Some of the things that chalsall says, while well intentioned, are... a bit misplaced, shall we say. On this particular tidbit of conversation, it's best ignored, I think.

[QUOTE=willmore;422164]I had that same idea:
But chalsall suggests I should buy my own SkyLake system to test:
[/QUOTE]
Haha, don't take it to your heart, he is just sad that it wasn't him who found the new prime, but I am telling him for ages: if he only does DC tests, he can't be the first to find the prime! :razz:

About the idea, you are right, sorry, when I posted I didn't read all the posts to the end of the thread, due to page(s) switching. I still consider that I am entitled to an answer, and buying the Skylake (which Chris suggested), may depend (or not) of that answer. :smile:

So, Aurum? :sos:

[QUOTE] Maybe we should pool our pennies?[/QUOTE]How can we do that remotely? I mean I can not pull yours and you can not pull mine. So, can we try each one with his own peni's?... :w00t:

[QUOTE=LaurV;422025]We all will be indeed surprised if the problem only appears for 768k. This was the easiest way to pop the mushroom, but if they have some threading synchronization problem, or whatever else, the problem should appear for other sizes too, and for other programs too. Just that the "kicking frequency" of those other sizes and other programs didn't "resonate" with the bug, so the chances to spot it were lower.[/QUOTE]

I see, thanks.

Would I see this problem during gaming, as well? Interestingly not every game, but then it is a rare phenomenon: my PC will just freeze during gaming (just once a week or so). Seems to be more often with Win10 than Win7 though. I even believe that it didn't happen at all with the first Bios I had (202 or something). Sometimes the ASUS Q-Code says '02' then.

I wasn't able to provoke this with
- regular Prime95 settings (FM3: 800k, 1344k)
- Furmark or other GPU stress tests
- memtest86 (I had some issues here, but after raising the Dram power tolerance to 110%, the ram was stable 24/7)
Nothing is overclocked at the moment and no temp issues are visible (CPU<60°C, GPU<70°C)

So I was quite puzzled until I read about this bug. And ASUS support didn't tell me anything about it but let me keep on searching and testing... (good job, guys).

[QUOTE=pegnose;422182]Would I see this problem during gaming, as well? [/QUOTE]

We don't know. Intel was not very forthcoming in describing what the problem was and/or what programs might be affected.

Ok, thank you. I just ask because the experienced testers here said they didn't have any trouble whatsoever with other settings then AVX FFTs with 768k. So if I take them by their word, my issue must be a different one. I was hoping that some of those could tell me that they had issues with other test constellations, but only less frequently.

[QUOTE=pegnose;422182]
I wasn't able to provoke this with
- regular Prime95 settings (FM3: 800k, 1344k)[/QUOTE]

With Prime95 version 28, you need to disable AV2/FMA3 support. (v27 has no such support and tends to fail faster, empirically.) Then set the torture test to use in place 768K FFTs.

I know. I only stated what I did before.

As I got the freeze with 800k ('AVX) as well in roughly the same amount of time, I am trying to figure out, whether it might be something else. That's why I am asking some questions. I understand that only Intel can have all the answers. I particularly asked about gaming because I read that this issue only shows with very large numbers. Would some DirectX Games compute such large numbers - not very likely. Would they use AVX over FM3, if at all, maybe when they are a bit older? Who knows.

I am just trying to solve my problem. It is a) the eventual freeze, and b) that I have a software raid running which needs to rebuild for ~1 day after such an incidence - which is not so nice. I am trying to figure out whether I have to keep on looking. That's why I am bugging you with my stupid user questions.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Ah yes of course, my apologies.

As for your current problem, yes I'm afraid we've done what we can. Until Intel releases details of the bug or you get the bios update and test, we won't really know for sure.

Real world
 

Very nervous about all I am seeing over the net. I decided to run a few prime tests using the parameters on here [URL="http://www.pcworld.com/article/3021023/hardware/how-to-test-your-pc-for-the-skylake-bug.html%23tk.rss_all"][COLOR=#0066cc]How to test your PC for the Skylake bug | PCWorld[/COLOR][/URL] and created the local.txt file as instructed. I couldn't reproduce it in the spare time I had yesterday evening.

I only done about 30 minutes a time but I got no errors or freeze using my 6700k. Maybe it would of done after a few hours but I didn't want to stress the cpu (although at stock clock) at 100% for hours and hours. It cost too much money to take risks!!! Maybe not all skylakes are affected and I got lucky (has anyone failed to reproduce it with a skylake processor despite repeated testing)? Like the other poster I am keen to ascertain whether in real world usage like browsing, gaming, using office, ripping my dvd collection, iTunes. Am I really likely to encounter this bug (if it exists on my cpu)? I've had the system almost 3 months and never had a freezing issue.

I really would want to avoid a risky BIOS update (mobo is ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs). I did one years ago on an old laptop and it didn't go well!!!

Cheers,
Wayne

That's a very nice article! They mention the original forum as well, and nothing but facts. Kudos to PCWorld.

In our tests here, it was indeed a sporadic bug that doesn't affect even all 6700Ks -- it's entirely possible yours is simply unaffected. Web browsing and iTunes, etc, are very unlikely to produce the bug -- as we understand it, only truly running your CPU at load, for example with Prime95, will create likely conditions for the hang to appear. Gaming is a possibility, though unlikely and no reproducible reports of such.

As for running at 100% for hours and hours, at stock voltages and frequencies, that's what tens of thousands of GIMPSters do every day, and what hundreds-of-thousands or even millions of similar CPUs used for scientific, engineering, and research purposes do every day. The CPU is defective if it cannot withstand continual usage (at stock voltages and frequencies!).

In this case, as in nearly every case, if it aint broke, don't fix it. You're not using your CPU for number crunching purposes, and it hasn't crashed, so it doesn't seem necessary to update your bios.

Thank you
 

Thank you, sometimes it just takes someone with a cool head to make things seem better. I am probably over stressing about it. I will run some longer tests and see what comes out. But I think your 'ain't broke, don't fix it' comment makes perfect sense. I won't touch the BIOS (I've never enjoyed 'updates' whether it be windows updates, BIOS or even GPU) unless there is a compelling need to do so!

Cheers,
Wayne