Stabilizing damaged i5-4670K

[HatsuneMilku]

Hi guys,

 

My friend recently passed over an i5-4670K that he had heavily abused during overclock.

Basically, he did some crazy clock speed and he wanted to compensate for the overclock so he put the voltage to... 1.50

Yeah pretty horrifying stuff.

Anyway, it began to start freezing his computer and dying on him so he went and bought a xeon (Thank god he can't overclock this)

Fortunately the cpu still seems to work, however I have trouble identifying the damaged part of the cpu.

Just to explain how damaged it is, I underclocked it to 3ghz and it still freezes. I'm currently running at 2.5ghz through prime95, seems stable enough...for now.

I undervolted it to 1.220, I hope this isn't a wrong move to take.

 

I have suspicions that only one core is damaged however, so I might try running the computer on limited cores and see what happens.

So to all you overclockers out there, I need tips.

 

1. How can I diagnose what the problem of the cpu is? (Cache, core, voltage, thermals, etc)

2. Can you suggest anything that might help the cpu?

3. What clock speed/configuration can I try out.

Thanks,

 

Btw. My motherboard is a Z87 Gryphon.

Update 1- Computer froze at 2.5ghz. Will try 2.0
 

[HatsuneMilku]

Logs:
2.0ghz crashed as well.

prime.txt

[AlwaysFSX]

Yeah don't use P95 if you can avoid it, use AIDA 64 instead. Just continue doing what you're doing, there's really no way to test what's wrong with the CPU unless you can only stress a certain part of it, and even then you won't get a complete answer because there's so much to CPUs. Just find a clock speed where you can run it at 1-1.1V because 1.5 will really fuck with it.

[Imakuni]

As you have said it yourself, you can try diagnosing each individual core to see how extensive the damage is. This is pretty much going to be a guessing game, but see which cores can go higher / lower.

 

You can then assign individual multipliers for each core (assuming your mobo supports such feature) or just disable the worst core altogether. You know, because a triple core CPU is pretty common......

[Heesleemer]

just curious, what's your plans for it? 

[HatsuneMilku]

3 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

As you have said it yourself, you can try diagnosing each individual core to see how extensive the damage is. This is pretty much going to be a guessing game, but see which cores can go higher / lower.

 

You can then assign individual multipliers for each core (assuming your mobo supports such feature) or just disable the worst core altogether. You know, because a triple core CPU is pretty common......

I don't think my motherboard can disable specific cores, just 1,2 or 3.

I can control their clock speeds though so that might help.

3 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

Yeah don't use P95 if you can avoid it, use AIDA 64 instead. Just continue doing what you're doing, there's really no way to test what's wrong with the CPU unless you can only stress a certain part of it, and even then you won't get a complete answer because there's so much to CPUs. Just find a clock speed where you can run it at 1-1.1V because 1.5 will really fuck with it.

Yeah I'll test 1-1.1v. AIDA 64 doesn't seem to have a continuous test does it?

2 minutes ago, Heesleemer said:

just curious, what's your plans for it? 

Hah, who knows, I'd like to get it stable for another system but if I get too frustrated I might as well bake it in the oven.

[Heesleemer]

1 minute ago, HatsuneMilku said:

I don't think my motherboard can disable specific cores, just 1,2 or 3.

I can control their clock speeds though so that might help.

Yeah I'll test 1-1.1v. AIDA 64 doesn't seem to have a continuous test does it?

Hah, who knows, I'd like to get it stable for another system but if I get too frustrated I might as well bake it in the oven.

well I'm going to follow this, just seems interesting! keep us updated while we root from the sidelines 

[Imakuni]

Just now, HatsuneMilku said:

I don't think my motherboard can disable specific cores, just 1,2 or 3.

I can control their clock speeds though so that might help.

Good luck with that. I know mine can, but it's not available under the normal options. It's hidden somewhere in the "Chipset" section, which you wouldn't really expect to control the active cores.... but that's how it is. Give a good luck around; check every corner possible, you may find something.

 

Also, check your Cache settings. Make sure to reduce them as well, as it might the broken part.

 

3 minutes ago, HatsuneMilku said:

Hah, who knows, I'd like to get it stable for another system but if I get too frustrated I might as well bake it in the oven.

Problem was caused due to heating -> intends to heat even further.

 

Sounds legit.

[HatsuneMilku]

Update!

The system is running more stable than ever with 1.1v and 2.0ghz, Have not experienced a crash yet.

also I found Aida64's system stability test.

 

It died under prime95 but not under Aida64.. Weird.

15 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Good luck with that. I know mine can, but it's not available under the normal options. It's hidden somewhere in the "Chipset" section, which you wouldn't really expect to control the active cores.... but that's how it is. Give a good luck around; check every corner possible, you may find something.

 

Also, check your Cache settings. Make sure to reduce them as well, as it might the broken part.

 

Problem was caused due to heating -> intends to heat even further.

 

Sounds legit.

I can't seem to lower the clock speed on individual cores any lower than 3.5ghz if I try control each core independently, it says must be higher than or equal 2 core limit or something.

I also found something called CPU input voltage, does that have any impact on it?

[Imakuni]

11 minutes ago, HatsuneMilku said:

It died under prime95 but not under Aida64.. Weird.

Pretty normal, to be honest. Different programs stress the CPU in different ways. And Prime95 is usually worse than Aida.

 

12 minutes ago, HatsuneMilku said:

I can't seem to lower the clock speed on individual cores any lower than 3.5ghz if I try control each core independently, it says must be higher than or equal 2 core limit or something.

Can you lower the limit to something stupid like 1ghz and then have the individual cores be higher than that?

 

14 minutes ago, HatsuneMilku said:

I also found something called CPU input voltage, does that have any impact on it?

This summs it up pretty well:

Quote

Input voltage is the voltage supplied to the CPUs voltage regulation modules, which are now on die. Vcore is the voltage supplied by the VRMs to the actual CPU cores.

Vcore can go as high as 1.35 (it will run very, very hot most likely, water cooling may be needed), Vinput can go as high as 1.9 safely, 2.0-2.2 if you have water cooling.

I'd try decreasing it a bit to see if it helps. But not much.

[HatsuneMilku]

Just now, Imakuni said:

Pretty normal, to be honest. Different programs stress the CPU in different ways. And Prime95 is usually worse than Aida.

 

Can you lower the limit to something stupid like 1ghz and then have the individual cores be higher than that?

 

This summs it up pretty well:

I'd try decreasing it a bit to see if it helps. But not much.

Can't lower any cores lower than 3.5 its strange. Vinput is at 1.7.

 

I disabled one core and it can now withstand Prime95 at 3ghz at 1.22 volts. I'm going to raise the clock speed to test

[Morgan MLGman]

You should increase voltage a little imo, if a CPU is abused with extremely high voltages it starts requiring more voltage for the same clock speeds, maybe run it at stock speeds and add voltage? (reasonably, of course)

[HatsuneMilku]

16 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

You should increase voltage a little imo, if a CPU is abused with extremely high voltages it starts requiring more voltage for the same clock speeds, maybe run it at stock speeds and add voltage? (reasonably, of course)

Well... looks like the cpu is an alchoholic because you are right... I'm currently getting stable 3.4ghz with prime95. This is really odd.

[Morgan MLGman]

12 minutes ago, HatsuneMilku said:

Well... looks like the cpu is an alchoholic because you are right... I'm currently getting stable 3.4ghz with prime95. This is really odd.

Nah, that's normal That's just how it is. If it works like that and the temps are fine, use it by all means, it might start requiring more and more over time though, but it's not certain, it might just work like that for a long time without any issues

[runit3]

IF the CPU was damaged by voltage degradation (big if) you're going to need to use more voltage, not less, to get it stable. Undervolting to the extreme level that you have tried is never likely to work, that's the nature of voltage degradation.

 

IMO run it at 1.35v, see where your maximum multiplier ends up, avoid P95 like the plague, and call it a day.

[ProKoN]

first step is to clear cmos or load sytem defaults

 

nest step is to run intel processor diagnostic tool

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloads/eula/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool?httpDown=https%3A%2F%2Fdownloadmirror.intel.com%2F19792%2Feng%2FIPDT_Installer_3.0.0.23.W_x86_3.0.0.23.W.MP_x64.exe

 

 

 

 

if it doesnt pass the test at stock settings and your cooling solution is stable. RMA.

 

if it fails the test try to disable one core at a time and run the test each time, as a way to diagnose a faulty core yourself.

 

[HatsuneMilku]

Welp, apparently the chip has fixed itself, I haven't had any crashes since.

I'm hesitant to bother overclocking however...