Question Is my CPU dead?

[Photonfanatic]

I recently built a new PC that has been giving me random shut downs, restarts, failure to boot, and not recognizing drives. I was able to narrow it down to the CPU. I swapped out the i5-13600k for a little Pentium Gold 7400, and the problems vanished.

So my question is:

Is there any possibility that it's not the CPU? Could it be the motherboard, or the power supply that is really at fault? Right now it looks like my best bet is to just send the i5 back, and see if the replacement CPU has the same issues.

Let's say the problems persist, even with a new CPU. What's the next step? Send back the board, and the power supply? I don't have equipment to test them. Thank you

Specs: (all components are new)

Motherboard: Asus z790-H Rog Strix (with the latest Bios, 1303, just running default settings for now)

CPU: I5-13600k

RAM: 32Gb Gskill Trident 6400Mhz (4200Mhz for now)

PSU: Seasonic 750w Focus Gold

 

[Lafong]

What board?

What BIOS?

Is that the latest BIOS?

What power supply?

What RAM?

Is everything new or is some used?

Bad new CPUs are extremely rare, but not quite out of the question.

 

[Photonfanatic]

What board?

What BIOS?

Is that the latest BIOS?

What power supply?

What RAM?

Is everything new or is some used?

Bad new CPUs are extremely rare, but not quite out of the question.

I updated the OP with the necessary info. The SSD, video card, and Cooler have been ruled out as the problem. The whole system works great with the little Pentium G7400. The only way to make it display the bad behavior is to put the i5-13600k in.

 

[geofelt]

If you are running a non traditional os, that could explain the difference.
If you are running windows, the cpu is probably at fault.

 

[Misgar]

Were you running an XMP overclock of 6400MT/s on the 13600k but not on the 7400? If so you might simply have unstable RAM when it's running at 6400MT/s. Is the 13600K stable at 4200MT/s? If so, it's your XMP settings which need manually tweaking.

 

[Photonfanatic]

If you are running a non traditional os, that could explain the difference.
If you are running windows, the cpu is probably at fault.

I am running Manjaro Linux. To me at least, this would seem like a traditional OS. I did see that setting in the bios. It says something about Windows, and a Non-Stanard OS. When I found the setting, it was already on the Non Standard OS setting. So I just left it there. It works fine for the Pentium 7400 CPU. Should I set it to "Windows UEFI" (or whatever it says) and then try the i5 13600k again?

I didn't know what it was, so I didn't want to mess with the setting. Optimized defaults has it set to the Non Standard thing. Also I'm not running windows, I'm running linux so I just left it alone.

Were you running an XMP overclock of 6400MT/s on the 13600k but not on the 7400? If so you might simply have unstable RAM when it's running at 6400MT/s. Is the 13600K stable at 4200MT/s? If so, it's your XMP settings which need manually tweaking.

The odd thing is, it seemed to run fine at 6400Mhz for about a week. I turned on XMP and it only set the RAM to 6000Mhz. It's 6400 Mhz RAM so I set it manually to 6400 Mhz. This didn't seem to cause any problems for a little while. When the problems started, it didn't matter if I had the RAM set to 4000mhz with XMP turned on, or off. It didn't matter if the bios was set to optimized defaults, or not. The computer was unusable either way.

But wouldn't it actually be 3200MT/s if I'm doing 6400Mhz? I seem to remember you have to double the MT number to reach the correct Mhz. It's been a very long time since I've messed around with RAM

 

[Misgar]

No, it's the opposite way round. The clock rate for DDR running at 6400MT/s is 3200MHz. You get two data transfers per clock cycle with Double Data Rate memory. Hence 2 x 3200MHz = 6400 Mega Transfers per second. Check out the JEDEC specification for RAM.

 

[Photonfanatic]

Ah yes, that's right. So what would be the general consensus here? Just return the board and the CPU?

I don't see any other way out.

 

[Misgar]

You may have an unfortunate combination of mobo, CPU and RAM. Is the RAM on the motherboard Qualified Vendors List?

If it doesn't run at 4000MT/s with XMP switched off, I'd try a different pair of DIMMs from another manufacturer that are listed in the QVL.

It's easier than returning the mobo and CPU.

 

[Photonfanatic]

You may have an unfortunate combination of mobo, CPU and RAM. Is the RAM on the motherboard Qualified Vendors List?

If it doesn't run at 4000MT/s with XMP switched off, I'd try a different pair of DIMMs from another manufacturer that are listed in the QVL.

It's easier than returning the mobo and CPU.

The RAM does run at 4000Mhz by default, which is XMP switched off. It's doing that right now, with the little Pentium 7400.

My RAM is on the list, it's the last entry on page 2:

ROG STRIX Z790-H GAMING WIFI | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

The ROG Strix Z790-H is the perfect complement to Intel 13th Gen processors with its 16-stage power solution and intuitive AI Overclocking utility.

rog.asus.com

It's​

F5-6400J3239G16GA2-TZ5RK, so it seems that it is indeed supported by my motherboard.​

No idea why this text is bigger and bold lol ​

 

[werelvin]

The RAM does run at 4000Mhz by default, which is XMP switched off. It's doing that right now, with the little Pentium 7400.

My RAM is on the list, it's the last entry on page 2:

ROG STRIX Z790-H GAMING WIFI | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

The ROG Strix Z790-H is the perfect complement to Intel 13th Gen processors with its 16-stage power solution and intuitive AI Overclocking utility.

rog.asus.com

It's​

F5-6400J3239G16GA2-TZ5RK, so it seems that it is indeed supported by my motherboard.​

No idea why this text is bigger and bold lol ​

Hi!
Did you solve your problem/found out what it was?
On the boot of Arch (although all other systems did failed to boot as well) I could catch once "mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 0: Machine Check Exception: 5 Bank: 3" So started to look into this direction.
did you try to boot with acpi=off ? Because it seemed to work for me first.
What did help for me is to set the vcore voltage manually to 1.38V (I found a sweet spot between temperature, and performance). It works and stable, but I still question if this is a CPU or MB problem. My MB is also ASUS, and any boot gives me a ton of ACPI errors and Bugs, so I am more on the side that the MB (perheps its firmware) has some problem.

 

[Photonfanatic]

Yeah I finally figured out it was a dead CPU. I realize that's uncommon, but this time it was the case. I sent it back to intel, and they sent me a new 13600k. I'm not sure what killed it. It was brand new. It lived for maybe 2 weeks. I didn't even have an opportunity to overclock it. I did undervolt it, but if anything that should make it live longer.

Also I set the RAM to it's correct speed, which is 6400Mhz. Those are the only two things I did that would have any bearing on the CPU. I don't think setting the fan curves would affect that.

 

[werelvin]

Yeah I finally figured out it was a dead CPU. I realize that's uncommon, but this time it was the case. I sent it back to intel, and they sent me a new 13600k. I'm not sure what killed it. It was brand new. It lived for maybe 2 weeks. I didn't even have an opportunity to overclock it. I did undervolt it, but if anything that should make it live longer.

Also I set the RAM to it's correct speed, which is 6400Mhz. Those are the only two things I did that would have any bearing on the CPU. I don't think setting the fan curves would affect that.

Thanks, I am also sending it to intel tomorrow morning, let's see