PC only works after disabling Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) and Enhanced C-states (C1E)

Hi everyone! So basically I have a friend who’s brand new PC was constantly freezing when at idle, but worked perfectly fine when gaming. After some researching, he tried disabling the Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) and Enhanced C-states (C1E) in bios, and it worked! Now his PC isn’t freezing when at idle. However, this makes the CPU run at high frequencies at all times, which of course isn’t good as a long term solution. My question is, since this solved the problem, how can we solve the issue without having to disable these settings? Does this means that the CPU isn’t working right at low frequencies and needs to be replaced? Or maybe we need to update bios to the lastest version? Thanks for your replies!

Here are the specs btw:

- i5 12400f

- B660M DS3H AX DDR4

- Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz (2x8)

- Samnsung 970 Evo Plus 1tb

- RTX 3070

- Corsair RMx 750w

PeterOz said:

What do you mean by high frequencies ?
Is the memory overclocked in the bios ?
What version is the bios

Can you Download and run and then post. https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/download​

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:​

In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.​

In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.

Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot dialog box. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.

The last part of each URL is randomized, so only people you provide with the URL will be able to find your profile.

Could you also include the power supply specs E.g Cooler Master 850W Gold V2 NOT E.g 850w

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Like I said, I disabled Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) and Enhanced C-states (C1E). Basically as you know, the CPU usually runs close to base frequencies (2-2.5ghz) when idle. This frequency “control” is managed by the Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) and Enhanced C-states (C1E). After disabling these two features, the CPU now runs at around 4.00ghz when idle (which was expected), and it doesn’t freeze the PC at idle anymore. Also, I already stated the PSU model in the post… Corsair 750w RMx 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular, to be especific. I don’t know if I explained myself well but in conclusion: The PC freezes at idle when CPU is at low frequencies, it doesn’t when at higher Frequencies. And of course like I mentioned, by higher frequencies I don’t mean anything super crazy, just something like 4ghz. And the bios version is F5, I can update up to F6. My main question is, if the PC only freezes when the CPU is running at base frequencies, but no at higher frenquncies, does that mean the CPU is damaged? Oh and one last thing, the CPU is no using more utilization, the only thing that I altered was the frequency. Also it’s running at good temps, like 35-40c.

PeterOz said:

Yes I saw that. Mine comes from a canned speech so it is always posted.
If this was mine my first step would be to update the bios

Who installed windows.
If it was your friend did they install the chipset drivers before connecting to the internet?

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I’m not entirely sure. He first installed windows 10 and he had this problem, so he decided to delete windows 10 and just install windows 11, but he still had the same issue. He will try updating BIOS tomorrow. I saw someone say that maybe the enhanced C1E was lowering voltages too much, to the point of making the system unstable. Again, I will update tomorrow since he will also try disabling only C1E but leaving EIST on. It looks like it’s a mobo or CPU problem for sure.

Bruce said:

as you have said, normal 'base' frequency is 2.5GHz for that 12th gen i5 processor.
max turbo is 4.4GHz.

I've not touch the 12th gen or higher processors yet, so am unaware of the EIST functionality.
but I would have thought running at 2.5GHz was the safe bet and 4.4GHz would throw the occasional issue, like BSoD, or freeze, or over-heating, or something.
but you are experiencing the opposite it appears.

you first say "he tried disabling the Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) and Enhanced C-states (C1E) in bios, and it worked" but then say " how can we solve the issue without having to disable these settings" - so is the PC stable when both settings are enabled or disabled?

Click to expand...

After a little of more testing, my friend tried enabling only the EIST function while leaving the C1E function disabled, and everything seems to be working fine. So it looks like the C1E function is the problem. He will update bios soon, but do you think this is a mobo or CPU malfunction then?

Forgot to mention that I don’t really know at which exact frequencies his CPU went to at idle, but I’m guessing it’s around the 1.5-2ghz, like most CPU do at idle with these function enabled. I have the 10400f and when I’m at idle it goes to like 1.5ghz, but everything works fine.