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    Skylake hard locks when IDLE / CStates ON

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by hmscott, Jan 17, 2016.

  1. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Another Skylake instability issue that's been going on for a while, and was recently reported to Intel, here are the links.

    Most recent post on Tom's Hardware UK forum is a good summary of the problem:

    New Skylake Build Randomly Freezing/Crashing - Page 8
    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum...ndomly-freezing-crashing/page-8.html#17336235

    Posted to Intel Community Forum on 1/12/2016:

    Skylake hard locks seemingly when IDLE / CStates ON
    https://communities.intel.com/thread/97358

    Anyone seeing similar symptoms with their Skylake laptop / desktops?
     
    hmscott, Jan 17, 2016
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  2. Spartan@HIDevolution

    Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative

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    never happened to me
     
    Spartan@HIDevolution, Jan 17, 2016
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  3. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I thought you and @Mr. Fox turned off C-States?, that's currently a work around for the problem - see links.
     
    hmscott, Jan 17, 2016
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  4. Spartan@HIDevolution

    Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative

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    even before turning C-States off, it never happened
     
    Spartan@HIDevolution, Jan 17, 2016
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  5. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    It wasn't going to happen after you turned off C-States :)

    Thanks for the feedback.
     
    hmscott, Jan 17, 2016
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  6. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist

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    Must be their fancy new Speed Shift gimmick and Windows 10. Are people reporting the problem with all versions of Windows, or just the latest Redmond cancer module? Sorry, kind of tied up right now and don't have time to read up on it. Maybe in a day or two.

    @Mr. Spock sent me a link to: http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-updates-support-policy-new-cpus-will-require-windows-10/

    If it's only Windows 10, we can salute Micro$haft for more shenanigans. Not only are they incompetent, they are attempting to force acceptance of their incompetence on the people that want nothing to do with it. That's very immoral and unethical. I sure do hope they get sued and lose hundreds of millions of dollars for their evil, self-serving actions.
     
    Mr. Fox, Jan 17, 2016
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  7. Ethrem

    Ethrem Notebook Prophet

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    Obviously it's an NT kernel bug since it affects 7-10 and not Linux.
     
    Ethrem, Jan 17, 2016
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  8. Predator-X

    Predator-X Notebook Consultant

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    Last edited: Jan 20, 2016
    Predator-X, Jan 20, 2016
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  9. skunk1

    skunk1 Notebook Consultant

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    happens here now and again.... just get a random BSOD while completely idle, so its not stress related.. but ive learned to live with it (given the system only takes about 12 secs to reboot)

    it has calmed down a lot though, out of the box it would blue screen once a day at least...
     
    skunk1, Jan 20, 2016
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  10. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    That's why I wasn't sure about opening 2 threads, one for each of 2 different Skylake bugs we are tracking was a good idea, but they are different and need to be fixed / tracked individually.

    There are 2 different problems now with Skylake, one "cured" by disabling C-States - this thread

    And, a 2nd problem - that is the one your link is describing.

    We have an NBR thread for that as well, here:

    Intel Skylake bug seizes up PCs running complex workloads
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...izes-up-pcs-running-complex-workloads.786708/

    Please post your link over there too, and we can continue tracking that bug there :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2016
    hmscott, Jan 20, 2016
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  11. Predator-X

    Predator-X Notebook Consultant

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    that is why MSi pushed BIOS up and now I can enable/dis C-states and hyperthreading..
    Yes will do
     
    Predator-X, Jan 20, 2016
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  12. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Yup, if you want to avoid the 2 Skylake bugs now, before new microcode based BIOS updates arrive:

    1. C-States => OFF - stops Idle hangs.

    2. Hyperthreading => OFF - stops MATH computational hangs.

    Skylake, bringing you more, with less ;)
     
    hmscott, Jan 20, 2016
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  13. Predator-X

    Predator-X Notebook Consultant

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    I rather have c states on and hyper thrd off as it saves power..
     
    Predator-X, Jan 21, 2016
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  14. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    That's true for me too, OC'ing on desktop I usually disable Hyper-threading, run with C-states off, and High performance.

    That may be why the problem didn't get caught, all those top engineers at Intel run the same way all the time too :cool:
     
    hmscott, Jan 21, 2016
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  15. Peon

    Peon Notebook Virtuoso

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    Why not buy an i5 then?
     
    Peon, Jan 21, 2016
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  16. Predator-X

    Predator-X Notebook Consultant

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    The laptop what I purchased is only sold with i7..
     
    Predator-X, Jan 22, 2016
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  17. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    It seems this is all still playing out. Interesting reading, some second hand Intel feedback posted.

    There seems to be a voltage / noise related theme, with feedback indicating some MB's may not be providing correct voltage, power supplies not compliant with Cstates, and random user error thrown in.

    But, through RMA's of power supplies, motherboards, CPU's people are still getting lock ups with Skylake and Windows 10.

    Both links are still getting postings:

    New Skylake Build Randomly Freezing/Crashing - Page 10
    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2830772/skylake-build-randomly-freezing-crashing/page-10.html

    Skylake hard locks seeminly when IDLE / CStates ON
    https://communities.intel.com/message/369120#369120

    So far I don't think we are seeing this for Skylake laptops, at least I am not seeing lots of reports of it, unless Windows 10 instability is masking the problem - people think it is a Windows 10 / driver bug rather than hardware related - or maybe it's the other way around :)

    Anyone having problems as like being reported in these threads?
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2016
    hmscott, Jan 25, 2016
    #17