i9-14900k instability | Intel Insiders Community | Page 1

left sedge Sep 22, 2025, 8:13 PM

#

hi, any help would be appreciated. ive had this pc for about 11 months. i've been too scared to update my bios because i'm 99% sure i'd do it wrong and break my pc. now i can't open 90% of the games i own.

do i have to buy a new cpu? most sources say the bios instability stuff damages hardware. if thats the case, im probably in the later stages of my cpu dying? it blue screens opening games that are not at all demanding. it gives me errors like "DecompressShader(): Could not decompress shader (GetShaderCompressionFormat=Oodle)" for almost all of my games if it doesn't immediately blue screen me.

can anyone break down how to fix it/if i should be replacing parts?

brazen wren Sep 22, 2025, 8:17 PM

#

Sounds like a degraded chip indeed yeah. RMA it with Intel or the store you bought it from to get a free replacement and once you get it update to the latest BIOS immediately.

left sedge Sep 22, 2025, 8:21 PM

#

is updating the bios a confirmed fix? like it for sure wont happen again if i replace it?

brazen wren Sep 22, 2025, 8:22 PM

#

Officially yes, but then there were a few more updates improving it even more so... from what I can tell from contacts with large server farms of these chips, the latest few bioses basically lowered failure rates down to the expected norms, so for practical purposes it does appear fixed yes

#

alternatively if you have an Asus motherboard (or I think some high end Asrock boards also support this) you can set a VID (note not voltage, actual VID) limit in the BIOS, which will ofc clip off a bit of your peak singlecore boost but it would be a nice extra safety margin if youre paranoid about this happening again

left sedge Sep 22, 2025, 8:26 PM

#

thank you! to rma do i reach out to intel directly or should i contact the store i bought my cpu from?

brazen wren Sep 22, 2025, 8:26 PM

#

if youre in europe or other countries that delegate the warranty to the retailer then you reach out to the store, US and such you reach out to Intel directly

#

Also worth noting as a result of this Intel extended the warranty for 13th and 14th gen by 3 years iirc, so its 5 years total now

left sedge Sep 22, 2025, 8:28 PM

#

okay awesome, thank you for your help

brazen wren Sep 22, 2025, 8:29 PM

#

also to skip the technical side of how this particular degradation issue works - its worse at lighter load, so not unexpected thats where youre seeing the most crashes

#

chances are it actually survives an all-core video render just fine

#i9-14900k instability