# Is a bad DOA CPU that common?



## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

I just got a bad CPU (my first one ever) so I was just wondering if this (getting a bad one) was rare and not all that common or it happens just as often as with video cards, mobo, and PSU like everything else?

I always thought CPUs were one of those things that are such detailed and expensive parts that every one gets tested to work before it is sent out. im not talking boot up and benchmarks but basic power up so you know it work kind of testing.

Don't they run basic power up tests on every one before its packaged?

(I upgraded my i5 to an i7 and it would not power up, it kept tripping my PSU and going into a power on/off loop and wouldn't even complete the computer startup)


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 3, 2015)

Very rare but possible.  Pretty much everything in a computer is more likely to die than the CPU.

Addendum: did you upgrade the motherboard BIOS before switching processors?


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## Jetster (Mar 3, 2015)

Check your CPU pins. Or rather socket pins


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## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

mobo has the latest bios and I reset the mobo pins and I pulled it and dropped the i5 back in and all is good so put the i7 back in (just in case it wasn't seated right somehow) and its back in the instant power on-power off cycle so its something wrong with the i7 (internally shorted I'm guessing) and I think its tripping my PSU short circuit breaker protection.

the cpu and computer is the one in my specs so its definitely enough power and its all compatible

for now im back to my old i5 4430

probably take newegg a month to test it and send me a replacement cpu, they are going down hill fast for customer service involving any returns or warranty stuff


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## Jetster (Mar 3, 2015)

Going from an Haswell to the Haswell refresh requires a bios update. What BIOS do you have installed?


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## Mathragh (Mar 3, 2015)

Happened to me once, CPU died within 3 days after arriving. Could hardly believe it myself but sent it back and their testing confirmed it also.

Of the 20-30 PC's I've built for people it happened just that once.


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## qubit (Mar 3, 2015)

Yeah, CPUs can be faulty all right, but it is indeed rare.

My friend once was unable to read floppy discs on a PC (Pentium 3 days) which turned out to be a bad CPU, confirmed by Intel. Weird thing is everything else worked fine.


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## 95Viper (Mar 3, 2015)

Did you reset the BIOS?
Is the cpu power connected correctly and did you check your other power connections to the MB?
Try with different memory or one stick at a time.

However, it is a mute point now,  since you sent it back...

Hope you get it worked out.

I have been lucky,  I guess; I have never gotten a cpu doa since ordering my first cpu...  an 8088 for a computer build.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 3, 2015)

Just as with any part they can be DOA, but CPU's are one of the rarest parts to arrive dead.


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## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Going from an Haswell to the Haswell refresh requires a bios update. What BIOS do you have installed?



never heard of this before, a bios update is your mobo firmware and is what it is, there is no different version based on the cpu you use.

now if you mean did I reset the bios, then yes I reset the mobo to auto detect everything and set voltages and things accordingly



95Viper said:


> Did you reset the BIOS?
> Is the cpu power connected correctly and did you check your other power connections to the MB?
> Try with different memory or one stick at a time.
> However, it is a mute point now,  since you sent it back...
> ...



no this is not a new system or one I did a major upgrade on with a lot of new parts or any other changes made to it.

it is a system in regular daily use, it was shut down, bios pins shorted to reset the auto detect and then cpu were swapped out.

cpu were switched out twice to confirm everything works with the i5 but not with the i7

it would not even power on enough for bios to auto detect anything, it literally was an instant trip off as soon as the fans kicked on


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## OneMoar (Mar 3, 2015)

keakar said:


> never heard of this before, bios is your mobo firmware and is what it is, there is no different version based on the cpu you use.
> 
> now if you mean did I reset the bios, then yes I reset the mobo to auto detect everything and set voltages and things accordingly
> 
> ...


Then you are pretty dam clueless
you need to update the bios to use a haswell refresh cpu
you need to update to bios version F8 OR F9
which you can get from here http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4491#


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## m0nt3 (Mar 3, 2015)

My Phenom X4 9850 was bad, it would just cause BSOD every 15min or so. Got a replacement no more problems since.


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## ChevyOwner (Mar 3, 2015)

If the bios does not support the CPU it will do exactly what you are describing. If you don't believe me ask me how I know...


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## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> Then you are pretty dam clueless
> you need to update the bios to use a haswell refresh cpu
> you need to update to bios version F8 OR F9
> which you can get from here http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4491#



clueless, not hardly, but I do forget things sometimes and this is an easy one to forget about sometimes but I never use mobo out of the box. the first thing I always do is update the bios on them and try to remember to recheck for new updates at least once a year



ChevyOwner said:


> If the bios does not support the CPU it will do exactly what you are describing. If you don't believe me ask me how I know...


well I confirmed by bios version is F8 and F8 is "supposed" to fully support the  i7-4790 so I don't see how that could be the problem but I upped it to F9 anyway.  even though that's said to be just updated for "k" processors, perhaps that was my issue but I highly doubt it.

@ ChevyOwner - you asked me to ask you, so I will, how do you know this?

did you RMA one because you had the wrong bios?


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## ChevyOwner (Mar 3, 2015)

No, in my case I was upgrading from a 3820 to the 4930K I have now. I forgot to update the bios before removing and selling the 3820 to a friend, but the motherboard has USB BIOS Flashback. So I used that to update the bios solving the problem.


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## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

ChevyOwner said:


> No, in my case I was upgrading from a 3820 to the 4930K I have now. I forgot to update the bios before removing and selling the 3820 to a friend, but the motherboard has USB BIOS Flashback. So I used that to update the bios solving the problem.


lol, I bet you said a few choice words before figuring it out

I didn't notice the i7-4790 was a "refresh cpu" when I bought it, I just went with the best i7 I saw at a good price for my final upgrade option that was left to do for my old system.

what the hell does "refresh cpu" mean anyway? and what makes it need a more advanced bios then the i5 or a regular i7?


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 3, 2015)

keakar said:


> what the hell does "refresh cpu" mean anyway? and what makes it need a more advanced bios thde the i5 or a regular i7?


 
It means it's the 2nd Generation Haswell.  Basically, Intel needed/wanted to keep moving forward, and needed a means to sell the Z97's and such.  That's my cynical view, of course.


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## Schmuckley (Mar 3, 2015)

No..
Bad mobo is like 90% more common.


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## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> It means it's the 2nd Generation Haswell.  Basically, Intel needed/wanted to keep moving forward, and needed a means to sell the Z97's and such.  That's my cynical view, of course.


my motherboard was designed to use i3, i5, or i7 cpu but could it be possible my motherboard isn't capable of using a newer second gen haswell i7?


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 3, 2015)

keakar said:


> my motherboard was designed to use i3, i5, or i7 cpu but could it be possible my motherboard isn't capable of using a newer second gen haswell i7?


 
You're referring to the H87?  You'll have to check the cpu list on the motherboard website, and if it's listed, it will say which BIOS you need to run it.  Then download that BIOS from the download section there.


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## xfia (Mar 3, 2015)

any lga 1150 can support a second gen haswell (devil's canyon) with a bios update.. just left to manufactures to update the bios. the biggest difference is the thermal interface is better and of course there is different clocks on some models but no real architectural changes.


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## OneMoar (Mar 3, 2015)

xfia said:


> any lga 1150 can support a second gen haswell (devil's canyon) with a bios update.. just left to manufactures to update the bios. the biggest difference is the thermal interface is better and of course there is different clocks on some models but no real architectural changes.


there is how-ever changes to the power delivery "signaling" which is why you need the bios update


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## xfia (Mar 3, 2015)

did not know that..  would that be how they kept a low tdp for the 4790k?


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## keakar (Mar 3, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> You're referring to the H87?  You'll have to check the cpu list on the motherboard website, and if it's listed, it will say which BIOS you need to run it.  Then download that BIOS from the download section there.


it comes out of the box rated to run the latest i3, i5, or i7 cpu but at that time there was no such thing ads the refresh haswells so its hard to say.

it comes boxed from the factory with the F5 bios which I upgraded to the F6 or F7 back in 2011 "I think" and last year I upped it to the F8

I have gigabyte @bios that finds and installs the latest bios for your mobo so I took what it told me was the latest greatest bios at the time as I always do


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## Jetster (Mar 3, 2015)

Well as long as your have the latest BIOS it should work. RMA the CPU.

And I checked the CPU support list. Haswell Refresh requires F8


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## keakar (Mar 4, 2015)

well I just have to wait and see what they say, if its sent back as testing ok, then i'll see if it runs on the F9 bios, if not i'll sell it to someone with a series 9 mobo


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 4, 2015)

wait....why dont you update to that BIOS now? Then youll know if cpu is bad. Have you gone to the board support website?


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## keakar (Mar 4, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> wait....why dont you update to that BIOS now? Then youll know if cpu is bad. Have you gone to the board support website?


I think you missed this post #14 much earlier on in the discussion



keakar said:


> well I confirmed by bios version is F8 and F8 is "supposed" to fully support the  i7-4790 so I don't see how that could be the problem but I upped it to F9 anyway.  even though that's said to be just updated for "k" processors, perhaps that was my issue but I highly doubt it.


plus the cpu is half way accross the country already well on its way back to newegg RMA at this moment


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 4, 2015)

Naw, I saw it, I misread it somehow. I apologize.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 4, 2015)

keakar said:


> mobo has the latest bios and I reset the mobo pins and I pulled it and dropped the i5 back in and all is good so put the i7 back in (just in case it wasn't seated right somehow) and its back in the instant power on-power off cycle so its something wrong with the i7 (internally shorted I'm guessing) and I think its tripping my PSU short circuit breaker protection.
> 
> the cpu and computer is the one in my specs so its definitely enough power and its all compatible
> 
> ...



As for Newegg RMA ive had no issues, bought a router, it didnt work as a bridge even though it was advertised to work told them false advertising via Chat program and had a UPS label in my email printed shipped and a full refund in 12 days.


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## Jetster (Mar 4, 2015)

Neweegg does not test there RMA's (They told me they have no technical training) they return it to the manufacture. Just send it directly to the manufacture in that case.


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## Mussels (Mar 4, 2015)

i've had one bad CPU DOA in the last 10 years or so. bought 5x sempron CPU's, one in the batch failed to boot.

I've found dead mobos and dead ram to be far, far more common than dead CPU's.


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## keakar (Mar 4, 2015)

well wait a second here guys, I just realized as we are talking about all this that lets presume im building a new system, now had I just bought this rig, I would have a h87 board that says it runs any i3, i5, or i7 cpu and it will come out of the box with the F5 bios that cant run the i7-4790 cpu I bought.

there is no way for me to automatically know I need a special board with special bios preinstalled in order for it to boot up and so (just for the "what if" query) had I just put this computer together as a budget build, I wouldn't be able to even start the computer in order to reflash the bios to F9 so I would in fact have a setup that says it works together but would "act" as though its DOA and the average computer builder wouldn't know why.

so what the hell do you do if you cant start the computer in order to reflash it lol. something to think about isn't it?

or did they pull all pre haswell refresh mobo off the market? I cant imagine they did


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## Schmuckley (Mar 4, 2015)

keakar said:


> well wait a second here guys, I just realized as we are talking about all this that lets presume im building a new system, now had I just bought this rig, I would have a h87 board that says it runs any i3, i5, or i7 cpu and it will come out of the box with the F5 bios that cant run the i7-4790 cpu I bought.
> 
> there is no way for me to automatically know I need a special board with special bios preinstalled in order for it to boot up and so (just for the "what if" query) had I just put this computer together as a budget build, I wouldn't be able to even start the computer in order to reflash the bios to F9 so I would in fact have a setup that says it works together but would "act" as though its DOA and the average computer builder wouldn't know why.
> 
> ...



If it has removable BIOS chip you get one with updated BIOS and plug it in.
If it's a "higher end" board it may have USB flashback..or borrow a CPU that works with the BIOS you have.


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## Newegg_Service (Mar 5, 2015)

keakar said:


> mobo has the latest bios and I reset the mobo pins and I pulled it and dropped the i5 back in and all is good so put the i7 back in (just in case it wasn't seated right somehow) and its back in the instant power on-power off cycle so its something wrong with the i7 (internally shorted I'm guessing) and I think its tripping my PSU short circuit breaker protection.
> 
> the cpu and computer is the one in my specs so its definitely enough power and its all compatible
> 
> ...




Hello Keakar,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We're terribly sorry for the troubles you have experienced with your item and would like the opportunity to look into this further. Would you contact us at wecare@newegg.com with further details? Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. Newegg Support ~Kat


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## keakar (Mar 5, 2015)

Newegg_Service said:


> Hello Keakar,
> 
> Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We're terribly sorry for the troubles you have experienced with your item and would like the opportunity to look into this further. Would you contact us at wecare@newegg.com with further details? Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. Newegg Support ~Kat



well I can certainly make contact with you about it, but im not having any issue with your company's response to me having a problem with the CPU and I have already gotten the RMA and it is on its way back to you right now, it should arrive to you sometime tomorrow according to the tracking info so im not sure what more you can do.

everyone I dealt with on this issue has been very nice and helpful so I am not sure what more you can do unless you can speed up the replacement process to get one shipped out sooner to me.

this thread was mainly my way of trying to gage how rare it is to have a bad cpu happen since it never happened to me before in the dozen or so computers I have built and I am not complaining about how newegg has responded to this problem.

after seeing your other posts with almost identical replies to others, time will tell if this is just a canned response by a bot or not


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## keakar (Mar 5, 2015)

Schmuckley said:


> If it has removable BIOS chip you get one with updated BIOS and plug it in.
> If it's a "higher end" board it may have USB flashback..or borrow a CPU that works with the BIOS you have.



yep, I was just curious if there could be an issue of buying an older version board that says it runs i7 but cant run the i7 refresh cpu until you update the bios.

someone like me who targets 2 or 3 year old versions where prices drop a lot can possibly make a mistake such as this and if I built a computer today im sure I would be buying an h87 type board for it.

but then I guess even these older boards being sold now would (or hopefully should) have newer bios on them already to support the newer i7


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## ChevyOwner (Mar 6, 2015)

keakar said:


> yep, I was just curious if there could be an issue of buying an older version board that says it runs i7 but cant run the i7 refresh cpu until you update the bios.
> 
> someone like me who targets 2 or 3 year old versions where prices drop a lot can possibly make a mistake such as this and if I built a computer today im sure I would be buying an h87 type board for it.
> 
> but then I guess even these older boards being sold now would (or hopefully should) have newer bios on them already to support the newer i7



Yes it is something you should be aware of. Older motherboard versions even if you buy a new one may need a bios update to support newer CPUs.

That depends on when the motherboard was made.


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## Aquinus (Mar 6, 2015)

When in doubt, flash the latest BIOS. No if, ands, or buts about it. With new hardware it is very often the case that an issue like this could be a BIOS update away from being fixed. On my latest tower with the P9X79 deluxe and i7 3820, it would power on, hang on the DRAM light, turn off, and do it all over again. I used ASUS USB Flashback to get the latest BIOS on the board and it started without a problem.



keakar said:


> I upped it to F9 anyway. even though that's said to be just updated for "k" processors, perhaps that was my issue but I highly doubt it.


Does that mean the F9 update fixed it?


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## keakar (Mar 6, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> When in doubt, flash the latest BIOS. No if, ands, or buts about it. With new hardware it is very often the case that an issue like this could be a BIOS update away from being fixed. On my latest tower with the P9X79 deluxe and i7 3820, it would power on, hang on the DRAM light, turn off, and do it all over again. I used ASUS USB Flashback to get the latest BIOS on the board and it started without a problem.
> 
> 
> Does that mean the F9 update fixed it?



I upped to F9 after the RMA was already in the mail but I had F8 which is the same as F9 but without the k-series overclocking cpu support so there is no reason it shouldn't have worked just fine with the F8 I had on the board.

this is all moot discussion at this point and when I get the RMA replacement cpu back and installed I shall report on it but im sure it was just a bad cpu


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## keakar (Mar 18, 2015)

final update:

finally got the RMA CPU  replacement today and everything works as it should.

on another note, as I suspected, the newegg rep who posted in post #35 was just a canned generic response to inform people to let newegg know if you have a problem, well duh !!!

so if anyone is sitting at home confused and doesn't know to contact newegg if they have a problem, then thankfully this person is here to tell you to do just that, but only after other members contact neweggg to tell them they need to come log in to post something lol.


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## Atomic77 (Mar 29, 2015)

It can happen but most computer problems of a computer completely becoming useless are usally created by the computer user.  you should be pretty safe if your computer survives past  its one year warrenty on its own.


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