like normal. The temps are somewhat sporadic. Jumping from ~40c-~50c idle. But this might be because of a lazy paste application I did a while ago so I could try to lower temps by reapplying some new paste, too. You think I should run a benchmark? Since I know RE3 freezes guaranteed I could try that out.

[Fatih19]

15 minutes ago, Emmigosa said:

Alright I raised the voltage to 1.35 and this time it booted up at 4.4ghz turbo instead of 4.2ghz like normal. The temps are somewhat sporadic. Jumping from ~40c-~50c idle. But this might be because of a lazy paste application I did a while ago so I could try to lower temps by reapplying some new paste, too. You think I should run a benchmark? Since I know RE3 freezes guaranteed I could try that out.

Yeah, you should.

[Emmigosa]

16 minutes ago, Fatih19 said:

Yeah, you should.

Okay, ran it nice and smooth, but as soon as it hit about 15:30 of playtime it froze again. Temps were stable, had them on my other monitor. It was around 51c.

[Fatih19]

Just now, Emmigosa said:

Okay, ran it nice and smooth, but as soon as it hit about 15:30 of playtime it froze again. Temps were stable, had them on my other monitor. It was around 51c.

Did you monitor your CPU utilization along with the temps?

[Emmigosa]

Just now, Fatih19 said:

Did you monitor your CPU utilization along with the temps?

Utilization was about 55%

[Mister Woof]

55 minutes ago, Emmigosa said:

Okay, ran it nice and smooth, but as soon as it hit about 15:30 of playtime it froze again. Temps were stable, had them on my other monitor. It was around 51c.

what voltage did you get to?

[Emmigosa]

25 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

what voltage did you get to?

I was at 1.35. Sorry for the late reply, my SSD had a major fit and I had to fix it. lol

 

So now I'm trying 1.25

[Emmigosa]

50 minutes ago, Emmigosa said:

I was at 1.35. Sorry for the late reply, my SSD had a major fit and I had to fix it. lol

 

So now I'm trying 1.25

Okay so, on 1.25v I've been playing for 50 minutes and I haven't froze yet. And temps are lower aswell. I'm not 100% sure it's fixed but 50 minute is a huge improvement over 15 minutes.

[Emmigosa]

2 hours ago, Emmigosa said:

Okay so, on 1.25v I've been playing for 50 minutes and I haven't froze yet. And temps are lower aswell. I'm not 100% sure it's fixed but 50 minute is a huge improvement over 15 minutes.

Final update, everything seems to be just fine now! Re-applied thermal paste and re-seated my heatsink as well and back down to 32c idle. Thanks guys

[SwordLion]

On 4/26/2020 at 11:53 PM, Emmigosa said:

Final update, everything seems to be just fine now! Re-applied thermal paste and re-seated my heatsink as well and back down to 32c idle. Thanks guys

Hi, sorry to revive this thread but I have the same problem with a used i7 4790k,did you only increase core voltage? Not input or system agent? Because I can't seem to get it stable at 1.25v 4.2 ghz Thanks in advance.