Completely Baffled on new build. Can CPUs be brand locked?

TheGeekFreek

TheGeekFreek

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Last year I bought a Dell G5 with an i5, added 64GB Ram, added 1TB NVME, came with a 2070 super.
Has been a beastly machine.

Recently I snagged a 3070 SE. It popped in and actually ran well in the rig but always seemed to have about a 10% lower performance stats vs similar systems I attributed that to it only having a 460w PSU. Seemed logical. Went to upgrade the PSU, discovered is proprietary (long and skinny).. so I got a new case and PSU. Then discovered the motherboard is proprietary. It has custom power connectors that aren't even close to ATX standard. So I got a new Mobo. While removing the old CPU/HSF I discovered the rear bracket of the HSF is build into the god damn case, so I ordered a new HSF.

So the only stock part left from the old G5 rig is the CPU (i5-9400).
I originally tired to setup an MSI Mortar motherboard and everything worked fine during setup, windows installed to NVME drive, and during first boot it froze. Tried 2 different NVME drives, and 4 sata ports. All froze at the same place. Contacted MSI for support and tested a few things, upgrade BIOS, test stripped down, and they recommended RMA. I just returned the board to amazon.

Just went to microcenter an hour ago and picked up a new higher end Gigabyte board and a higher wattage PSU, and a new stick of RAM for testing. Built the rig, installed windows, and it froze in the same god damn place! I dont even understand how that is possible unless the CPU has some sort of brand lock built in... Seems suspicious as hell but its literally the only piece that I havent replaced. I have tried every combo of RAM, Hard drives, AHCI,RAID, Legacy/UEFI/CMS available on both boards and everything freezes at the windows install.

I have no way to check a log to even see whats happening.
Any theories here?

Full Build details.
i5-9400
64GB (4x16GB) GSkill Ageis
Scythe Ninja 5
Thermaltake V21 cube case
Inland 1TB professional NVME
500GB Samsung SSD
512 Toshiba NVME
Windows 10 Pro x64 (Retail, new from MS website ISO)
 
I'm guessing it was a bad burn of your ISO.

I'd also look at maybe taking out some of that RAM until you get Windows installed. Then test it with memtest or something quick to see if you have errors.
 
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The CPU brand lock seemed pretty outrageous to me, but so far is still being an issue.
I dropped it back in the G5 and works just fine.

ISO image issue was one of the first things I changed.
My USB had build 2004, after the initial issue I updated to 20H2 but it persisted. Ive used that USB for about 20 builds with no issues, including the rebuild of the G5.

I have 4x 16GB Ageis RAM and Ive tried every individual stick and the recommended configurations for 2 and 4. All end exactly in the same place.
i even pulled out the original 8GB stick the G5 came with and put on the new board. Same thing.
 
Move the boot drive from the g5 to the new machine. If it works, it isn't the cpu.
 
mnewxcv said:
Move the boot drive from the g5 to the new machine. If it works, it isn't the cpu.
Click to expand...
freezes in the same place. Tested with generic RAM and the Ageis.. Tried a new install on the NVME that came with the G5, still freezes on the new system.
I bought another i5 from an [H] member, should be here tuesday to give me a system sanity check. Only a 4-core instead of a 6-core like mine but should still work. In all my years of system builds I have never experienced this, so Im just kind of at a loss.
 
No. It's not your CPU. It's the Windows product key that's embedded in the image. It's permanently locked to the motherboard that was originally in that Dell system. And there is absolutely no way at all whatsoever to change that key, short of rendering the entire image unusable. You cannot use an OEM product key for one system on another system no matter what.

The only around this, unfortunately, is to pay another $140 plus tax to purchase a retail/Web Windows 10 Home license (or $200 plus tax for Pro).

And send that quad-core i5 back. It will not work at all on a newer LGA 1151 motherboard. The sockets are physically compatible but electrically incompatible. The quad-core i5's will only work with a 100- or 200-series chipset, while your Dell uses a 300-series chipset. If your system even POSTS at all with that quad-core i5, expect serious to severe issues.
 
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E4g1e said:
No. It's not your CPU. It's the Windows product key that's embedded in the image. It's permanently locked to the motherboard that was originally in that Dell system. And there is absolutely no way at all whatsoever to change that key, short of rendering the entire image unusable. You cannot use an OEM product key for one system on another system no matter what.

The only around this, unfortunately, is to pay another $140 plus tax to purchase a retail/Web Windows 10 Home license (or $200 plus tax for Pro).

And send that quad-core i5 back. It will not work at all on a newer LGA 1151 motherboard. The sockets are physically compatible but electrically incompatible. The quad-core i5's will only work with a 100- or 200-series chipset, while your Dell uses a 300-series chipset. If your system even POSTS at all with that quad-core i5, expect serious to severe issues.
Click to expand...
that wont cause the system to freeze when doing a clean install, and even if you put a dell boot disk in a non dell computer, it should still work fine, minus having a valid activation. I'm not sure what image you are referring to. I agree you can't use the dell product key with the new motherboard, but I don't see the relation to his freezing problem.
 
E4g1e said:
No. It's not your CPU. It's the Windows product key that's embedded in the image. It's permanently locked to the motherboard that was originally in that Dell system. And there is absolutely no way at all whatsoever to change that key, short of rendering the entire image unusable. You cannot use an OEM product key for one system on another system no matter what.

The only around this, unfortunately, is to pay another $140 plus tax to purchase a retail/Web Windows 10 Home license (or $200 plus tax for Pro).

And send that quad-core i5 back. It will not work at all on a newer LGA 1151 motherboard. The sockets are physically compatible but electrically incompatible. The quad-core i5's will only work with a 100- or 200-series chipset, while your Dell uses a 300-series chipset. If your system even POSTS at all with that quad-core i5, expect serious to severe issues.
Click to expand...
When installing windows from the MS Retail image I get a prompt to enter a key. I tried with with a valid key, as well as just skipping it. Both still freeze in the same place.



@ E4g1e, IOU a beer.
Was not aware of the incompatibilities in the different gens of 1151. Still had some trouble finding info after looking into it, but for anyone else that may stumble across this, pulled from the LGA 1151 Wiki and confirmed. Some pins have been relocated which breaks compatibility.

LGA 1151 revision 2[edit]​

Second revision of the LGA 1151 socket for Coffee Lake CPUs[edit]​

The LGA 1151 socket was revised for the Coffee Lake generation CPUs and comes along with the Intel 300-series chipsets.[31] While physical dimensions remain unchanged, the updated socket reassigns some reserved pins, adding power and ground lines to support the requirements of 6-core and 8-core CPUs. The new socket also relocates the processor detection pin, breaking compatibility with earlier processors and motherboards. As a result, desktop Coffee Lake CPUs are officially not compatible with the 100 (original Skylake) and 200 (Kaby Lake) series chipsets.[32] Similarly, 300 series chipsets officially only support Coffee Lake and are not compatible with Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs.

Socket 1151 rev 2 is sometimes also referred to as "1151-2".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1151
 
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