I7 860 just went from 4 cores to two...

trisp · 20 Mar 2011 at 19:51

i have had the i7 860 since they were launched around 2 years ago ish now and have had it oc'd @ 4ghz / 4.2 ghz since then, the temps have never been bad at all around 30-40c ish min 40-50 load and max temps in prime sub 70 and i have tested it every month or so. Today it crashed and when i loaded it back up i suddenly have 2 cores/4 threads instead of 4 cores /8 threads... so i imediatly restart it check bios but alas no luck reset bios and see if the problem remains alas no luck, so i reinstall a older version of my bios ( had updated it in the last week) and still no joy. the thing is i have tested it with prime to see if its unstable and it did 10 mins of prime perfectly fine anyone have any ideas? i think half the chip just died tbh...

if i cant fix it i will probs use this as a excuse to buy sandy but i would rather i sorted the problem and wait for the next gen of cpus/mb.

panyan · 20 Mar 2011 at 20:23

WOW! ive never heard of that, intreguing...

richb93 · 20 Mar 2011 at 20:27

A quick google says that Intel CPUs have a warranty of 3 years so you may be able to replace it.

maddness · 20 Mar 2011 at 20:57

take the cpu out, check the pins / contacts underneath

LEUVEN · 20 Mar 2011 at 21:03

maddness said:
take the cpu out, check the pins / contacts underneath

There's more chance of bending the pins whilst checking them for being bent than there is of them magically bending whilst sat underneath a heatsink/fan.

Liquid · 20 Mar 2011 at 21:13

Are all cores enabled in the bios?

Run MSConfig, go to the Boot tab and select Advanced Options, Check "Number of Processors"

kg648 · 20 Mar 2011 at 21:35

I thought overclocking a CPU voids warranty?

Liquid · 20 Mar 2011 at 21:44

kg648 said:
I thought overclocking a CPU voids warranty?

there really is no way a manufacturer can tell if a cpu is overclocked or not, provided it is externally intact lol

trisp · 20 Mar 2011 at 21:50

i have checked msconfig cpuz and cooltemp all show 4 (as in 2 cores 4 threads) it normally shows 8 and i think half of it has just died..

Sayso · 20 Mar 2011 at 21:51

If dealing with Intel you WOULD have invalidated your warranty if you have overclocked or used any cooler apart from stock....i have dealt with them before its the reason i have a AMD rig.

maddness · 20 Mar 2011 at 22:22

LEUVEN said:
There's more chance of bending the pins whilst checking them for being bent than there is of them magically bending whilst sat underneath a heatsink/fan.

who is asking to see if the pins are bent?

trisp - have a look to see if any of the contacts have burnt out, this could be the issue, I've had a cpu with contacts burnt out, surprisingly was working perfectly fine but it can possibly cause issues

joxang · 20 Mar 2011 at 22:27

Sayso said:
If dealing with Intel you WOULD have invalidated your warranty if you have overclocked or used any cooler apart from stock....i have dealt with them before its the reason i have a AMD rig.

Um...not sure the second point is true. I think it comes from an individual forum post some time ago that was later debunked, and which has been propogated by AMD fanboys (obviously not implying that you are one

!) ever since.

What *does* void the warranty is if Intel determine that a damaged processor was caused by incorrectly applied thermal paste, or an incorrect heatsink mounting. I assume they look for specific things like thermal paste residue on the contacts, or a damaged IHS.

Also there is NO way at all Intel can know if you've OCed a cpu. Again, there was a forum post a while back where some fool said that Intel CPUs have a permanent memory cache or something.

Liquid · 20 Mar 2011 at 22:31

Sayso said:
If dealing with Intel you WOULD have invalidated your warranty if you have overclocked or used any cooler apart from stock....i have dealt with them before its the reason i have a AMD rig.

How on earth did they know? For them to know that you must have told them.

Liquid · 20 Mar 2011 at 22:34

trisp said:
i have checked msconfig cpuz and cooltemp all show 4 (as in 2 cores 4 threads) it normally shows 8 and i think half of it has just died..

go into msconfig and change processors to 8, reboot and check again, or untick the processors tick box and reboot.

trisp · 20 Mar 2011 at 23:43

i will check tommorow to see if any contacts have burnt out i find it strange they would have but you never know!

and msconfig only shows 4 max as i pointed out cant change it to 8.

Mak3R · 20 Mar 2011 at 23:46

Check your BIOS for some cores may have been disabled. That happened to my i5 and it became 2 cores. can't remember what I did to do it tho. I went into the BIOS and just had to re-enable them again.

V F · 20 Mar 2011 at 23:57

joxang said:
What *does* void the warranty is if Intel determine that a damaged processor was caused by incorrectly applied thermal paste, or an incorrect heatsink mounting. I assume they look for specific things like thermal paste residue on the contacts, or a damaged IHS.

I was going to say...

Then wont a OEM warranty be void if you use a aftermarket cooler. What would then be the point of 3rd party coolers ever being made...

spleenharvester · 21 Mar 2011 at 00:01

Mak3R said:
Check your BIOS for some cores may have been disabled. That happened to my i5 and it became 2 cores. can't remember what I did to do it tho. I went into the BIOS and just had to re-enable them again.

This. Check in the "system info" area (or something with that name) to see if the cores are detected in the BIOS. Probably windows if you ask me.

Purgatory · 21 Mar 2011 at 03:28

Try this

Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (make sure to use the right one 32bit or 64bit and read the documents provided for correct way to use it)

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-031726.htm

also as someone above stated check the BIOS info area it should state 4 cores and try enabling, disabling and finally enabling hyperthreading in the BIOS a couple of times. It may make it detectable again correctly. Other thing to try is a full BIOS reset take the battery out and short the pins for the bios reset and leave it overnight without the battery in the motherboard or any power to the motherboard from the PSU.

trisp · 21 Mar 2011 at 12:07

So i removed the chip and looked at it no damage or discoloration that i can see but i think i have found the problem i think the ht on one side of the chip is faulty because i can boot into windows and have 4 cores/4 threads if i dont put ht on but if i do put ht on then i have 2 cores/4 threads and it seems that i can oc the chip as far as i want as well sitting here with 4 cores/4 threads at 4ghz 10 mins prime stable ... i think the chip has had a heart attack but is still okayish.....

just have not got a clue why its become a i5 750 lol maybe it saw one on the internet i dont know.