Simple instructions for freezing a Skylake Processor

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Limp Gawd
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https://communities.intel.com/thread/96157?start=0&tstart=0

orlich Jan 6, 2016 2:33 PM (in response to Henk_NL)

Hello All,

Intel has identified an issue that potentially affects the 6th Gen Intel® Core™ family of products. This issue only occurs under certain complex workload conditions, like those that may be encountered when running applications like Prime95. In those cases, the processor may hang or cause unpredictable system behavior. Intel has identified and released a fix and is working with external business partners to get the fix deployed through BIOS.
 
Here are the goods for reproducing the issue...

Steps to freeze your Skylake system:

- Download and install Prime95 for Windows on a Skylake system from the website at http://www.mersenne.org/download/
(If you want to familiarize yourself with the software use the readme, a background in math will be helpful, but is not needed.)
- In the menu go to 'Advanced | Test' and fill in the number 14942209 in the box labeled 'Exponent to test'
- Let the program run for some time and at some point, minutes or hours, the system will freeze.
 
Why? It may take hours. Intel has already reproduced the error and created a fix.

It may take hours, or it could crash in two minutes and people can be like...

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Also I think this further validates Prime95's place as a good stability test, it can crash the chips at stock speeds :eek:
 
Last edited:
Yet another issue with Skylake. Product shortages, SGX disabled, bending chips and now this. :rolleyes:
 
It appears hyperthreading needed to be enabled to cause the error, so those with i5 are safe.
 
Why? It may take hours. Intel has already reproduced the error and created a fix.

I suspect the fix will be weeks to months away (if it requires a new BIOS) so I want to see if I can reproduce it.
 
I've got other issues with my XPS 15 9550 (Skylake i7) freezing at times even after a fresh Win10 install. At first, I thought that this could have been a contributing factor, but it normally happens under heavy/long wifi downloads or video streaming. I think mine is just a Dell/driver issue, but will be on the lookout for an updated BIOS in any case.
 
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