Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Random Reboots after BIOS 1503 Intel Core i9-14900K

[BajaWolf]

Hey everyone.   I have been running this configuration (no overclocking) fine for well over 7 months with no issues.  With the concerns over the Intel CPUs, I updated my BIOS to 1503.  Everything went fine; however, now my machine randomly reboots into the BIOS.  I generally turn my PC off every night, but I have run it for 24 hours with no reboot and other times I have it on for 4 hours and then suddenly it restarts and goes into the BIOS.  No error, no messages that I can see, the screen just suddenly goes black and then I am in the BIOS.

If I exit the BIOS it boots right back into the BIOS again.  The only way to get back into windows is to power off and then restart.  This is the configuration I am running.

1.  ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Here
2. Intel Core i9-14900K (gen 14) 125W
3. Asus ROG Strix RTX 4080 16GB
4. Corsair 32GB DDR5-5600 x 4 (total 128 GB RAM)
5. Samsung NVMe 990 PRO 2TB OS drive

Anyone else seen this on the latest BIOS?  I am thinking about reverting to an old BIOS but would prefer not to.  In the BIOS I am running Intel Default profile set to Extreme.  SVID set to Intell Fail Safe.  After a few of these reboots, I went in and did the F5 reset to defaults and then set the parameters again to what ASUS recommended for the BIOS update and I am still getting random reboots into the BIOS.

One thing to note.  Running the standard BIOS config, my IA Loadline was at Auto and was showing 1.100 mOhm in HWINFO.  I changed this yesterday to manually be 0.800.  Machine ran fine all of yesterday, but today it was up for about 3 hours and then rebooted into the BIOS again.

[achugh]

Since you are having issues with Intel Default settings, it is highly likely that your CPU may have degraded and is no longer working properly. There are couple of things people have done to keep it working a little longer but your best option would be to RMA it with Intel and get a new one. If you do want to continue playing around with this CPU, you can try some of the following options below just to see how far you can go.

Please keep in mind that there are always other combination of settings and options that other may suggest and may work better for you. It is totally up to you to decide which suggestions make sense for you that you would like to give a try and the time and effort you want to put from your side to make it all work.

1. Load the most recent BETA BIOS that came out and see if this help. If not, using this BETA BIOS go to next step
2. Load Intel Extreme Profile and start increasing the CPU Load Line Level one level at a time. Increase here means go from Level 4 to Level 5 etc. till you reach Level 8.
   1. As you increase this CPU LL level you will increase the voltage going to your CPU and hence your CPU will run hotter when compared to the previous levels.
3. You can use the information from https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/maximus-z790-dark-hero-random-reboots-after-bios-... post in this thread where I mentioned that this guy is talking about how to use a degraded CPU by disabling essentially MAX Turbo Boost or preventing the core from getting into higher frequencies which typically cause issues on a degraded CPU.
   1. You can also see https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/how-to-disable-tvb-z790-hero/td-p/1038238 post where some people here are trying to do the same using a different approach.
   2. The end goal is same and that is to limit the CPU highest frequency that can be used.
4. Another way to restrict the frequencies and voltages is mentioned by me in this https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/maximus-z790-dark-hero-random-reboots-after-bios-... post where a different YouTube channel shares their technique. This is mostly meant for CPUs working in good condition so it may not work for you if your CPU is truly degraded.
5.  Since these latest Intel CPUs are picky about the voltages, I am not sure the voltage variation you get from your Corsair HX1200i PSU. It is a quality PSU from a good brand. I am actually paranoid about these voltage variations so I ended up buying the Seasonic Prime TX-1300 ATX3.0 (their version 2 model which comes with 12VHPWR cable for 4090 GFX cards). Go to https://seasonic.com/atx3-prime-tx/ marketing page and scroll down to Micro Tolerance Load Regulation section where they advertise that this PSU unit is providing 0.5% variation compared to the Intel Specification of 5% variation.
   1. I do not have any proof and special technical material to confirm or deny there claims as well as the tolerance levels of your PSU.
   2. The price of this Seasonic is almost double than your unit so I am not recommending this unit to anyone but it is the unit I am using just for my own peace of mind.

I hope something in this post might help you out to make additional progress. Good luck!

[AbrahamK]

Thanks for these suggestions.  The upgrade to the Beta BIOS definitely helped, but there are still crashing problems. After the update, I can get pretty far into the windows install, but around the time it starts asking for the kind of uses you plan (entertainment, creativity, etc.), it crashes. Rarely in the same place, but usually with a page fault in nonpaged area BSOD error.

I returned to my previous motherboard (also with the beta BIOS)) and it behaves exactly the same. I'll try some of the LL Level suggestions later and see if that helps. I have a new 14900K processor arriving tomorrow that I will try as well, to see if that indeed solves the problem.

[Alpine_Alex]

Honestly that dude's post are needlessly long, and telling people to use VRM Loadline 8 is insane advice unless you want to kill your CPU faster. 

Have you simply tried disabling XMP overclocking and making sure you're at stock? Use Intel Performance profile and then set specific core menu to 57 for all P-cores.

[AbrahamK]

Well, it turned out to be a bad Intel 14900K processor, after all. I installed a brand new one tonight and the Windows installation made it all the way through without any drama or BSODs. 

I’ve been building my own PCs for 25 years and never once had a bad processor, until now. That’s I guess why I was so skeptical it was the problem. I suppose if you live long enough you see everything. 

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions!

Fingers crossed that that’s the end of this story!

[dennys2009]

Maybe it was necessary to clean the contacts on the processor with an elastic band?

[BajaWolf · Accepted solution]

Sorry for not updating in a while.  I tried multiple settings in the BIOS based on the suggestions and locked down all the voltages and still have BSOD issues.  After a couple of weeks fiddling with settings, I finally reached out in Intel and opened an RMA.  I went back and forth with the support person a couple of times on email and they issued an RMA for my CPU.

I received that last week and installed it.  I have been running the PC for a couple of days now non-stop and have not had a single BSOD.  I have noticed that it also seems to run 1 - 2 degrees C cooler than it was before (water cooled system).  So fingers crossed this seems to have resolved the issue.  The new chip came with the 129 microcode, but it immediatley did the latest ASUS BIOS update to 12B.