My PC suffers from the skylake freeze bug but is there a way to fix it?

[sjoerd108]

Hello there,

 

I recently build a new rig based on the Intel Skylake platform I used a Intel core I7-6700K processor. It was all working great until it randomly froze for no reason (I was watching a LTT video when it happened for the first time no high workload). I got no BSOD no black screen everything just froze the display stayed on outputting a still frame of Linus talking on the WAN show. So i just turned the machine off and turned it back on and everything seemed OK until it happened again when I was video editing for a school project I was pretty mad because I hadn't saved for half an hour or so. So I gave it one more shot without using google or trying to resolve it hoping it would not again but as you might expect it happened again this time while I was multitasking a lot between lots of programs and had all sorts of stuff going in the background.

 

So I started googling the problem and came across the "Skylake freeze bug" and how it locks your PC up while doing certain complex workloads. It says it happens on the I7-6700K and that Intel is patching it via BIOS updates. So I updated my MSI B150 to the latest BIOS version. It sadly did not work and the next day I encountered the freeze again. I then decided to do a fresh install of Windows 10 (I even used a different installation medium just in case) . The setup went fine and I installed all my programs and games again. Everything worked until you guessed it the next day it froze again. So back to those articles that say that this bug exist and how you can identify it, I know by now my PC suffers from it, I know that Intel is busy fixing it but.... IS THERE ANY WAY TO FIX IT NOW?!! I mean it is just ridiculous to have a machine you are not sure about is stable or not you never know when it happens you only know that it can happen and that it always happens on the worst possible moments. And I don't call "Just save your work every minute" a good solution.

 

I hope you can help me because I also run servers on this machine which makes freezes even worse.

 

Here is some more info about the system:

 

CPU Intel Core i7 6700K

Motherboard MSI B150 Gaming M3

RAM 16 GB DDR4

GPU MSI GeForce GTX 970 OC 4GB

Case Corsair Carbide 100R silent

Storage Kingston SSD 120 GB + 2TB HDD

PSU Be Quiet! 500W

[GtaSeriesFan]

Hello,

 

They know that it is a problem and they are working on it, it should be fixed in the near future i had somekind of a same bug 5-10 years ago with a old computer every time when i was working on it for 15 minutes it would shut down. eventually buying a new pc and that fixed it in your situation you just have to wait and keep checking for bios updates etc maybe it is a driver issue who knows but i can't think about anything else than the bios or driver faults.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Only way to fix it is a BIOS update. However, what you're doing doesn't sound like it should cause the bug, it is something that happens under very particular circumstances, not a consistent issue whenever the PC is under load. You may have an issue somewhere else that is causing the system to hang. 

There's no BIOS for your board that fixes the freezing issue yet. 

[Murasaki]

If it's not skylake related then checking Event Viewer is a must.

[sjoerd108]

2 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

If it's not skylake related then checking Event Viewer is a must.

I will check Event viewer when I get to te machine and tell you what is in there.

[NumLock21]

Run 1 software at a time to pinpoint the problem. 

Might be your ssd. shrink your hdd and install a clean os on the empty partition and do the exact same thing you're doing now and see what happens.

Disconnect your ssd, when you're running from the hdd.

[sjoerd108]

19 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Run 1 software at a time to pinpoint the problem. 

Might be your ssd. shrink your hdd and install a clean os on the empty partition and do the exact same thing you're doing now and see what happens.

Disconnect your ssd, when you're running from the hdd.

The SSD was transfered from a old machine to a new one I never had problems with it. I can't have much downtime on the servers im currently running so re-installing Windows is really painfull. It only happens when I am using it actively. It can idle and run some minecraft servers for days I never came back to the machine and see that it had froze. It only happens when I am multitasking a lot and when I am throwing all sorts of things at the CPU at the same time wich made me to believe it is the skylake bug. It even happens at almost 0 GPU utilization so yeah.

 

EDIT: I also ran windows its RAM checking tool and memtest86 but that showed no problems at all.

[NumLock21]

44 minutes ago, sjoerd108 said:

The SSD was transfered from a old machine to a new one I never had problems with it. I can't have much downtime on the servers im currently running so re-installing Windows is really painfull. It only happens when I am using it actively. It can idle and run some minecraft servers for days I never came back to the machine and see that it had froze. It only happens when I am multitasking a lot and when I am throwing all sorts of things at the CPU at the same time wich made me to believe it is the skylake bug. It even happens at almost 0 GPU utilization so yeah.

 

EDIT: I also ran windows its RAM checking tool and memtest86 but that showed no problems at all.

Instead of this "I know exactly what I'm doing" type of attitude, why don't you try out the method I've suggested.

[sjoerd108]

2 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

Instead of this "I know exactly what I'm doing" type of attitude, why don't you try out the method I've suggested.

Im sorry. I did not mean it that way but re-installing windows really is not a possibility right now.

[sjoerd108]

3 hours ago, ModuleLFS said:

If it's not skylake related then checking Event Viewer is a must.

What should I be looking for in the event vieuwer?

[NumLock21]

4 minutes ago, sjoerd108 said:

Im sorry. I did not mean it that way but re-installing windows really is not a possibility right now.

Well then when you have the time to do so.

The bug happens under Prime95

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/intel-skylake-bug-causes-pcs-to-freeze-during-complex-workloads/

[sjoerd108]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

Well then when you have the time to do so.

The bug happens under Prime95

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/intel-skylake-bug-causes-pcs-to-freeze-during-complex-workloads/

I certainly will. And then I will get back to this topic. Thank you for the help.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, sjoerd108 said:

I certainly will. And then I will get back to this topic. Thank you for the help.

Do you have a Kingston V300 SSD?

When it freezes, can you move your mouse and can the keyboard lights turn on and off?

Yes, then your system didn't freeze, it just stop responding.

[sjoerd108]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

Do you have a Kingston V300 SSD?

When it freezes, can you move your mouse and can the keyboard lights turn on and off?

Yes, then your system didn't freeze, it just stop responding.

Yes I do have a Kingston v300 SSD but when the system freezes the mouse pointer stops moving as well it's almost like it's stuck in time.

[NumLock21]

4 minutes ago, sjoerd108 said:

Yes I do have a Kingston v300 SSD but when the system freezes the mouse pointer stops moving as well it's almost like it's stuck in time.

Try disabling sleep on your SSD and see if that helps.

[sjoerd108]

17 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Try disabling sleep on your SSD and see if that helps.

You mean turn off device after X minutes in power settings?

 

[NumLock21]

Just now, sjoerd108 said:

You mean turn off device after X minutes in power settings?

 

yep

[sjoerd108]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

yep

Okay I set "Turn off hard drive after" to "Never"

[Imakuni]

Sigh...

1. The Skylake Bug only happens in very specific situations. Like, VERY specific. 99.99% chance of that not being the cause of your problems. But here's a simple test: disable HyperThreading. The bug needs HT to actually happen, so you'll be safe if you disable it. Do that and test for a few days: if you freeze again, you bet the cause is elsewhere.
2. As I'm fairly sure that's not going to happen, you better start looking for the actual source. If you have OC on the CPU, that would explain it.
3. Likewise, a GPU OC could be the cause.
4. And even RAM. Especially if it's over 3000mhz RAM. Even if it's rated at 3200, sometimes a combination of the Board + CPU won't allow the memory to reach it's rated speeds. Turn down the frequency and try.

[intelCore]

14 hours ago, Imakuni said:

Sigh...

1. The Skylake Bug only happens in very specific situations. Like, VERY specific. 99.99% chance of that not being the cause of your problems. But here's a simple test: disable HyperThreading. The bug needs HT to actually happen, so you'll be safe if you disable it. Do that and test for a few days: if you freeze again, you bet the cause is elsewhere.
2. As I'm fairly sure that's not going to happen, you better start looking for the actual source. If you have OC on the CPU, that would explain it.
3. Likewise, a GPU OC could be the cause.
4. And even RAM. Especially if it's over 3000mhz RAM. Even if it's rated at 3200, sometimes a combination of the Board + CPU won't allow the memory to reach it's rated speeds. Turn down the frequency and try.

Okay so I've had the exact same freezing thing happening to me with an i5 6500. I am just really clueless what could be at fault other than the processor when not even the hardware reset switch works anymore.

[sjoerd108]

22 hours ago, Imakuni said:

Sigh...

1. The Skylake Bug only happens in very specific situations. Like, VERY specific. 99.99% chance of that not being the cause of your problems. But here's a simple test: disable HyperThreading. The bug needs HT to actually happen, so you'll be safe if you disable it. Do that and test for a few days: if you freeze again, you bet the cause is elsewhere.
2. As I'm fairly sure that's not going to happen, you better start looking for the actual source. If you have OC on the CPU, that would explain it.
3. Likewise, a GPU OC could be the cause.
4. And even RAM. Especially if it's over 3000mhz RAM. Even if it's rated at 3200, sometimes a combination of the Board + CPU won't allow the memory to reach it's rated speeds. Turn down the frequency and try.

I have no overclocks and it even happened when using a differend GPU. my RAM is not over 3000mhz. But I haven't hadthe issue after i tried @NumLock21 solution of setting the HDD sleep time to never.