Question i9-14900k instability and crashes

[jonbjornerud]

I'm experiencing some problems with my i9-14900k. It was pretty unstable out of the box, spiking to 100+ degrees and casued pretty bad thermal throttling when I did demanding tasks (I'm a 3D-artist, and work a lot with demanding video projects).

The system sia bout 1,5 year old at this point, and It's gotten to a point where I BSOD multiple times a day, my apps shut down randomly, without even being under stress, and it's a headache. Will replacing my CPU fix it, or is there a chance it has damaged the board? I RMA'd it, and they have shipped me an i7-14700k in advance, but I don't want to install that if the board is messed up. What do I do?

Specs:

Asus Z790-f gaming WIFI mobo

Intel i9-14900k CPU

64GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000

GIGABYTE UD1000GM PG5 1000w gold PSU

GIGABYTE RTX 4070 TI GPU

Lian Li Galahad II Trinity 360 AIO

Lian Li O11 Vision case with 3x intake in AIO in top, 3x in side, 3x in bottom and 1x exahust in back

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Before you do any other thing with your system, make sure you update the bios asap if you haven't done so already. You could be experiencing the degradation issue that has plagued 14th gen high end CPU's.

 

[geofelt]

Update your motherboard bios to currency and set the power limits to intel defaults.

If you still have issues, then test with the 14700K.
(Why a 14700K replacement for a 14900k??)
If that works properly, it is evidence that your 14900K was defective.

And... AIO coolers will eventually fail, but 2 years seems too soon.
In time the mechanical pump fails or gets clogged.
Or, air permeates the tubes and the unit must be replaced.
5 years is more typical.

 

[jonbjornerud]

Update your motherboard bios to currency and set the power limits to intel defaults.

If you still have issues, then test with the 14700K.
(Why a 14700K replacement for a 14900k??)
If that works properly, it is evidence that your 14900K was defective.

And... AIO coolers will eventually fail, but 2 years seems too soon.
In time the mechanical pump fails or gets clogged.
Or, air permeates the tubes and the unit must be replaced.
5 years is more typical.

Thanks! My BIOS is already updated to latest, and I have even tried other versions, but none seem to be stable

I'm swapping to the 14700k because the 14900k seems to be unstable for pretty much everyone. I have 2 friends that experienced similar issues, and they both changed to AMD. In my case I experienced issues pretty much out of the box, but it has gotten worse with time. Stability is important to me because I use it in a workstation.

What are typical symptoms of a defective AIO except for the obvious, like high temps, etc?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Thanks! My BIOS is already updated to latest, and I have even tried other versions, but none seem to be stable

I'm swapping to the 14700k because the 14900k seems to be unstable for pretty much everyone. I have 2 friends that experienced similar issues, and they both changed to AMD. In my case I experienced issues pretty much out of the box, but it has gotten worse with time. Stability is important to me because I use it in a workstation.

What are typical symptoms of a defective AIO except for the obvious, like high temps, etc?

After updating or rolling back bios', did you at any time clear CMOS? If not, you must do this as per your mobo manuals' instruction. This may involve shorting 2 pins. Did you do any of that? And every time after the bios update?

If you don't clear cmos, the new bios updates may not take correctly. Leaving remnants of the previous micro code.

 

[geofelt]

FWIW, I recently updated my 14900K to the latest bios.
I selected the intel default power limits.
I had no problems before.
But, My perception is that my PC is a bit peppier now, and the task manager graphics show activity as they should be.

If you hear gurgling sounds, you may have air in your system.
If the pump is the highest point in the system it is where air bubbles will collect.
It might be worth the experiment to lay your case on the side or some other orientation.

Also, see that the cooler is getting sufficient cool air to let it do it's job.
Front air intake is probably best.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My BIOS is already updated to latest

That's great.
Just check cpu power settings in BIOS and see, if they match Intel recommended values.
Your board may have overclocking enabled by default and run on increased power limits.

Recommended values - PL1 125W, PL2 188W, ICCMax 249A.

Intel (again) Addresses Instability in 13th and 14th Gen Core i5/i7 CPUs with New Microcode

Intel once again has announced new measures to address instability issues found in some 13th and 14th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” processors, specifically targeting Core i5 and i7 models.

www.guru3d.com

 

[geofelt]

The latest update on the issue that comes directly from Intel that I can find is this on 05/2025:
https://community.intel.com/t5/Mobi...-Vmin-Shift-Instabilty-Update-New/m-p/1686948
A earlier 9/2024 article explains more:
https://community.intel.com/t5/Mobi...en-Desktop-Instability-Root-Cause/m-p/1633442
The 0x12F microcode update is, I think, the latest as of 7/2025